6 Month Photo 

The Unveiling and the Thank You

The Unveiling

Today Lori and I read through the whole blog together from day one, and there was about 3 hours of straight crying going on. She absolutely loves it. As an extra added bonus she had no idea I was doing this. (I thought she had caught on for a while)

Baby Gavin is doing great. I held him the entire time she read through the site, and I even cried when she read the part where I saw the guy in Olive Garden holding his baby and I wanted to hold mine. It was a very touching night and my little family got to share it together; just us three.

The Thank You

When I originally started this blog I was going to make it without comment ability, but as fate would have it I forgot to turn it off and got a comment on my very first entry. I was a little suprised as the comment came out of nowhere from someone I don't know. I realised how cool it would be to learn and hear from others. This is my chance to thank everyone who has read, laughed, cried, and had anxiety with me. Some of you I know and some of you I don't, but I cherish all the kind encouraging words you have shared over the past nine months.

I know some of you had asked for the gift registry so you could send something, but the letters to Ellen have been more than I could have ever asked for. I never meant to get anything from this blog except that loving look Lori gives me when I do something really special. Thank You to everyone who has been a part of my journey. Gavin is wonderful, and well worth the wait. we love him more every day.

Mike

P.S. She gave me the look.

OUR LIVES CONTINUED

Here he is after a couple days when it has all straightened out and pretty. NOW he's cute. hehehe. 

This is him in all his ugly splendor. A Few hours after birth.

You can't tell from here, but this hat barely fits. 

Burp for me baby! 

Daddy and baby Gavin 

Mommy and baby Gavin. Awe! 

Big Baby! 

Obligatory baby crying photo. :) 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!

Gavin Michael was Born today March 29th at 9:42am via C-section. His is 9lbs. 5ozs. and 20.5 inches.

You and Gavin are doing great. I actually watched them pull him out; it was nuts! He has a huge head, like daddy did. His little nose is a little smashed, but all in all he looks newborn. Not the cutest kid I ever saw, and I feel a little guilty about that, but you said you agreed with me. The more we are with him throughout the day the more we adore him, and right now there is alot of us staring at him going on.

We were both kinda worried that we weren't awestruck at his arrival, but all seems to be going well. Thank God everything is well, and I will try and post some pictures ASAP, but I didn't bring my camera USB cable. DAMN! :)

(I snuck out of the room to post this.) :)

Gnight!

3 days

So at the doctors appointment the doctor found the babies heartbeat way up by your ribs, so she scheduled an ultrasound because the baby appeared transverse and your cervix wasn't dilated at all. The doc scheduled a C-section for Tuesday because she assumed the ultrasound would come back saying he was transverse. The next morning we went in for the ultrasound and low and behold he spun around in your sleep and was now head down, and according to their measurements he weighs about 9 pounds right now. You were really disappointed that you were going to have to wait. After speaking with the doctor she said the chances are that you would be late giving birth and the baby would be around 10 pounds. If this was the case you would probably wind up getting a c-section anyway. So that's where we are right now. Tuesday 9am for a scheduled C-section.

6 days

I can't believe I forgot to mention Districts! Sunday was another team ice skating competition and man was it a nailbiter. The first team skated a great routine, but our girls skated their best routine all year! The crowd was alive and cheering and now they are the District Champs. Congratulations girls! Who rocks the house? ;)
I get chills just writing about it. I know thats nerdy, but it so cool to see the improvement over the season.

P.S. K,S & K thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for the gift we were sobbing. I wasn't sure how to mention it before.

Hopefully my next post will be the baby post.

7 days

For the last couple days you have been feeling "funny". Stomach is a bit tight and a little sore to touch. I am not sure if this is normal or not, but you seem to be rolling with it pretty good. I still told you to talk to the doctor. It can't hurt to ask.

So if the baby is born today he will have the same birthday as my dad, and if he is born tomarrow he will have the same birthday as your Grandma Harvey, and if he is born on Thursday he will have the same birthday as Aunt Susie. Either way someone is gonna get upstaged. ;) I am sure they won't mind.

I am breaking out now waiting for this baby. Darn anxiety! I suppose 7 days isn't so long to wait...feels like forever. :)

P.S. People keep saying "you are getting HUGE!" like it's a compliment. LOL I told you to ask them if they remember being pregnant. :)

11 days

Bad news...The doctor says you will likely go full term...or...after. *shudder* I was thinking early, but apparently my kung fu is weak. I am still hopeful, but you are bummed out. My poor baby. :( I wonder what the percentage of kids born on the due date are? It doesn't seem that I have spoken to anyone who has had a baby on the exact day.

P.S. Regardless of what happens with Ellen, it's still a great show. *sigh* ;)


EDIT: I found out the percentage of kids born on their due date is less than 5%. Mainly due to not knowing the conception date. We have a solid grasp on that date and you said an online calculator said March 27th?

15 days

Happy Birthday Lori!

We are still waiting. :) We were at Olive Garden last night with the Cousins and we saw a newborn baby, and her daddy was holding her, and she was sleeping so contentedly. It made me all melty inside. I wanna hold my baby! :)

In other news, we had another Ice Skating competition this weekend and over all we did well. Had a couple of unfortunate falls, and since we were in a strong bracket we couldn't afford it. I have to fight my feeling to make excuses for them because you always get mad at me for it. :) (God help me. I'm gonna be the wimpy parent aren't I?)

17 days

Just about every night we talk about the baby, (go figure. hehehe) and I feel your belly and he kicks and moves a bit. For the last month he has been positioned really strangely in your belly. The doctor says he is transverse. We kind of figured as much, but tonight you said the cutest thing. We were talking and feeling him kick around in your belly, and the subject of his position came up, and you said "I hope he's comfortable in there". It was so selfless that it touched my heart. So simple and yet so beautiful I had to get up at midnight, and sneak in here to blog this. :)

19 days

Last night Matt and I went to visit Rebeca and Savannah in the hospital I know you wanted to come with but you were really tired, and the last thing you need to see is a baby in distress.

For those who don't know my niece Savannah was recently admitted to the hospital with RSV. It is basically a really bad cold for babies, that can lead to severe respiratory distress. Savannah is not in the high risk group of children who get this so everything is cool.

It broke my heart seeing Savannah doing things I learned about in class as signs of distress. (Belly breathing and rales in her lungs.) It breaks my heart to see her like that. Poor little thing. Some things put being a future Paramedic in perspective like no other, and that was one of them.

21 days

I KNOW I'M GONNA REGRET THIS POST IN A FEW YEARS. :) But I digress...

Last night we talked and we are one step closer to actually deciding on a middle name. I have been dead set against naming him Michael in any capacity since finding out we were having a child. Last night something happened.

The majority of Michaels are unholy terrors. If you see a little kid streaking down the aisle at Walmart you know his mother will be close behind calling "Michael put some pants on!". Insert you story here and the Michaels of the world have done it. Well...It comes down to this. I don't want a perfect kid with perfect manners who doesn't think for himself. I want my boy to have character. I want to keep him in line, but not squelch his spirit.

23 days

Today's baby shower was awesome. I was trying to read the cards but I kept getting all choked up. I felt like a total moron. I guess the emotion of it all, and stress of work and school has me struggling to maintain. Plus I'm a sap.

Everybody gave great gifts, and we really don't have want of anything to take care of the new baby. Funny as it may seem we have roughly 60 onsies and only 8 bottles or so. I thought that was really funny. The fact that both of our parents gave us gliders was really cool because now we have one for upstairs (the babies room) and downstairs (the TV room).

The babies room is completely decked out now with a new glider, crib bedding matching lamp and diaper holder thing. It looks really cute. By looking at it you would have no idea we are broke. LOL! Thank God we have such great friends and family. I don't know if they know our situation or not, but they didn't leave us wanting for anything to take care of our little boy.

Gavin you are already so loved!

The cake from todays shower 

26 days

Well the belly has definitely dropped. I noticed yesterday in bed. I also had someone talk to me about saving the cord blood and I had mentioned how limited the usefullness is unless you have one of several rare diseases. I spoke with you last night about donating the cord blood so that people who need it can get matched to it and use it. I feel good about that decision. It will be the first decision we make as official parents. :)

It really does mean alot when complete strangers validate what I am trying to do. I will admit I got a little misty when I saw her post about it, and especially that people are actually helping out. I am so very touched, I want to thank Seargent Fun for the help in the Ellen Quest, and thanks to the people who have participated. Thanks Stella, A, Min Pin Momma, and Circus Kelli.

THANK YOU!

EDIT: Some more thanks are in order! :) I am humbled and excited by all the love being shown for this! Thanks to The Fun Times Guide and Jessie_DC for writing articles about this effort.

28 days

From now on I will list the thread titles in how many days left till the official due date.

I looked at the calendar today and my stomach dropped. It's March 1st and this is the first time I have felt a panic set in about the baby. I am giddy with anticipation of Gavins imminent arrival. :) He should be about 2 or 3 weeks old when he sees (or sleeps through) his first NFL draft. I can't wait, but man am I nervous as heck.


Gavin,

Despite my desire to remain unchanged by your arrival I can already feel my heart melting. I don't pretend to know what it is that is laying low my defenses, but it must be a powerful force indeed. What follows is a rough draft, or maybe just a collection of thoughts about you, your mom and our family.

My plan is to be the best of what my dad was to me mixed with the best of what Loris dad was to her. Both approaches produced great results.
I will pretend I am unmoved by your pleas to stay up, just a bit longer, citing "quality time with dad" as the reason for your request.
I will tell you to be a man and stand up to that bully because he is most likely to back down. (They don't always back down, but even if they don't back down the first time they will respect the fight in you on the second.)
I will help you understand that sometimes acting tough is enough to get you through, but if you have to back it up make sure teachers are watching so you don't get pummled too bad before it gets broken up.
I will teach you to respect your mother, and I swear to god if you ever call her a name or hit her there will be hell to pay. I loved her first, and without her there is no "you". Don't forget it.
I will instill in you the fear of God and the respect for beliefs other than your own.
I will make it my lifelong endeavor to lead by example.
I will love your mother with all my heart and soul.
I will promise what I promised your mother.

Till death do us part.

Love,
Daddy

35 weeks 5 days

Caidens first birthday party was Sunday and your families baby shower was on Saturday. My mother forgot to go. She says she'll give you both presents next Sunday at that baby shower. :) We had a good time yesterday talking with family and hanging out. I got to mingle with all the families involved and we had good conversation. LOL (Good conversation? I'm old!)

I want to take this oppourtunity to thank everyone who came to the various showers for all the great gifts and love. Thanks!

35 weeks 2 days

I am starting to think a overly fun letter will need to be created to have Ellen notice me. (I will post pictures of said letter) :) Or maybe she is already feeling good about the Chicago area after Thursdays show and I will be edged out on sheer politics. I don't know for sure, but I have faith that Ellen will hear my cry.

Meanwhile I just went through the Obstetric and Gynocologic Emergencies portion of my EMT book in class and HOLY CRAP! That video the hospital showed us was NOTHING in comparison with what I saw. It made me very nervous. Whoever said birth is beautiful is nuts! The product of birth, Life is beautiful. Birth is an unholy horror. My sympathy uterus hurt for like 2 hours.

34 weeks 6 days

Matt and Carmen both got fluish over the weekend. Yikes. Thank God you got a flu shot! I'm just hoping I don't get it now. :(

I am having a hard time writing lately. My head is in a fog. I am not sure whats going on, but I try to remember events from the week, and although I know fun/cute stuff happened I just can't recall it. I know you want to have the baby early, but I need to finish EMT class and be able to pull some part-time shifts at the Fire Station so I can make up some of your income when you're out on maternity. I know that is weighing heavily on my mind, so maybe that is why I can't concentrate. My class grade has slipped a bit from a 97 to a 90. This time I am going to complete all the quizzes myself.

The team competed on Sunday and did very well this time; no falls and no breaks in the lines. It was a little sloppy, but they got 3rd out of 5 and you were pretty happy with the performance. I was happy too once it was over. My heart was beating out of my chest. :)

34 weeks

6 weeks left. Crazy huh? You are hoping to go early of course. ;) I am working on a scrap book idea involving this website, but I feel like most of my entries are crappy so I don't want to put those in there so maybe I will just use a screenshot of the site instead.

Those body pillows I just bought you are pretty slick eh? :) The last couple of nights you have been sleeping much better, and I am very happy. You're still tyring to do everything yourself, like tie your shoes, eventho its obvious that you should let someone help you out. :) I always help when I'm there, but if I'm not just ask someone. Easier said than done eh? :)

33 weeks 5 days

In the spirit of the scrap book page I made for you last year with all the Valentines day cards you had given me over the last 12 years. (Which by the way is impossible to top. Unless the Ellen thing comes through in which case I will cry my eyes out with happiness.) I was thinking about making a baby scrapbook page with some of the border and the cloth swatches we used to decorate the baby's room. I am still not sure tho that's my backup plan. I haven't come up with the smashing idea for Valentines Day yet, but I am on the case. :)

I also got an email today that reminded me of us.

A girl asked a guy if he thought she was pretty. He said...No.
She asked him if he would want to be with her forever...And he said no.
She then asked him if she were to leave would he cry, and once again, he replied with a no.
She had heard enough. As she walked away, tears were streaming down her face.
The boy grabbed her arm and said...You're not pretty you're beautiful.
I don't want to be with you forever. I NEED to be with you forever!
And I wouldn't cry if you walked away...I'd die...



UPDATE: I completely botched Valentines Day and wound up getting a card. In your hyperemotional state you still cried, but I know what I could have done so I am disappointed. The baby thing was such an easy play I didn't want to go that route, and in my delay to find something better I ran out of time. bah!

Taken 2 days ago

I Love Lori 

33 weeks 2 days - A decent proposal.

It hit me last night. We were talking and you told me the nightly "the funniest thing happened on Ellen" story, and I thought. "I should see if Ellen will announce this blog to you on her show! So today begins my quest to make this happen! :) Here is the letter I wrote to Ellen. (more or less) I think I revised this letter 50 times. I don't want her to think I am begging for stuff.)

Please forgive me if this is too much to read, I tried to be as concise as possible. I bolded the most pertinent parts of the story so you can scan quickly. I know you are probably inundated with letters like mine so if you could send me a nice little rejection letter so she knows I have tried I would appreciate it.

Dear Ellen,

My wife is a huge fan of yours. Since she is at work while your show is on she TiVo's you every day. She absolutely loves everything about your show. When we lay down at night I can always look forward to a funny Ellen story relating to an event of your show. Such as how you think you threw your back out dancing with the Laker girls. I chuckled when I heard that. My wife Lori and I have been together for 12 years (since High School) and we are expecting our first child on March 29th. The English language is not adequate to describe how much I love my wife Lori. She is the only thing that always makes me smile. Sometimes I tell her that she is an angel, and sometimes I think she might actually be. I won't torture you with our love story, but I pray that you will hear me out.

Lori miscarried our first child at 9 weeks. We were crushed. When Lori became pregnant a second time we were full of excitement, but the anxiety and worry were unbearable. I wanted to shield her from my own anxiety and worry so as not to add to her own stress level. I created an online journal that would tell her how I felt each day without adding stress to her pregnancy. I decided I would give the link to the website to her after the birth of our baby, and she can see just what I was thinking during this stressful time and maybe even reminisce.

I am from a family of 6 kids, and until now had no idea that it is customary to give a gift (most women I talk to suggest jewelry) to your wife at the birth of your child. Despite both working 2 jobs, we are struggling financially, and it looks like the only thing I will have to give her is this online journal. I really want to make it special for her. Since she loves you so much could you say a little something on your show so she knows where to go to find my gift? I know it would mean the world to her, and since she is the world to me it would be a dream come true.

http://lovelori.blogspot.com

Thank You,
Mike B


P.S. The blog (online journal) begins in August at about 7 weeks pregnant. Those first few entries are the most candid. http://lovelori.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_lovelori_archive.html

33 Weeks

The baby is moving all over and making you increasingly uncomfortable. I don't know what I can do to help you out, but I did find a body pillow in the web I think I am going to ask you about to see if you like it. Meanwhile you are very annoyed at all the same questions from the same people. :)

31 weeks 6 days

It's February 1st now and that March 29th date is moving in fast! My dad actually came over and put up the border in the babies room while I was in EMT class on Saturday. I was shocked! I was also very grateful that I didn't have to do it. He did a great job.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I will be finished with EMT class in April and we maybe able to breathe a bit easier. A few departments are hiring Firefighters so I will be testing to get on. I know you think that once you have your Certs its easy from there...or maybe you just have alot of faith in me. Here is what makes me nervous about getting hired. I am 29 and I am not a Paramedic yet. The soonest I will be able to finish medic school is going to be the end of next year which makes me 30.5 years old. The oldest you can be to be hired full time is 35 so that gives me 4.5 years to get hired. I don't want to be overly confident that I will get hired. Some guys take 10 years to get hired full time.

Can you guess the theme of the babies room? :) 

31 weeks 2 days

Our last baby class was on Wednesday and since the first day they have been telling us that the husbands were going to have to change a babies diaper and whoever did it the fastest and most proper would win a prize. The moment of truth came out on Wednesday. It was rather lucky that I had to diaper a baby girl since I have 3 little sisters that I changed diapers for and only one little brother. :) Since the number of diapers I have changed is right around the hundreds (renee was a boob baby and they poop alot in the beginning) I didn't want to whiz through it since the other guys seemed to be having "issues", but you knew I could do it faster and since I was sandbagging you were getting all tense and competitive. LOL You are so cute it cracks me up. I still won. (Against the guy that has 2 kids already) :)

Yay Me!

30 weeks 5 days

I'm so in love with you! Yesterday was the first competition for the your Formation Team, and it was fraught with disaster. You know exactly what happened, but to sum up for those who don't. First thing one girl got strep the morning of the competition. Second to compound the fact that she was missing she was a line leader in nearly every element in the routine. Third this was the first time for most of the girls to skate at another rink let alone a competition, and there were atleast 8 falls in the program from girls who never fall. Fourth the ice was much harder than the girls home ice arena. Lastly, the girls went first in their group right after an "ice make" to cap off the event. Despite all of these factors you focused very professionally on the problem. A. Some girls probably didn't have their skates sharpened recently. B. They need to be accountable for their mistakes because yes the ice was hard and slippery, but not ALL of the girls fell. C. When you feel foreign ice skate more cautiously.

You refocused the accountability back to them for their performance. If you start blaming something else besides yourself you will never fix the problem. Yes you realize that the ice was PARTLY to blame for the performance, but you cannot set bad precedence for your team by placing blame on an intangible.

I was, and am still so impressed with you. You will coach a truely great team one day it may well be the girls you have now and the coaches who get these girls after you will thank you. The finest performance of the day was yours although I know I am the only one who saw it.

To put things in perspective for all of the people reading this. A girl from the team just above Loris fell 1 minute into a 3 minute routine and knocked out a tooth, root and all, and chipped another and nobody knew it because she got up and skated the rest of the routine swallowing mouthfulls of blood. That is the level of dedication a 13 year old can have to her teammates. Nobody would have blamed her if she would have come straight off the ice. Her team would have lost but nobody would have been upset. Instead they got second. Truely unbelieveable.

29 weeks 6 days

We had our first baby shower on Sunday and we really had a good time even tho you don't like to be the center of attention. :) You crack me up. We got all kinds of wonderful things from your synchro team. Even tho it was god awful cold we still had a good time. :) I sure am having a good time doing this dance dance revolution wish you could play with me. GOOD NEWS. By the time you read this you WILL be able to play with me. :)

Special Thanks to:

Karen and Laura and all the ladies involved. Thank You.

28 weeks 4 days

I took the advice of a friend and wrote the follwing letter from Gavin to Mommy.

Dear Mommy,

I think about you all the time. Every day I wake up to your voice and your movements and I am happy.

I am growing bigger and bigger every day, and daddy hopes I have your nose. He also says when I finally arrive I have to be strong and protect you, so I am doing lots of exercise in here; I even punched daddy in that back last night. :)

I can't wait to see you daddy says you are wonderful, with beautiful eyes and a smile like an angel! I know what those look like so you must be very pretty indeed. It's funny how much I love you and I haven't seen you yet. I am looking forward to snuggling you Trinity and Daisey. I love you all so much!

Your little (BIG) boy,
Gavin

P.S. Daddy helped me write this. Isn't he nice. :) He says to remember that right around the8th, 9th and 10th cm of dilation (whatever that means).

28 weeks 1 day

So we had our first child birth class and it was...uh...nauseating. Even my Uterus was hurting. :) We get to see the videos next week. *gulp* I shudder to think. It only cements in my mind that my mother was a total fucking badass for having 6 kids and taking care of us 24/7. Women nowadays are wimps. I have a person I know who bitches constantly about the one little monster she has, and it makes me nuts.

27 weeks 3 days

Everyone is really taking notice of your belly now. :) It's so cute. "Wow Lori you popped!" This has been heard a few times in the past few days. Things are going well and it is a new year now. I forgot to Mention the Tsunami in my last post so I will mention it here. It happened on the 26th of December a website was put up by a guy I know with all sorts of videos and pictures here http://www.waveofdestruction.org. The last report was that Indonesia alone lost 80,000 people. Maybe this will help you remember when you started your third tri-mester.

Last night we had a New Years Eve Party, and it was a good time. Friends and family came and celebrated and there was a ridiculous fireworks display that I did not expect. Go thing I wasn't sleeping or I would have thought we were getting bombed. Holy crap! :)