www.micahandlindsey.com

I can’t believe our baby is already 1 week old!  In honor of this day, we had a little birthday celebration.  I made him a baby blue cake with a sparkler candle on top, and we all sang to him.  Then on the video camera, I made everyone say one thing they loved about him.  The whole event was perfect except for one little problem…..he slept through the whole thing!

If you will notice the green ottoman in the background, you see it is wet!  Our boy thinks it is a funny joke to wait just until he is being changed to surprise us with a good solid stream!  I think I have been targeted three times, and my mom was the victim for the second time in this picture! 

Scout had his one week doctor’s appointment on May 6th.  He was great until he had to take his clothes off and got chilly, and then started screaming his little lungs out.  Dr. Carruth checked up on everything, and he was only a little concerned about his weight.  He was delivered at 7 lbs. 12 ounces, and was only 7 lbs. 5 ounces at the appointment.  The doctor wanted us to come back a couple of days later, and when we did, he was back up to 7 lbs. 11 ounces!  All is well.

Our little guy is four days old….and he has completed a milestone that usually comes at about 3 - 4 months!  My brother David came in town to see the baby, and swore up and down that Scout almost turned over.  My mom refused to hear it saying that NO babies at four days can turn over.

Micah heard the challenge and immediately spread a blanket out on the floor.  We grabbed the video camera and layed him on his tummy.  It took about 2 minutes, but Scout was up to the challenge! 

Everyone was cheering, my mom sat there amazed, David was telling everyone he told us so, my eyes welled up with proud tears and Micah said in utter delight, “That means he is coachable!”

Today Scout is three days old!  His uncle David who came into town always takes the family to Savannah’s Chop House, and made reservations.  I was really craving their grilled romaine salad, and so Micah and I decided we would join everyone.  We kept Scout in his car seat, and covered him with a blanket.  We were there for about two hours, and I am glad to say that during his first outing….he was literally perfect. 

Right after Scout was born, they inked up his foot and stamped it on a couple of documents.  I thought it was really cute when Micah came back to my bedside with an imprint of the little foot on his arm!  The nurse told me later she has never had that request before, but thought he was definitely an adoring dad!

So the story goes like this….

I went to my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, April 25th.  While there, he said that I was dialated to a half (I talked him into rounding it up to a one) and was about 50% effaced.  At the end of the appointment, he said he would check with the hospital to see when they had availability if I wanted to be induced.  I was all for it, so I had an appointment to be there at midnight the following Sunday night.  Dr. Thein said he thought all would go well, and advised me to eat light!

Sunday night rolled around, and I ate a small dinner at about 3:00.  Micah and I hung out and played a little Dance Dance Revolution with Tristen, Calin and Skylar during the afternoon.  Afterward, I headed over to Bishop Lindahl’s to get a blessing that all would go well, and that the baby and I would be healthy.  My original thought was to stay up until I needed to go to the hospital, but at about 10:00, I was wiped.  I decided to sleep a bit, and at about 11:45, Micah came and woke me up (with the camcorder) to head over to the hospital.  In the meantime he had packed my bag and got everything in the car.  I could tell that he was pretty excited.

On our way, I realized that I was starving!  Micah stopped at In-N-Out for two cheeseburgers for himself, and I accidentaly had about half of one of them.  When we got to the hospital, I walked in and was immediately greeted by Carrie - the Nurse of the Year!  She was SO helpful and thorough, and really made up for my lack of birthing classes.  Woops - forgot to sign up for those!  She did some paperwork and covered what would be happening over the next hours.

When I got there, I was already having contractions about six minutes apart.  The nurse asked me on a scale of 1 - 10 how painful they were, and I said about a one.  (A five is equivalent to a really bad migraine headache.)  They then gave me a pill to thin my cervix, and afterward I was supposed to sleep until the morning.  Micah had a chair that turned into a bed and slept pretty well.  But when he woke up, he did tell me that his back was “about a 5″.  Somehow, he takes the whole “sympathy pregnancy” thing a little far!  I, on the other hand, had nurses coming in every thirty minutes to poke and prod me and move my baby’s heart rate monitor around….which made my night’s sleep pretty lousy.

At about 6:30 in the morning, my contractions were getting pretty bad.  I would say about a 5+.  The nurse asked me about them, and I was pretty uncomfortable, but I told her they were manageable.  THEN……within ten minutes, my contractions turned into a 10+.  I was in some pretty intense pain!  I called the nurse and told her to page the epideral doctor ASAP!

I had my epidural soon after, and the rest of the day was a breeze!  My mom and sister Tristen showed up pretty quickly, alongside Diane - Micah’s mom.  By the time I delivered, I had my mom, Tristen, Calin, Skylar, and Megan and her four kids there.  Micah’s parents, grandparents, sister and her husband and aunt were also there.

At about 3:30 three nurses came rushing in and immediately moved me to my side.  They seemed pretty frantic, and apparently the baby’s heart rate had quickly fallen.  Apparently the cord was wraped around his neck. They had to do some fancy footwork to raise it again, and eventually did.  At about 4:00 Dr. Thein showed up and started to get the room ready for delivery.  I started pushing at about 4:15pm.  I had three contractions.  Between two and three I had a small upchuck session.  On contraction three, and at 4:23 pm on April 30th I delivered Scout Kei Denison! 

He was perfect!  Because the cord was wrapped around his head, he was a bit blue.  They immediately put him on oxygen for a few minutes and then cleaned him up.  He screamed about three times, but other than that he just had his eyes wide open and was looking at everything.  Because the delivery was so quick, he didn’t have a cone head! 

It appears that he does have the much hoped for olive skin.  He has dark brown hair, and for the moment — blue eyes.  He is VERY calm and good, and is literally the most spoiled child ever.  I think I held him for about 20 minutes total the first day because EVERYONE wanted to hold him!

After they moved me into the recovery room we had some fun visitors.  That night some of our friends stopped by.  Summer and Tacky Thacker, Mark and Tarah Hemeon, Nate and Megan Harris (with boys), Steve and Dana Donahoo (with kids), and the ONE AND ONLY……Gary Samuelian flew in from NYC to see my baby.  What a Best Friend!

That night Tristen slept with me and was a saint!  She helped me do everything.  She is literally mother #2! I sent Micah home to get a good sleep, and thank goodness Tristen stepped up to the plate, because she helped me recover and the baby transition nicely.

The following day a few more people stopped by.  Debra Bledsoe not only stopped by, but she brought me a huge adult-sized Barefoot Dreams blanket.  She said that I needed a gift that wasn’t for the baby.  Debra is always coming through on being the best!  Diane Nielson also stopped by with chocolate covered strawberries!  Micah’s friends Ryan and Craig also stopped by with his first football, and were darling with the baby!

The next day, Micah packed all of our things up and we were headed home for a new era in our lives.  I got wheeled out and we put the baby in the car seat for his first ride ever! 

My mom says that I had one of the easiest deliveries on record.  I don’t know that I totally agree, but it definitely wasn’t the horror story I have heard about.  Micah and I are thrilled to have this little addition, and can’t wait to see how his little personality develops!

If anyone has ever gone to the arcade’s, there is always some nerdy little guy hanging out on the Dance Dance Revolution machine.  I am always baffled by how sweaty they get, and how addicted they seem as they insert quarter after quarter.  Well, to my surprise…..Micah got us Dance Dance Revolution, and it is so fun!  He has the total set up and it is projected on one of our walls. 

So far, Skylar and Calin battle it out, Micah is getting pretty good (even though he does look like Sammy Davis Jr. doing a full tap routine with the big arms and all!) and Tristen and I had three battles the day before I had the baby!  I totally think DDR (you can abbreviate when get good) is what started my contractions!  Anyway, Tristen and I are going to DDR every night for an hour so I can lose my post baby weight!

For family night last night, we took a little adventure to Paris, France.  Micah took the reigns and taught Skylar (his little sidekick) how to make crepes.  It was the cutest thing you have ever seen.  Micah was there making the crepes in the large pan, and had brought out a mini pan for Skylar.  She was SO excited!  She helped make the batter (she even took the gigi’s out of the eggs (that is a Ure term for the umbilical cord)), then cooked the crepes and finally got them all fixed up and helped serve them. 

Skylar thinks Micah is the greatest thing that ever happened to her!  Even the other day, we were at Ciara Lindahl’s baby shower and they announced they were going to start a game, and Skylar’s response was, “Uuugghhh!  I need my Micah if we are going to play a game!” They even have code names for eachother.  (Calin too)  Micah is Me-Lo, Calin is C-Lo, and Skylar is either Ski-Lo or “Skills to pay the Bills.” 

When Micah and I were first married, we would have competitions and Calin and I would challenge Micah and Skylar.  We had a song creating contest, a Christmas Tree decorating challenge (we both decorated one half of our tree) and a Halloween cake decorating contest.  If I remember correctly, we are in the lead with 2 wins, but Micah remembers it that he and Skylar are in the lead with 2 wins.  Anyway, I love that both Calin and Skylar adore Micah, but I do sometimes wonder if Micah likes them more than he likes me.  And I don’t even question the fact that both girls would take Micah over me ANY day!

Click Here for Beacon Hill Tri #8 Results in Excel

Lindsey finally brought the camera so we have pictures to post. 

Actually, lets talk about Lindsey for a bit.  Shout out to the pregnant girl.  When I first started doing this race I brought Lindsey over to the pool to time the race and help me count my laps.  It’s pretty easy to sit poolside and count a lap every 45 seconds.  Then she started counting everybody’s laps and keeping all of their split times.  That’s a little bit tougher.  Now she’s the full-blown clerk of the course.  She does the pre-race countdown and keeps track of all the laps and times–while taking pictures, then she picks up everybody’s clothes and miscellaneous stuff from the pool deck and carries it back to the transition area for more pictures and to get splits from the bike leg.  Then she rushes down to set up the aid station with water and Gatorade–and she takes more pictures.  Then she rushes back up to the finish to get everybody’s final times.  OK, she also has help from my mom, but at 8.5 months pregnant, she gets all of the credit.  We need more volunteers!

Mom helped in the transitions and had bagels and bananas waiting for us after the race.  Thanks Mom.

On a personal note, I finally broke 1 hour 15 minutes.  It took me 8 tries, but I came in at 1:14.28.  By the end of the season I should be able to go under 14:30 in the swim, 37 minutes on the bike and under 20 minutes on the run.  That will get me close to 1:13 if I have good transitions.  More on transitions to follow. 

Steve Donahoo was having an off day so I was able to stay with him on the bike.  It was perfect because it makes me push a bit harder and my bike leg was fast. 

Steve kept complaining about his lack of sleep and the carpal tunnel syndrome in his wrists that were making it difficult to shift gears.  I heard excuse after excuse, but I think he was just slacking.  Every time his wife drove by on the course, Steve would speed way up and jet ahead of me.  Lindsey caught Steve in the transition area and it’s obvious what the real issue was.  You’re not supposed to lounge in the transition.

Mostly everybody ran personal bests, so the conditions must have been good.  That means people are getting into shape so the next couple of races should be pretty fast.

We don’t want to talk too much about how Bryan Thacker made me reschedule the race to this weekend instead of next (my sister had to miss the race because of this change), then he made me change the start time because he had to work on Saturday morning.  Then he didn’t even show up.  He must’ve been an only child in an earlier life. 

Of course, Kirk Lindahl brought up the rear in style.  He’s slowly getting faster and faster and I think he’ll be giving up the final spot before the end of summer. 

Here are some thumbnails.  Click to open the full-sized image in a new window:

There’s a nice image gallery below.  Click around to check out the pictures and download your favorites.