17th letter
Fri. 12/29/06
I guess it’s actually almost Saturday. I can’t sleep and so after lying in bed for an hour I was thinking I was wasting time! So I thought, of the list of things I need to do, this was something I could do in the middle of the night.
Really, I sure haven’t done much through these holidays. It’s been SO awesome to have Bryan home so much (as if he’s not home a lot already). He helps with Brock so much that I start feeling guilty that I’m not doing enough. He’s so great, I just couldn’t ask for more! (Or much more anyway… haha just kidding).
So after getting a few congratulations for finishing my Bachelor’s degree, I realized what I made it sound like in my last letter. No I am not done with my degree; I still have 25 credits left. I was just celebrating that the semester was over and that I was done with that certain class. Sorry about the confusion. It’s only Bryan that’s done. Wish I was too. I’m taking 2 classes this next semester but after that there are no more online classes that I can take with UVSC to finish my Accounting degree. So it might have to wait a bit.
Bryan met with the board to compete for the Squadron-level Airman of the Quarter on Thursday. He thinks that it went well and had his uniform and appearance right in check. Although of the 4 questions he was asked, he got 1 right, answered 1 wrong, and just told them he didn’t know the other 2. Sheesh eh? But he feels that he was straightforward – they say even if you give the wrong answer if you are confident it’s not that bad. And that if you don’t know the answer to just say you don’t instead of trying to stumble through something you make up. Later on Bryan’s supervisor was talking to one of the people on the board and she told him that Bryan had exceptional speaking skills, so that’s a nice compliment. I’m not sure when we find out who was selected.
We went to his squadron Christmas party and I suppose it was okay, but too long. They gave a raffle ticket to each person at the door, and we were so excited when they called one of our numbers to draw a number for one of the gifts or money tree. What a bummer when Bryan came back with an envelope containing only a dollar!!! Sheesh. But half the time they were trying to get us to drink – so that part wasn’t all too great.
For Enrichment we went caroling and delivered cookies to Japanese church members. But of the 4 families we had selected only one was home, so we ended up doing it to just some random Japanese homes. It was hilarious! You should have seen some of the looks on their faces. 2 of the men looked downright scared! One lady looked really grateful but was trying to ask us something about the cookies, but of course we couldn’t understand. They understand “Merry Christmas” so we sang ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” I’m not sure they knew what to do with this plate of cookies that some foreign strangers gave them.
So Christmas Eve we got together with a group of friends and had a nice dinner –it was fun! We attempted to cook turkey for the first time (yeah yeah you can make fun all you want). Um….I think we know what to do better next time. And they were only turkey loaves. This was our first Christmas away from at least some sort of family. Kind of sad, but what can you do. Jobs just take family in different directions I guess. My parents just moved into their new house a week before Christmas – I want to see it so bad! My whole family is in Texas except for us and my sister on a mission. I don’t think I’ll ever think plane tickets are expensive again once we’re back in the U.S. Quite a new perspective here.
So one of the reasons I was so excited for Christmas was because I got a new snowboard for Bryan and I was dying to give it to him. He’s been riding a board that I bought off someone for myself, back in high school. And I gave him a snowboard backpack. He gave me a Nintendo GameCube that he bought off a guy from work (cuz I love Nintendo) – ‘course that was before we knew what John and Naomi were giving us! And he gave me snowboard goggles that let in 80% of the light ‘cuz I can’t stand those amber lenses!! (And of course I got that expensive hair job earlier). We got great gifts from family – VERY much appreciated. We had a good Christmas – we stayed in the whole day and played MarioKart DoubleDash and had a nice ham, potato, and corn dinner - - complete with a shrimp cocktail appetizer (had to at least incorporate some of the 7-course traditional Bergquist Christmas Eve dinner!). Bryan makes excellent mashed potatoes. When I asked him how he knew how to make them he said he saw it on the O.C.!! (A television show). So funny. The shrimp wasn’t so great…we bought it at a Japanese grocery store…it was really fishy.
And then the next day I turned 25! I’m so old now! HA- My dad just turned 53 today! Now that’s old. Bryan gave me the Zelda collection set (my favorite game), and we got an awesome deal on black K2 snowboard boots and bindings from a Japanese sports store. I am SO excited about that. I’ve been riding with boots too big ever since I started this sport. Hopefully we can try out all our new stuff next Saturday. Can’t just pick up and go when you’ve got a kid!! Bryan cooked me an excellent breakfast of puff-oven pancakes and that night we went to Angelo’s – the Japanese’s best effort at Italian food. It was good…definitely not the American way that’s for sure…but we won’t be ordering cheesecake there again.
I’ve discovered that Japanese diapers are awesome. They work so much better for Brock (meaning less clothes cleaning for me!) than anything I’ve had a chance to try on base. They have these little lines down the front so you can see if he peed and how much! It’s cool! I’m hooked…so I don’t know what I’m going to do when we leave here!
Brock is such a great kid. He’s officially 3 months old as of Wednesday. It’s so fun being a mom- I think I can do this another 5 times! But yeah…he continues to grow…
So – the pictures I’m attaching - - Brock sits on Bryan’s lap while he plays (pic from 2 wks ago) – Brock’s jeans are a little tight…I had to unbutton the top button – me eating a little Christmas breakfast – Brock sleeps while we open presents – a few other Christmas pictures – and a couple that Bryan took of Brock today. He’s our favorite kid!
Well I suppose this letter’s boring enough so it can end. I think our upstairs neighbors must have gotten a nice stereo or something because I can hear their bumpin’ music and it’s 1am.
We miss everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas!!
Love,
Julie – Bryan – Brock
Here is the slideshow link for the pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.23nk1pg8&x=0&y=-i5u3bm&localeid=en_US
Friday, December 29, 2006
Christmas Day!
2 days away from being 3 months old! - Wow!You can see all the hair loss!
Our little tree!
A very weird face Bryan's pulling there...
Thursday, December 14, 2006
12/14/06 - 16th Letter
16th letter
Thurs. 12/14/06
So we found out Bryan’s AFOQT scores the day after I wrote the last letter to everyone. They are good scores…but…not as good as we had hoped they would be I guess. There is not an overall score, it’s divided up into 5 scores and they were 96/88/95/91/76. Yeah, that last one was for “Quantitative” and surprisingly low! Bryan was hoping his absolute lowest score would not be below the 80’s, but was really hoping that they would all be in the 90’s. The first score is for “Pilot,” so that’s good that that’s his highest one. The second one is for “Navigator,” and he was hoping that that one at least, would also be in the 90’s. Those are the 2 he was worried most about, I guess you could say. But he has joined this online officer forum and sees other candidates and other selects (people who have been chosen by the board) and he thinks his scores put him roughly in the top 10% of everyone, from what he’s seen (everyone posts their scores and stats and all that). So they are pretty good compared to a lot of other people. I guess I should tell you that the scores aren’t straight percentages out of a 100. They are scores based upon everyone else who takes the test – for example, he did better than 96% of the people on the “Pilot” portions of the test. So that’s how it works.
He also is being nominated for Airman of the Quarter. Meaning, out of his flight (over 50 guys), he is having a package (all that he’s accomplished this last quarter) put forward to have him considered against everyone in his squadron. Hopefully he gets it! That would be such an awesome thing to be able to put in his Officer packet.
And he is officially done with the semester…meaning done with all his requirements for a Bachelor’s degree!! It’s so exciting! I think it will be more official once we actually get the certificate in the mail in about 8 weeks. He was laughing at me because he was done and I still had tons of homework, saying that he wasn’t going to have to say that for a long time! (He will most likely get his Master’s Degree down the road). Yesterday I took my Final and so I am done too – HALLELUJAH!!! His job is awesome. They let him take a much extended lunch so that he could come home and watch Brock while I drove down to main base to take this test. It’s so awesome that we can do that, unless he’s extremely busy. But anyways, we TOTALLY need to have a huge celebration for him! It’s such an accomplishment! Oh yes, and he ended his degree well – he got a 4.0 this semester. His ending GPA will be a 3.8 I think. Awesome, eh? He is the first in his family, and my family, to get a baccalaureates degree. My husband’s awesome.
He went snowboarding last Saturday with 2 guys from work (his supervisor/trainer and his Supervisor - ? -), and had fun. He tried to convince me to go…but sheesh I’m not anywhere near in shape and I was afraid I’d get tired too fast to keep up with them. Besides, leaving such a little babes all day with someone….? We’ll actually probably go the week after Christmas. He went to a kind of “back woods” ‘resort.’ So this next time we’ll go to a different one because I’m not really up to that. They’re not exactly like American ski resorts here…good ‘ol Brighton…we miss America! But it’s kind of cool – you pay 4900 Yen (about $45) for 5 runs (these are long runs – they snowboarded for 5 hours and he only used 4 runs) – and they take you up in a gondola like at Snowbird…ALL the way up a big mountain – and they punch your card each run. If you don’t use all of them, you can use them the next time you come. That’s nice because in the states sometimes you pay for an all day pass but get tired before the day’s through and feel like you wasted a little money. -But it was 2-hr drive for them to get there – so they’re not exactly real close. We’ve gotten a little snow on the ground here – just enough for Bryan to shovel a little bit. But we’ve got MUCH more to come!
Update on Brock. He turned 11-weeks old yesterday. Just over 2 weeks ago, on December 5th, he had his 2-month appointment (he was more like 2 mos. 1 wk). And…guess how much he weighed. My little chunk was 15 pounds 1 ounce - ! And 24 ½ inches long. Let me remind you that when he was born he was 7 pounds 14 ounces, and 19 ½ inches long. Yes. He is in the 95th percentile for height and weight. He is in the 75th percentile for his head size. He is a heavy dude. I am glad that he’s growing his hair back. It grows kind of fast – but it’s thin – so unless you’re close I guess he still looks kind of bald. Sunday night, the 10th, I think I can officially say that he slept through the night! He was asleep in his room at 11pm, and woke up at 7:45am. …pretty sure that’s what it was anyway… I think it had been about 10 hours since he had last eaten!! He did another 7-8 hour chunk of time the next night. Yet I couldn’t fully enjoy it because I was doing homework. I was up ‘til 6am one of those mornings. Man I’m glad the semester’s over! My house was a mess until that test was done. So we’ll see how consistent Brock will be with his nights. Man I LOVE that kid to death!!! – He’s so great!
I can’t believe Christmas is so close! I can’t believe I’ll be 25! We finally were able to pick up a Christmas tree on Monday. A little one for $25. So now it finally feels like Christmas in our house. It’s so nice! I’m so excited! Our first Christmas with a family of 3! Last year Bryan was in Basic Training, so it was just me, his mom, and his dad last year!
I am sick again. Sucks.
Bryan gets a week off for Christmas! These are days that don’t count against his regular leave – it’s awesome! He gets next Thursday and Friday off, then Monday (Christmas), Tues., Wed.; goes to work Thurs. the 28th, then has Friday off in conjunction with the New Year’s holiday the following Monday. We are enjoying being in the Air Force…! The 28th he has to go before a board for this Airman of the Quarter nomination, so it works out well that he has to go to work that day anyway.
We just found out that they are moving him from being a Sunday school teacher to working with the Boy Scouts – Webelos. So that’s cool.
With the pictures I attached – you’ll see Brock’s ‘cool’ overalls, him watching Bryan play Playstation, his little hand poking out of his Swaddler (what we put him in for his long sleeping times – not during the day), and amongst other things, the socks I put on his hands to keep them warm (Bryan thinks it’s unnecessary but his hands get cold!).
Um, well, I think that’s it for this time. We love you guys!
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Julie, Bryan, and Brock
Here are the pictures I was talking about, in slideshow, though most of them are posted below, anyway. (Click on the link, then the picture, and the slideshow starts - you don't need to sign in or anything).
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.bs1rx2jc&x=0&y=-o61bbq&localeid=en_US
Thurs. 12/14/06
So we found out Bryan’s AFOQT scores the day after I wrote the last letter to everyone. They are good scores…but…not as good as we had hoped they would be I guess. There is not an overall score, it’s divided up into 5 scores and they were 96/88/95/91/76. Yeah, that last one was for “Quantitative” and surprisingly low! Bryan was hoping his absolute lowest score would not be below the 80’s, but was really hoping that they would all be in the 90’s. The first score is for “Pilot,” so that’s good that that’s his highest one. The second one is for “Navigator,” and he was hoping that that one at least, would also be in the 90’s. Those are the 2 he was worried most about, I guess you could say. But he has joined this online officer forum and sees other candidates and other selects (people who have been chosen by the board) and he thinks his scores put him roughly in the top 10% of everyone, from what he’s seen (everyone posts their scores and stats and all that). So they are pretty good compared to a lot of other people. I guess I should tell you that the scores aren’t straight percentages out of a 100. They are scores based upon everyone else who takes the test – for example, he did better than 96% of the people on the “Pilot” portions of the test. So that’s how it works.
He also is being nominated for Airman of the Quarter. Meaning, out of his flight (over 50 guys), he is having a package (all that he’s accomplished this last quarter) put forward to have him considered against everyone in his squadron. Hopefully he gets it! That would be such an awesome thing to be able to put in his Officer packet.
And he is officially done with the semester…meaning done with all his requirements for a Bachelor’s degree!! It’s so exciting! I think it will be more official once we actually get the certificate in the mail in about 8 weeks. He was laughing at me because he was done and I still had tons of homework, saying that he wasn’t going to have to say that for a long time! (He will most likely get his Master’s Degree down the road). Yesterday I took my Final and so I am done too – HALLELUJAH!!! His job is awesome. They let him take a much extended lunch so that he could come home and watch Brock while I drove down to main base to take this test. It’s so awesome that we can do that, unless he’s extremely busy. But anyways, we TOTALLY need to have a huge celebration for him! It’s such an accomplishment! Oh yes, and he ended his degree well – he got a 4.0 this semester. His ending GPA will be a 3.8 I think. Awesome, eh? He is the first in his family, and my family, to get a baccalaureates degree. My husband’s awesome.
He went snowboarding last Saturday with 2 guys from work (his supervisor/trainer and his Supervisor - ? -), and had fun. He tried to convince me to go…but sheesh I’m not anywhere near in shape and I was afraid I’d get tired too fast to keep up with them. Besides, leaving such a little babes all day with someone….? We’ll actually probably go the week after Christmas. He went to a kind of “back woods” ‘resort.’ So this next time we’ll go to a different one because I’m not really up to that. They’re not exactly like American ski resorts here…good ‘ol Brighton…we miss America! But it’s kind of cool – you pay 4900 Yen (about $45) for 5 runs (these are long runs – they snowboarded for 5 hours and he only used 4 runs) – and they take you up in a gondola like at Snowbird…ALL the way up a big mountain – and they punch your card each run. If you don’t use all of them, you can use them the next time you come. That’s nice because in the states sometimes you pay for an all day pass but get tired before the day’s through and feel like you wasted a little money. -But it was 2-hr drive for them to get there – so they’re not exactly real close. We’ve gotten a little snow on the ground here – just enough for Bryan to shovel a little bit. But we’ve got MUCH more to come!
Update on Brock. He turned 11-weeks old yesterday. Just over 2 weeks ago, on December 5th, he had his 2-month appointment (he was more like 2 mos. 1 wk). And…guess how much he weighed. My little chunk was 15 pounds 1 ounce - ! And 24 ½ inches long. Let me remind you that when he was born he was 7 pounds 14 ounces, and 19 ½ inches long. Yes. He is in the 95th percentile for height and weight. He is in the 75th percentile for his head size. He is a heavy dude. I am glad that he’s growing his hair back. It grows kind of fast – but it’s thin – so unless you’re close I guess he still looks kind of bald. Sunday night, the 10th, I think I can officially say that he slept through the night! He was asleep in his room at 11pm, and woke up at 7:45am. …pretty sure that’s what it was anyway… I think it had been about 10 hours since he had last eaten!! He did another 7-8 hour chunk of time the next night. Yet I couldn’t fully enjoy it because I was doing homework. I was up ‘til 6am one of those mornings. Man I’m glad the semester’s over! My house was a mess until that test was done. So we’ll see how consistent Brock will be with his nights. Man I LOVE that kid to death!!! – He’s so great!
I can’t believe Christmas is so close! I can’t believe I’ll be 25! We finally were able to pick up a Christmas tree on Monday. A little one for $25. So now it finally feels like Christmas in our house. It’s so nice! I’m so excited! Our first Christmas with a family of 3! Last year Bryan was in Basic Training, so it was just me, his mom, and his dad last year!
I am sick again. Sucks.
Bryan gets a week off for Christmas! These are days that don’t count against his regular leave – it’s awesome! He gets next Thursday and Friday off, then Monday (Christmas), Tues., Wed.; goes to work Thurs. the 28th, then has Friday off in conjunction with the New Year’s holiday the following Monday. We are enjoying being in the Air Force…! The 28th he has to go before a board for this Airman of the Quarter nomination, so it works out well that he has to go to work that day anyway.
We just found out that they are moving him from being a Sunday school teacher to working with the Boy Scouts – Webelos. So that’s cool.
With the pictures I attached – you’ll see Brock’s ‘cool’ overalls, him watching Bryan play Playstation, his little hand poking out of his Swaddler (what we put him in for his long sleeping times – not during the day), and amongst other things, the socks I put on his hands to keep them warm (Bryan thinks it’s unnecessary but his hands get cold!).
Um, well, I think that’s it for this time. We love you guys!
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Julie, Bryan, and Brock
Here are the pictures I was talking about, in slideshow, though most of them are posted below, anyway. (Click on the link, then the picture, and the slideshow starts - you don't need to sign in or anything).
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.bs1rx2jc&x=0&y=-o61bbq&localeid=en_US
2 - 2.5 Months Old
At his 2-month appt Brock was 15 lbs 1 oz!!! - That's the 95th percentile.He was 24 1/2 inches long, which is also the 95th percentile. His head size is in the 75th percentile. (Reminder - he was 7 lbs 14 oz and 19 1/2 inches at birth - so he has really put the weight on!!!)!
Watching his Dad play PlayStation! Such a bonding experience...
The Swaddler is AWESOME! Recommended for all! Sleeps so well in this and then you don't have to keep wrapping them up when the blanket (the alternative) gets loose!
Bryan hated when I put socks on his hands...but they were cold!
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
11/29/06 - 15th Letter
15th letter
Wed. 11/29/06
The irony (maybe not the best word to describe it?) of me being up right now…it’s only 11pm, we put Brock down at 8:30, he got fussy just a bit ago, I held him for a bit, he went back to sleep. So shouldn’t I be in bed? He kept me up til 3am last night, and 5am the night before (maybe I should be saying morning). So of course I’ve been tired. But now of course, I can’t sleep.
I’m not sure how I always seem to end up writing these letters on Wednesdays…it’s definitely not planned that way, it just happens. I’m not sure how our little babes got on such a weird sleeping schedule these last couple days. Good thing I didn’t have to be anywhere in the mornings. He’s pretty good about eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping, into the afternoon. So we sleep half our day away it seems. Can you believe this kid is 2 months old??! Yep, Monday was the 27th. I guess since he was born on a Wednesday, that makes him 9 weeks old today. He got his 2-month-old shots (immunizations) today. Bryan took him to get them while I was taking my test on main base. I like that they’re free….I like how all of this medical stuff has been free….with 2 surgeries and all his antibiotics when he was born, that has been really nice!! We were meant to be in the Air Force when we had our first kid!
For the most part Bryan is back on his regular work schedule. Thank goodness. They were saying at work that when they have days with nothing to do, that they’ll take off and go snowboarding!! How nice for Bryan eh? Yeah. It has not snowed here yet. It’s always in the forecast…but it never comes. But it’s in the 40’s so it definitely should be soon. I’ve been sick the last couple weeks. We keep our room pretty cold and we didn’t have our comforter out yet, and I’d wake up cold in the middle of the night, so it was my own dang fault. But anyway, Bryan is going to sign up to be a snowboarding instructor – it actually costs $100, but you can go up every Saturday after he takes the class in January (a 5-day class on the slopes), teach for 2 hours, then have the other 6 hrs to do what you want. If you weren’t an instructor and you just went up with the rec center group, this is something that usually costs $375 and $25/month, so it’s a pretty good deal. It first caught his eye as a leadership position that he’d be able to add to his resume for his officer packet. I told him it would also be one of his Christmas presents!
Thanksgiving was fun. We went to Liz and Justin’s house with a bunch of other people. Mostly it was the people we eat dinner with almost every Sunday. So no turkey buying for us – we just provided the vegetable dish – Bryan cut up and arranged the veggies and he did an excellent job! The Sunday before Thanksgiving we had over 20 people at our house for dinner. Naomi we made your White Chili – it was most excellent as always. I multiplied the recipe by 5. We ended up having probably about a 2-recipe-amount left over but we had no problem eating it over the week. I actually made it again tonight. We love it. But we don’t have the beans in a can so I have to soak beans for it!
Bryan got our car working the Friday before Thanksgiving. Work gave him time to work on it during the day so that was really nice. Otherwise with him getting home at 5 at that time, it was already dark…making it a little more difficult and time consuming for sure. He ended up having to exchange the alternator he bought, and with the next one in, it worked. So had we gotten a good one the FIRST time, we would have had a car working much sooner. Sheesh. So he got it working minutes before it was time to take the borrowed car back. Perfect.
It is now actually Thursday, because I had to go feed my crying kid, and then he was fighting going back to bed. He hasn’t whined for a bit now, so maybe he finally fell asleep. The difference tonight compared to the last 2 is that when I go in there I can tell he’s tired; the other nights his eyes were wide open, wide awake….just not good signs when you’re wanting to go to bed. Because it’s not like he was happy just laying there awake…
Bryan took the AFOQT, like I was talking about in the last letters, and feels he did decent on it. He was expecting to be able to use a calculator and he couldn’t, though. I suspected he wasn’t going to be able to but he thought I was silly for thinking he should figure out some of the math problems without having to use a calculator. Oh well. Now we play the waiting game to get his scores back. It can take anywhere from 3-6 weeks they say. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks. Bryan checks the website several times a day. After he gets those back he will work out the details of getting down to the base near Tokyo to take the pilot TBAS test.
When my mom was here she cut my hair to hit right at my shoulders. I haven’t had her cut my hair for years because….well, you know, certain things you want done to your hair can’t just be done by anyone. So I’m not sure what we were thinking. It was a work in progress the whole last week she was here. But I went and got it straightened at a Japanese hair salon – apparently this isn’t just any straightening, but the one that people tell me costs $400 in the states? So it was expensive – not that expensive, but enough – but worth it!! My hair dries (on its own) so much nicer and it looks much healthier and makes everything much faster. It was my early Christmas present. Ever since my friend here told me she got it done and I saw her before and afters, I’ve wanted to do it. That was back in the summer months – it would have been nice to do it then what with the humidity. Anyways….who cares about my hair huh?
My scarred stomach is finally becoming just that - - scarred – without all the other crap. Hooray!
I think that Brock is growing more hair on top of his head – he’s got some fuzz up there. So maybe he won’t go bald on top after all. It’s so funny when he laughs, I love it! Bryan said my Christmas present should be me and Brock going home. I was like, yeah right, not without you! It’s not even possible – too expensive, too late in the game to schedule that amount of leave so that he could come, and we don’t have Brock’s passport yet. Wishful thinking. …So I stepped on the scale with Brock…and it looks like he might weigh about 15 pounds!! And that was a week ago I think. Next Tuesday he has his 2-month appt so we will get a precise measurement there. That will be interesting to see…but he’s still in 0-3 month clothes.
So we are SO excited, Bryan especially of course, because he really has only a week left of class work to be done…then THAT’S IT!!! The Bachelor’s Degree complete! Sooo awesome. We are proud if you can’t tell. We need to have a major celebration for that one. I’m just excited for this one class that I’m taking to be done. International Business – I don’t think I’ve ever spent this much time on a class! The other one I was registered for got completely neglected – I just couldn’t find time to do that one as well. So I will have to retake it – I was going to next semester but Bryan says I shouldn’t…. after that class there’s maybe one more class I can take online from UVSC for my degree. So the remaining 25 credits I will either have to take somewhere else and then transfer them into UVSC, or they’ll just have to wait until we’re back in Utah at some point in the future. Hmm, but actually I think there’s a requirement that a certain amount of your last credits have to be from UVSC to graduate from there. And I’m certainly not going to transfer it all somewhere else when I have that many – unless there’s some miracle and I find somewhere that they all transfer straight across and I don’t lose anything. Actually, I’m not sure if that’s even possible either…cuz you have to have a certain amount of credits from the college in the first place to get a degree from them…so I’m just rambling now. Bryan’s mom asked, so I just thought I’d explain the situation.
There are some of you that I need to write back to personally – I will get to it! It’s a lot of writing. Really everything is in these letters…mostly anyway. You can see all of how we’re doing, just not in a personalized-to-you manner.
But anyway, it’s late, time for me to go to bed, while Brock is sleeping. I will send some pictures of Brock first, though.
But love you all! Can you believe Friday is December!!! I’m going to be 25! What an oldie!
Love, Us
Julie Bryan Brock
Here is a slideshow of a few pictures - again, just click on the link, then the picture, and the slideshow starts:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.4stpldzs&x=0&y=-kbvmqa&localeid=en_US
Wed. 11/29/06
The irony (maybe not the best word to describe it?) of me being up right now…it’s only 11pm, we put Brock down at 8:30, he got fussy just a bit ago, I held him for a bit, he went back to sleep. So shouldn’t I be in bed? He kept me up til 3am last night, and 5am the night before (maybe I should be saying morning). So of course I’ve been tired. But now of course, I can’t sleep.
I’m not sure how I always seem to end up writing these letters on Wednesdays…it’s definitely not planned that way, it just happens. I’m not sure how our little babes got on such a weird sleeping schedule these last couple days. Good thing I didn’t have to be anywhere in the mornings. He’s pretty good about eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping, into the afternoon. So we sleep half our day away it seems. Can you believe this kid is 2 months old??! Yep, Monday was the 27th. I guess since he was born on a Wednesday, that makes him 9 weeks old today. He got his 2-month-old shots (immunizations) today. Bryan took him to get them while I was taking my test on main base. I like that they’re free….I like how all of this medical stuff has been free….with 2 surgeries and all his antibiotics when he was born, that has been really nice!! We were meant to be in the Air Force when we had our first kid!
For the most part Bryan is back on his regular work schedule. Thank goodness. They were saying at work that when they have days with nothing to do, that they’ll take off and go snowboarding!! How nice for Bryan eh? Yeah. It has not snowed here yet. It’s always in the forecast…but it never comes. But it’s in the 40’s so it definitely should be soon. I’ve been sick the last couple weeks. We keep our room pretty cold and we didn’t have our comforter out yet, and I’d wake up cold in the middle of the night, so it was my own dang fault. But anyway, Bryan is going to sign up to be a snowboarding instructor – it actually costs $100, but you can go up every Saturday after he takes the class in January (a 5-day class on the slopes), teach for 2 hours, then have the other 6 hrs to do what you want. If you weren’t an instructor and you just went up with the rec center group, this is something that usually costs $375 and $25/month, so it’s a pretty good deal. It first caught his eye as a leadership position that he’d be able to add to his resume for his officer packet. I told him it would also be one of his Christmas presents!
Thanksgiving was fun. We went to Liz and Justin’s house with a bunch of other people. Mostly it was the people we eat dinner with almost every Sunday. So no turkey buying for us – we just provided the vegetable dish – Bryan cut up and arranged the veggies and he did an excellent job! The Sunday before Thanksgiving we had over 20 people at our house for dinner. Naomi we made your White Chili – it was most excellent as always. I multiplied the recipe by 5. We ended up having probably about a 2-recipe-amount left over but we had no problem eating it over the week. I actually made it again tonight. We love it. But we don’t have the beans in a can so I have to soak beans for it!
Bryan got our car working the Friday before Thanksgiving. Work gave him time to work on it during the day so that was really nice. Otherwise with him getting home at 5 at that time, it was already dark…making it a little more difficult and time consuming for sure. He ended up having to exchange the alternator he bought, and with the next one in, it worked. So had we gotten a good one the FIRST time, we would have had a car working much sooner. Sheesh. So he got it working minutes before it was time to take the borrowed car back. Perfect.
It is now actually Thursday, because I had to go feed my crying kid, and then he was fighting going back to bed. He hasn’t whined for a bit now, so maybe he finally fell asleep. The difference tonight compared to the last 2 is that when I go in there I can tell he’s tired; the other nights his eyes were wide open, wide awake….just not good signs when you’re wanting to go to bed. Because it’s not like he was happy just laying there awake…
Bryan took the AFOQT, like I was talking about in the last letters, and feels he did decent on it. He was expecting to be able to use a calculator and he couldn’t, though. I suspected he wasn’t going to be able to but he thought I was silly for thinking he should figure out some of the math problems without having to use a calculator. Oh well. Now we play the waiting game to get his scores back. It can take anywhere from 3-6 weeks they say. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks. Bryan checks the website several times a day. After he gets those back he will work out the details of getting down to the base near Tokyo to take the pilot TBAS test.
When my mom was here she cut my hair to hit right at my shoulders. I haven’t had her cut my hair for years because….well, you know, certain things you want done to your hair can’t just be done by anyone. So I’m not sure what we were thinking. It was a work in progress the whole last week she was here. But I went and got it straightened at a Japanese hair salon – apparently this isn’t just any straightening, but the one that people tell me costs $400 in the states? So it was expensive – not that expensive, but enough – but worth it!! My hair dries (on its own) so much nicer and it looks much healthier and makes everything much faster. It was my early Christmas present. Ever since my friend here told me she got it done and I saw her before and afters, I’ve wanted to do it. That was back in the summer months – it would have been nice to do it then what with the humidity. Anyways….who cares about my hair huh?
My scarred stomach is finally becoming just that - - scarred – without all the other crap. Hooray!
I think that Brock is growing more hair on top of his head – he’s got some fuzz up there. So maybe he won’t go bald on top after all. It’s so funny when he laughs, I love it! Bryan said my Christmas present should be me and Brock going home. I was like, yeah right, not without you! It’s not even possible – too expensive, too late in the game to schedule that amount of leave so that he could come, and we don’t have Brock’s passport yet. Wishful thinking. …So I stepped on the scale with Brock…and it looks like he might weigh about 15 pounds!! And that was a week ago I think. Next Tuesday he has his 2-month appt so we will get a precise measurement there. That will be interesting to see…but he’s still in 0-3 month clothes.
So we are SO excited, Bryan especially of course, because he really has only a week left of class work to be done…then THAT’S IT!!! The Bachelor’s Degree complete! Sooo awesome. We are proud if you can’t tell. We need to have a major celebration for that one. I’m just excited for this one class that I’m taking to be done. International Business – I don’t think I’ve ever spent this much time on a class! The other one I was registered for got completely neglected – I just couldn’t find time to do that one as well. So I will have to retake it – I was going to next semester but Bryan says I shouldn’t…. after that class there’s maybe one more class I can take online from UVSC for my degree. So the remaining 25 credits I will either have to take somewhere else and then transfer them into UVSC, or they’ll just have to wait until we’re back in Utah at some point in the future. Hmm, but actually I think there’s a requirement that a certain amount of your last credits have to be from UVSC to graduate from there. And I’m certainly not going to transfer it all somewhere else when I have that many – unless there’s some miracle and I find somewhere that they all transfer straight across and I don’t lose anything. Actually, I’m not sure if that’s even possible either…cuz you have to have a certain amount of credits from the college in the first place to get a degree from them…so I’m just rambling now. Bryan’s mom asked, so I just thought I’d explain the situation.
There are some of you that I need to write back to personally – I will get to it! It’s a lot of writing. Really everything is in these letters…mostly anyway. You can see all of how we’re doing, just not in a personalized-to-you manner.
But anyway, it’s late, time for me to go to bed, while Brock is sleeping. I will send some pictures of Brock first, though.
But love you all! Can you believe Friday is December!!! I’m going to be 25! What an oldie!
Love, Us
Julie Bryan Brock
Here is a slideshow of a few pictures - again, just click on the link, then the picture, and the slideshow starts:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.4stpldzs&x=0&y=-kbvmqa&localeid=en_US
2 months old
Don't be frightened!! Ha ha. That is how Brock's pudgy face looks when Bryan is holding him up in the air horizontally - his chubs just hang down! Bryan thinks Brock's face is hilarious when he does that to him - like, 'hmm, I don't know what's happening but there's nothing I can do about it.'
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
11/15/06 - 14th Letter
14th letter
Wed. 11/15/06
So we are pretty much frustrated out of our minds with the Education Center here. These are the people that are the stepping stones to get Bryan commissioned as an Officer. They don’t know what they’re talking about, and try to turn it around and make it look like WE don’t know what we’re talking about. Either that or the guy we’ve been dealing with the last couple days is COMPLETELY scatterbrained. We know everything we need to do; we just need them for a few things that we can’t do ourselves….like getting them to administer the Officer Qualifying Test….SHEESH. So, we wanted to submit an officer packet in December for the board that meets in January, but that’s not going to happen due mainly to our crappy education center here and their lack of knowledge. So looks like we will be submitting a packet in May/June, for the board that meets in July. This means sometime around August 10th of next year we’ll find out if he was selected or not. We are disappointed in this turn of events…but perhaps it was meant to be. It will give him a chance to put together a more effective packet, and to get a more worthwhile Letter of Recommendation. Plus, he has to go down to Tokyo (Yokota AB) to take a TBAS test that pilot applicants have to take. We had to find out that one on our own…had we known earlier…people here don’t even KNOW what this TBAS is (the people who SHOULD know)…they act like they know, but only after we tell them what it is. I’m so extremely frustrated and I can no longer talk to this guy about any of it, Bryan will have to, because I gave this guy my piece. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t let him make us (me) look like an idiot when he was the idiot. Ugh!!
Alright, I guess I’ve got to let it go even though I’m bugged to death. Tomorrow morning Bryan finally gets to take the test he’s been trying to schedule since August. The Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. A huge deal as it will TOTALLY affect his whole future with the Air Force – his life-long dream of flying for them. This last week he has been doing extra studying for that, finishing his huge 20-page paper, and working on his CDC’s (upgrade training for work) – all with a much longer work schedule. Isn’t he amazing? I think so. That’s why I married him.
Brock is 7 weeks old today which of course as you know, I think is crazy. He is getting chubbier and balder. Soon I suppose he will look like an old man. He has quite the thigh roll. Man, rolls make it hard to wash him! Bryan does an excellent job at washing our babes – I cannot do it! It just makes me frustrated. Brock averages 4-5 hours from each feeding time. And I am learning his little ways. I will send pictures of a bunch of different face “poses.” On one of the last ones I tried to cover some of his chubs (neck and cheek chubs) with my hand… It is really easy to get him to smile. His favorite things to do are to eat, be held, poop, pee, sleep, and grunt.
On Monday I had my 2-week follow up with Dr. Blake concerning my gallbladder surgery. He said that I heal well and all looks fairly good (he didn’t get to see it when it was bad – it itched so very badly all around the 4 surgery sites that I thought I was going to lose my mind – it finally let up and tons of my skin died and peeled off). He said that I might have some pigment change around some of the sites – great. He looked at my c-section scar too – I told him that it is sore here and there and has a few bumps in it. I told him I cannot pull on it to look at it because that hurts. So he looked at it and pulled on it. Later that day I realized I was bleeding on the scar. After a few band-aids I realized the bleeding wasn’t stopping…and I touched it and it felt like a hole! Tuesday I had my 6-week OB appt and I showed them this. The doctor was alarmed but after pushing a Q-tip into the hole to see if it went all the way through (OUCH!!!), she found that it didn’t. So she put some stuff on it to burn it, to help it to heal (OW! OW! OW!!). Man do I wish all could be back to normal on my stomach! Ploka.
Monday morning before my doctor’s appt I took another one of my tests with the proctor here. Bryan was too busy and so Brock had his first babysitter experience!! I had asked Melissa the night before at the potluck if I could bring him in the morning while I took the test. She was great and took him for over 2 hours – what a lifesaver! It sure was hard to be out of the door by 7:30am though!!
Bryan had to get a ride to work so I could take our borrowed car. Yes – our car isn’t working. It completely died the morning Bryan was picking me up from the hospital the morning after my surgery. He had to have it jumped the night before when he was leaving the hospital, then again when he was leaving to come get me, but the car died on the way. Some kind soul picked up Bryan and brought him back home and a guy Bryan works with came over (cuz at this point most of the people we know are at church!) and they went and got a tow rope to bring the car back home. It could not be jumped – it was completely dead. Bryan figured out it was the alternator and after putting that $150 thing in, it kept blowing a fuse when he tried to start the car. Last night Bryan’s supervisor came over and they worked into the evening…and they actually fried 2 sets of jumper cables. They figured somehow the polarity in the alternator must be reversed. So this is where we stand here. So yeah, Bryan has been working on the car this last week, on TOP of everything else he’s been doing. Like I said, amazing. So right now we are driving the work buddy’s car (this is the guy that’s actually his trainer) that helped tow the car back, because he left for the states for a couple of weeks. But now he’s coming back on Sunday…and we still don’t have a car that works. I guess we were just glad it worked long enough to get me to my gallbladder ultrasound, and to the ER when I thought I was going to die.
There was quite the earthquake here last week. It felt like someone was shaking my bed as hard as they could and even went on for a bit. I even got worried. But not worried enough to actually get out of bed of course. It was like the one that happened when my mom was here that scared her pretty bad – it shook the sliding glass doors, and shook the couch she was sitting on…it was funny when she jumped. But this one was even worse. Bryan was already at work, and he didn’t even feel it! It seems like they never feel them there.
Well, I think that’s it for now….yes I can’t think of anything else…
How about some of you that I haven’t heard from in a while let me know how you’re doing….JASON.
Love you all,
The little Blumenkrantz Family (the Japan appendage)
For all the pics, click on the link and then click on the picture to view the slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.4ql0x9u0&x=0&y=-10d5ds&localeid=en_US. There are a lot of "repetitive" pictures - but you know how it is - the grandparents want to see them - so for the rest of you - you can skim! Bryan's dad is always asking for more pictures so I try to do so. The one where Brock's face is being squished together while I'm holding him - I realized it looks like those could be my arms - they're not, they're Bryan's! (I don't have nasty man arms). I also realized from these pictures - I need some sun - sheesh! We can't quite figure out why pictures distort the color of Brock's hair - it doesn't make sense. ...and the camera adds 10 pounds on Brock... haha. Ever so often he likes to look at his nose - hence some of the crossed eyes in the pictures - not so attractive! And then the ones saying goodbye to my mom at the misawa city airport - sad! And it's funny how when Brock is sitting how his head sinks down and really makes him look huge! Oh well - a fat baby is a healthy baby I hear! Love him to death!
**There is also one in there towards the end of a new baby bundled in a blue blanket - that is Ashley Castleberry's boy, Cadence, born Nov. 1st.
And here is the slideshow of Brock's faces: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.8o4rm7ew&x=0&y=u0h4xq&localeid=en_US. He's a chunk!!
Wed. 11/15/06
So we are pretty much frustrated out of our minds with the Education Center here. These are the people that are the stepping stones to get Bryan commissioned as an Officer. They don’t know what they’re talking about, and try to turn it around and make it look like WE don’t know what we’re talking about. Either that or the guy we’ve been dealing with the last couple days is COMPLETELY scatterbrained. We know everything we need to do; we just need them for a few things that we can’t do ourselves….like getting them to administer the Officer Qualifying Test….SHEESH. So, we wanted to submit an officer packet in December for the board that meets in January, but that’s not going to happen due mainly to our crappy education center here and their lack of knowledge. So looks like we will be submitting a packet in May/June, for the board that meets in July. This means sometime around August 10th of next year we’ll find out if he was selected or not. We are disappointed in this turn of events…but perhaps it was meant to be. It will give him a chance to put together a more effective packet, and to get a more worthwhile Letter of Recommendation. Plus, he has to go down to Tokyo (Yokota AB) to take a TBAS test that pilot applicants have to take. We had to find out that one on our own…had we known earlier…people here don’t even KNOW what this TBAS is (the people who SHOULD know)…they act like they know, but only after we tell them what it is. I’m so extremely frustrated and I can no longer talk to this guy about any of it, Bryan will have to, because I gave this guy my piece. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t let him make us (me) look like an idiot when he was the idiot. Ugh!!
Alright, I guess I’ve got to let it go even though I’m bugged to death. Tomorrow morning Bryan finally gets to take the test he’s been trying to schedule since August. The Air Force Officer Qualifying Test. A huge deal as it will TOTALLY affect his whole future with the Air Force – his life-long dream of flying for them. This last week he has been doing extra studying for that, finishing his huge 20-page paper, and working on his CDC’s (upgrade training for work) – all with a much longer work schedule. Isn’t he amazing? I think so. That’s why I married him.
Brock is 7 weeks old today which of course as you know, I think is crazy. He is getting chubbier and balder. Soon I suppose he will look like an old man. He has quite the thigh roll. Man, rolls make it hard to wash him! Bryan does an excellent job at washing our babes – I cannot do it! It just makes me frustrated. Brock averages 4-5 hours from each feeding time. And I am learning his little ways. I will send pictures of a bunch of different face “poses.” On one of the last ones I tried to cover some of his chubs (neck and cheek chubs) with my hand… It is really easy to get him to smile. His favorite things to do are to eat, be held, poop, pee, sleep, and grunt.
On Monday I had my 2-week follow up with Dr. Blake concerning my gallbladder surgery. He said that I heal well and all looks fairly good (he didn’t get to see it when it was bad – it itched so very badly all around the 4 surgery sites that I thought I was going to lose my mind – it finally let up and tons of my skin died and peeled off). He said that I might have some pigment change around some of the sites – great. He looked at my c-section scar too – I told him that it is sore here and there and has a few bumps in it. I told him I cannot pull on it to look at it because that hurts. So he looked at it and pulled on it. Later that day I realized I was bleeding on the scar. After a few band-aids I realized the bleeding wasn’t stopping…and I touched it and it felt like a hole! Tuesday I had my 6-week OB appt and I showed them this. The doctor was alarmed but after pushing a Q-tip into the hole to see if it went all the way through (OUCH!!!), she found that it didn’t. So she put some stuff on it to burn it, to help it to heal (OW! OW! OW!!). Man do I wish all could be back to normal on my stomach! Ploka.
Monday morning before my doctor’s appt I took another one of my tests with the proctor here. Bryan was too busy and so Brock had his first babysitter experience!! I had asked Melissa the night before at the potluck if I could bring him in the morning while I took the test. She was great and took him for over 2 hours – what a lifesaver! It sure was hard to be out of the door by 7:30am though!!
Bryan had to get a ride to work so I could take our borrowed car. Yes – our car isn’t working. It completely died the morning Bryan was picking me up from the hospital the morning after my surgery. He had to have it jumped the night before when he was leaving the hospital, then again when he was leaving to come get me, but the car died on the way. Some kind soul picked up Bryan and brought him back home and a guy Bryan works with came over (cuz at this point most of the people we know are at church!) and they went and got a tow rope to bring the car back home. It could not be jumped – it was completely dead. Bryan figured out it was the alternator and after putting that $150 thing in, it kept blowing a fuse when he tried to start the car. Last night Bryan’s supervisor came over and they worked into the evening…and they actually fried 2 sets of jumper cables. They figured somehow the polarity in the alternator must be reversed. So this is where we stand here. So yeah, Bryan has been working on the car this last week, on TOP of everything else he’s been doing. Like I said, amazing. So right now we are driving the work buddy’s car (this is the guy that’s actually his trainer) that helped tow the car back, because he left for the states for a couple of weeks. But now he’s coming back on Sunday…and we still don’t have a car that works. I guess we were just glad it worked long enough to get me to my gallbladder ultrasound, and to the ER when I thought I was going to die.
There was quite the earthquake here last week. It felt like someone was shaking my bed as hard as they could and even went on for a bit. I even got worried. But not worried enough to actually get out of bed of course. It was like the one that happened when my mom was here that scared her pretty bad – it shook the sliding glass doors, and shook the couch she was sitting on…it was funny when she jumped. But this one was even worse. Bryan was already at work, and he didn’t even feel it! It seems like they never feel them there.
Well, I think that’s it for now….yes I can’t think of anything else…
How about some of you that I haven’t heard from in a while let me know how you’re doing….JASON.
Love you all,
The little Blumenkrantz Family (the Japan appendage)
For all the pics, click on the link and then click on the picture to view the slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.4ql0x9u0&x=0&y=-10d5ds&localeid=en_US. There are a lot of "repetitive" pictures - but you know how it is - the grandparents want to see them - so for the rest of you - you can skim! Bryan's dad is always asking for more pictures so I try to do so. The one where Brock's face is being squished together while I'm holding him - I realized it looks like those could be my arms - they're not, they're Bryan's! (I don't have nasty man arms). I also realized from these pictures - I need some sun - sheesh! We can't quite figure out why pictures distort the color of Brock's hair - it doesn't make sense. ...and the camera adds 10 pounds on Brock... haha. Ever so often he likes to look at his nose - hence some of the crossed eyes in the pictures - not so attractive! And then the ones saying goodbye to my mom at the misawa city airport - sad! And it's funny how when Brock is sitting how his head sinks down and really makes him look huge! Oh well - a fat baby is a healthy baby I hear! Love him to death!
**There is also one in there towards the end of a new baby bundled in a blue blanket - that is Ashley Castleberry's boy, Cadence, born Nov. 1st.
And here is the slideshow of Brock's faces: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.8o4rm7ew&x=0&y=u0h4xq&localeid=en_US. He's a chunk!!
He's getting fatter...
10/29/06 - 1 month old
Losing that hair!
10/30/06 - Oh no! Saying goodbye...
11/3/06
11/6/06
Brock's faces
11/14/06 - 7 weeks old
What a chunk!!
His face/head looks very 'displaced' in these pictures...
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
11/1/06 - 13th Letter
13th letter
Wed. 11/01/06
Brock is 5 weeks old today – good crud!
So we took my mom to the airport Monday afternoon and man was that hard. It was so great to have her here – everything was very easy, I got plenty of sleep, and it was so fun! I have to admit, I cried and cried on Monday, sheesh – it was hard to see her go. It accentuated the fact that we are so far away from everyone. But it especially worked out that she was here at the end…
Because as some of you know (from mom’s emails), I had surgery last Saturday morning. For the last 2-3 weeks I’d had about 4 “episodes” of pain that at first sort of felt like a horrible stomach ache – but only at the very top – really it was right below my sternum. The pain would wake me from my sleep and last anywhere from 30 min to an hour and a half. The first 2 attacks were like that and then it was also in my back, directly behind where it hurt in my chest. Then, Thursday night (or I guess I should say early Friday morning) after I put the baby back in bed after feeding him, I went back to sleep for 15 minutes before being woken up by this pain. Within 10 minutes it hurt more than it ever had, and the pain seemed to have a wider radius – hurting on the right side of my chest as well, and actually up in my chest too. I could barely breathe, and making a lot of noise as I tried to suck in some air. I woke Bryan up (this is after 2am) and we went to the ER. The 10-min drive there about killed me and I about threw up in the car. They tried giving me a few things that didn’t work, and after about an hour of this intense pain the attack lessened and felt more like a normal attack, so I could at least breathe. Then they gave me a little Demerol and the pain was almost completely gone it was so nice. To make a horribly long story short, my mom and I had talked to a nurse a few times about these attacks but she had been convinced it was NOT a problem with gall stones – after bugging her long enough on Friday, after spending a few hrs in the ER that morning, she put in an order for me to get an ultrasound of my gallbladder (she was quite frustrated with me by this point) – I called Radiology for an appt for it- they didn’t have an opening ‘til Nov. 28th – but they called later and got me in at 3pm that day – a miracle. Anyway, I got lucky and when the tech in radiology was trying to find my OB doctor to show her the ultrasound results, the main surgeon was there and he looked at my ultrasound. He came down and took me to the surgery clinic where he told me and my mom that I had multiple small stones in my gallbladder and that my description of my pain was pretty much a text book response of gall stone symptoms (yet no one else would listen). By this time of day I had thrown up close to 5 times – he admitted me so they could get some fluids through an IV into me to get me away from my dehydrated state, and Saturday morning my gallbladder was removed. It all happened very quickly without preparation (a little dejavu…like what happened a month ago!) for it (mental preparation I guess you could say). The doctor said my stones were small and squishy, and that I had a bunch of other sludge in my gallbladder, and that it was a little more wedged into the liver than normal – but the surgery went as planned – laparoscopically – and no major incisions had to be made – 3 holes and a cut out of the belly button. My mom was a huge help and took care of Brock at home while Bryan was able to spend the day with me at the hospital. I stayed in the hospital the night after the surgery and I was discharged Sunday afternoon. I was extremely sad because the whole last weekend with my mom and our plans to show her more of Japan was ruined, but she was happy that she was there to help. Friends brought us dinner Mon., Tues., and Wed., nights – so that was really nice. Bryan has had to work though, so that was a little hard, especially since he found out Tuesday afternoon that day shift was going to last 2 hours longer now, until 5pm. Aahh! Not happy about that – of all weeks to change to that, too!! So until further notice, his shift is 6am-5pm Mon-Fri – so much for our “cushy” hours….so hopefully there is “further notice” on that!!
Our friend Ashley also had her baby Wednesday afternoon – so we need to go visit them and their new little boy! It’s so weird how you go from a bump in your belly to a baby!!! Still sort of a weird thing for me to really fathom.
Bryan finally was able to schedule a time to take his AFOQT (Officer Qualifying Test) – Nov. 16th. Way later than we ever wanted him to take it but oh well. Now we’re just trying to make sure it’s the right version (the newer, shorter one), and trying to get him set up to take the TBAS too (an additional test pilot applicants have to take) – we have to find someone here that even knows what it is!!! Man it’s so frustrating. Bryan also has a 22-pg paper due Nov. 15th and 2 other papers due a couple days after that; so he will be very busy this next little while!! Once again, what a horrible time to extend work hours! He’s tough though – he’s amazing – I’d be stressed out of my mind.
I am struggling to at least finish one of the two classes I registered for this semester. I expect that I’ll retake the other one next semester.
Brock continues to grow. We’ve started putting away some of the clothes that he’s grown out of. He also had his first blow-out last week – gross! He smiles a lot, and this week he eats a lot! Our little chubs…ahh sheesh. We know another little baby boy that’s 2 weeks older than Brock, who is way tinier – there is NO fat on that baby’s face! My mom just thinks the kid looks sick. But I have to admit, I think they’re cuter when they’re skinny. But we love our babes to death!!
Well like you saw from pictures I sent out earlier, we took my mom to see the “Big Buddha” – the biggest Buddha of all – the 2nd weekend we were here – only worth making that hour-and-a-half drive once for that I think. They have some crazy, detailed, gory beliefs here on what happens to you after you die! We also took her to Sukiya the first weekend she was here – a type of fast-food Japanese I guess you could say. We didn’t get out too much – she saw plenty of the base and all, that’s for sure, and of little Misawa – but that’s why I was so horribly sad about how her last weekend here ended up! There was more I wanted her to see! We did get to run to a HUGE bazaar that they do once a year here, where tons of vendors come from all over the country and a few others, and even though we only had 30 minutes, she was able to pick up some great stuff for her littlest girls, and she was really excited that she found a little something for herself as well – so I was happy about that. We also picked up some “cheese rolls” from a Japanese restaurant right off base, so it was fun to have her see just how small and squished together everything is here. By the end of her trip she was definitely appreciative of America and how spread out it is! We were jealous she got to go back to the states.
Well, time to end this – Brock should be waking up any minute for his first mid-nightly feeding. Like I said though, man I miss my mom to death – all the cleaning she did, all the great food we ate while she was here, the things we were able to get done (it’s so hard to get anything done now!), all the talking we were able to do…she was such a great support and I love her so much!!! It was quite an adjustment after she left, and still makes me sad when I think about it!
We appreciate everyone’s love and support!
Love, Julie, Bryan, and Brock Blumenkrantz
For a few more pictures besides the ones posted below click on this link and then the picture to view the slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.3hkxh2h4&x=0&y=-57ez3q&localeid=en_US. There are some really unattractive chunky monkey ones of Brock at the end!!
Wed. 11/01/06
Brock is 5 weeks old today – good crud!
So we took my mom to the airport Monday afternoon and man was that hard. It was so great to have her here – everything was very easy, I got plenty of sleep, and it was so fun! I have to admit, I cried and cried on Monday, sheesh – it was hard to see her go. It accentuated the fact that we are so far away from everyone. But it especially worked out that she was here at the end…
Because as some of you know (from mom’s emails), I had surgery last Saturday morning. For the last 2-3 weeks I’d had about 4 “episodes” of pain that at first sort of felt like a horrible stomach ache – but only at the very top – really it was right below my sternum. The pain would wake me from my sleep and last anywhere from 30 min to an hour and a half. The first 2 attacks were like that and then it was also in my back, directly behind where it hurt in my chest. Then, Thursday night (or I guess I should say early Friday morning) after I put the baby back in bed after feeding him, I went back to sleep for 15 minutes before being woken up by this pain. Within 10 minutes it hurt more than it ever had, and the pain seemed to have a wider radius – hurting on the right side of my chest as well, and actually up in my chest too. I could barely breathe, and making a lot of noise as I tried to suck in some air. I woke Bryan up (this is after 2am) and we went to the ER. The 10-min drive there about killed me and I about threw up in the car. They tried giving me a few things that didn’t work, and after about an hour of this intense pain the attack lessened and felt more like a normal attack, so I could at least breathe. Then they gave me a little Demerol and the pain was almost completely gone it was so nice. To make a horribly long story short, my mom and I had talked to a nurse a few times about these attacks but she had been convinced it was NOT a problem with gall stones – after bugging her long enough on Friday, after spending a few hrs in the ER that morning, she put in an order for me to get an ultrasound of my gallbladder (she was quite frustrated with me by this point) – I called Radiology for an appt for it- they didn’t have an opening ‘til Nov. 28th – but they called later and got me in at 3pm that day – a miracle. Anyway, I got lucky and when the tech in radiology was trying to find my OB doctor to show her the ultrasound results, the main surgeon was there and he looked at my ultrasound. He came down and took me to the surgery clinic where he told me and my mom that I had multiple small stones in my gallbladder and that my description of my pain was pretty much a text book response of gall stone symptoms (yet no one else would listen). By this time of day I had thrown up close to 5 times – he admitted me so they could get some fluids through an IV into me to get me away from my dehydrated state, and Saturday morning my gallbladder was removed. It all happened very quickly without preparation (a little dejavu…like what happened a month ago!) for it (mental preparation I guess you could say). The doctor said my stones were small and squishy, and that I had a bunch of other sludge in my gallbladder, and that it was a little more wedged into the liver than normal – but the surgery went as planned – laparoscopically – and no major incisions had to be made – 3 holes and a cut out of the belly button. My mom was a huge help and took care of Brock at home while Bryan was able to spend the day with me at the hospital. I stayed in the hospital the night after the surgery and I was discharged Sunday afternoon. I was extremely sad because the whole last weekend with my mom and our plans to show her more of Japan was ruined, but she was happy that she was there to help. Friends brought us dinner Mon., Tues., and Wed., nights – so that was really nice. Bryan has had to work though, so that was a little hard, especially since he found out Tuesday afternoon that day shift was going to last 2 hours longer now, until 5pm. Aahh! Not happy about that – of all weeks to change to that, too!! So until further notice, his shift is 6am-5pm Mon-Fri – so much for our “cushy” hours….so hopefully there is “further notice” on that!!
Our friend Ashley also had her baby Wednesday afternoon – so we need to go visit them and their new little boy! It’s so weird how you go from a bump in your belly to a baby!!! Still sort of a weird thing for me to really fathom.
Bryan finally was able to schedule a time to take his AFOQT (Officer Qualifying Test) – Nov. 16th. Way later than we ever wanted him to take it but oh well. Now we’re just trying to make sure it’s the right version (the newer, shorter one), and trying to get him set up to take the TBAS too (an additional test pilot applicants have to take) – we have to find someone here that even knows what it is!!! Man it’s so frustrating. Bryan also has a 22-pg paper due Nov. 15th and 2 other papers due a couple days after that; so he will be very busy this next little while!! Once again, what a horrible time to extend work hours! He’s tough though – he’s amazing – I’d be stressed out of my mind.
I am struggling to at least finish one of the two classes I registered for this semester. I expect that I’ll retake the other one next semester.
Brock continues to grow. We’ve started putting away some of the clothes that he’s grown out of. He also had his first blow-out last week – gross! He smiles a lot, and this week he eats a lot! Our little chubs…ahh sheesh. We know another little baby boy that’s 2 weeks older than Brock, who is way tinier – there is NO fat on that baby’s face! My mom just thinks the kid looks sick. But I have to admit, I think they’re cuter when they’re skinny. But we love our babes to death!!
Well like you saw from pictures I sent out earlier, we took my mom to see the “Big Buddha” – the biggest Buddha of all – the 2nd weekend we were here – only worth making that hour-and-a-half drive once for that I think. They have some crazy, detailed, gory beliefs here on what happens to you after you die! We also took her to Sukiya the first weekend she was here – a type of fast-food Japanese I guess you could say. We didn’t get out too much – she saw plenty of the base and all, that’s for sure, and of little Misawa – but that’s why I was so horribly sad about how her last weekend here ended up! There was more I wanted her to see! We did get to run to a HUGE bazaar that they do once a year here, where tons of vendors come from all over the country and a few others, and even though we only had 30 minutes, she was able to pick up some great stuff for her littlest girls, and she was really excited that she found a little something for herself as well – so I was happy about that. We also picked up some “cheese rolls” from a Japanese restaurant right off base, so it was fun to have her see just how small and squished together everything is here. By the end of her trip she was definitely appreciative of America and how spread out it is! We were jealous she got to go back to the states.
Well, time to end this – Brock should be waking up any minute for his first mid-nightly feeding. Like I said though, man I miss my mom to death – all the cleaning she did, all the great food we ate while she was here, the things we were able to get done (it’s so hard to get anything done now!), all the talking we were able to do…she was such a great support and I love her so much!!! It was quite an adjustment after she left, and still makes me sad when I think about it!
We appreciate everyone’s love and support!
Love, Julie, Bryan, and Brock Blumenkrantz
For a few more pictures besides the ones posted below click on this link and then the picture to view the slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.3hkxh2h4&x=0&y=-57ez3q&localeid=en_US. There are some really unattractive chunky monkey ones of Brock at the end!!
3 weeks old
Oct. 16, 17, 18, and 20th, 2006
3 weeks old
It is NOT attractive when their eyes cross! Especially when they're chubby!!
And yes...he does have brown hair...!
October 16th
Brock's First Outing
October 21st, 2006
The picture of me with all the pinwheels - those represent all the dead Japanese babies or something - that's why I'm making a sad face.
The BIG Buddha in Aomori, Japan! - 70 feet tall!
Our Blob
10/23/06 - 4 weeks old!Bryan loved to do this with Brock - I made him do it over our bed at least!
Bryan and my mom called it "lump 'o baby"
10/25/06
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
10/17/06 - 12th Letter
12th letter
Tues. 10/17/06
So being home has been much better with lots more sleep than in the hospital! We picked up my mom last Friday night from our small Misawa city airport and it’s been great having her here. She lets me get lots of sleep and has been helping out a ton. She sleeps in Brock’s room on a queen bed that we brought. The bed and the crib fit in the room and we put the changing table in with our kitchen table. So everything fits ok. I was just glad she could sleep on something decent for 2 ½ weeks. Bryan went back to work last Thursday, just in time for the next Exercise, so his schedule is 5am-5pm and included last Saturday. He was able to leave work for 6 hrs last Thursday and a few hours on Friday for some appointments we had for Brock, so that was nice. Last Friday was Brock’s 2-wk appt (he will be 3 weeks old tomorrow), and he was almost 21 inches long and 9 pounds 2 ounces (remember he was 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 19 ½ in. when born) – so he has definitely grown! The last 3 days or so he has been eating every 4 hours or so, so that has been really nice! – but the last 24 hours he’s been on his own schedule so hopefully we can get back to the trend we thought he was starting. But he’s obviously getting enough to eat! He’s in the 50th percentile for height and weight and his head was normal size too. We think his ears are bigger than normal….but they didn’t measure those – haha. More and more people are saying he looks like Bryan but I can’t really tell who he looks like quite yet. We’ve been able to go hang out with others 2 different nights so we can now even make it out of the house with him okay - haha. But I bring a bottle because I can’t quite do the breastfeeding thing in public yet; but that is going good too – what a relief. He sleeps a lot of course and doesn’t really have fussy times. We started him on the pacifier and he does pretty well with that, or so my mom says. She keeps saying how surprised she is at how good a baby he is, so we have been blessed with this first one!! Man we love him to death! I guess I’m getting used to the fact that I’m a mom and he’s mine and that this isn’t just a temporary thing. My mom and I went to a baby shower last Saturday for a friend of mine who is due Oct. 31st, and it is kind of weird to see her how we once both were. It is nice to be able to bend over again. She is jealous because I never got any stretch marks – yay! More weight has come off so that’s really nice that so much has dropped without really having to do anything – I guess I did retain a lot of water at the end – I just thought my legs were actually getting fat. The chubs above the c-section scar are just kind of interesting. But what can I say, it hasn’t even been 3 weeks – soon I’ll be able to exercise. Anyway, enough about that.
It’s getting colder here – the temperature’s in the high 50’s and 60’s, and it’s been raining quite a bit. Our beach on base got flooded because it rained non-stop for over 48 hours.
Naomi asked how motherhood was going… I think my friend Rachel put it well: “exhausting, overwhelming, fulfilling, confidence building... wonderful.” Rachel asked if now I will have to have a c-section with all the rest of my deliveries, and I don’t know actually. They never really talked to me about that afterwards. I will ask about that at my 6-wk appt I guess.
So, it seems like it’s hard to get a lot of things done in one day, that’s for sure; and to get enough sleep for the night, your day starts pretty late. But we are trucking along and getting used to it, and once my mom leaves there are a lot of people here who are always willing to help. The friends we have made here are awesome and so good about checking up on us and seeing if we need anything – we love them! We love Brock and this crazy experience. He can focus on us now and just stares at our faces sometimes. Bryan loves to do “tummy time” with him to strengthen his little muscles and he is such a good dad!! He does so much for me and our little family and I couldn’t ask for a better husband! So between having the best husband ever, the best little baby ever, and the best mom ever, I am doing great! We are definitely enjoying our time with little Brock Taylor.
Hope all are doing well and we love you all!
Julie, Bryan, and Brock Blumenkrantz
To view the pictures not posted click on the link and then on the picture to see the slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.2vh4f43c&x=0&y=-5xo2hq&localeid=en_US
Tues. 10/17/06
So being home has been much better with lots more sleep than in the hospital! We picked up my mom last Friday night from our small Misawa city airport and it’s been great having her here. She lets me get lots of sleep and has been helping out a ton. She sleeps in Brock’s room on a queen bed that we brought. The bed and the crib fit in the room and we put the changing table in with our kitchen table. So everything fits ok. I was just glad she could sleep on something decent for 2 ½ weeks. Bryan went back to work last Thursday, just in time for the next Exercise, so his schedule is 5am-5pm and included last Saturday. He was able to leave work for 6 hrs last Thursday and a few hours on Friday for some appointments we had for Brock, so that was nice. Last Friday was Brock’s 2-wk appt (he will be 3 weeks old tomorrow), and he was almost 21 inches long and 9 pounds 2 ounces (remember he was 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 19 ½ in. when born) – so he has definitely grown! The last 3 days or so he has been eating every 4 hours or so, so that has been really nice! – but the last 24 hours he’s been on his own schedule so hopefully we can get back to the trend we thought he was starting. But he’s obviously getting enough to eat! He’s in the 50th percentile for height and weight and his head was normal size too. We think his ears are bigger than normal….but they didn’t measure those – haha. More and more people are saying he looks like Bryan but I can’t really tell who he looks like quite yet. We’ve been able to go hang out with others 2 different nights so we can now even make it out of the house with him okay - haha. But I bring a bottle because I can’t quite do the breastfeeding thing in public yet; but that is going good too – what a relief. He sleeps a lot of course and doesn’t really have fussy times. We started him on the pacifier and he does pretty well with that, or so my mom says. She keeps saying how surprised she is at how good a baby he is, so we have been blessed with this first one!! Man we love him to death! I guess I’m getting used to the fact that I’m a mom and he’s mine and that this isn’t just a temporary thing. My mom and I went to a baby shower last Saturday for a friend of mine who is due Oct. 31st, and it is kind of weird to see her how we once both were. It is nice to be able to bend over again. She is jealous because I never got any stretch marks – yay! More weight has come off so that’s really nice that so much has dropped without really having to do anything – I guess I did retain a lot of water at the end – I just thought my legs were actually getting fat. The chubs above the c-section scar are just kind of interesting. But what can I say, it hasn’t even been 3 weeks – soon I’ll be able to exercise. Anyway, enough about that.
It’s getting colder here – the temperature’s in the high 50’s and 60’s, and it’s been raining quite a bit. Our beach on base got flooded because it rained non-stop for over 48 hours.
Naomi asked how motherhood was going… I think my friend Rachel put it well: “exhausting, overwhelming, fulfilling, confidence building... wonderful.” Rachel asked if now I will have to have a c-section with all the rest of my deliveries, and I don’t know actually. They never really talked to me about that afterwards. I will ask about that at my 6-wk appt I guess.
So, it seems like it’s hard to get a lot of things done in one day, that’s for sure; and to get enough sleep for the night, your day starts pretty late. But we are trucking along and getting used to it, and once my mom leaves there are a lot of people here who are always willing to help. The friends we have made here are awesome and so good about checking up on us and seeing if we need anything – we love them! We love Brock and this crazy experience. He can focus on us now and just stares at our faces sometimes. Bryan loves to do “tummy time” with him to strengthen his little muscles and he is such a good dad!! He does so much for me and our little family and I couldn’t ask for a better husband! So between having the best husband ever, the best little baby ever, and the best mom ever, I am doing great! We are definitely enjoying our time with little Brock Taylor.
Hope all are doing well and we love you all!
Julie, Bryan, and Brock Blumenkrantz
To view the pictures not posted click on the link and then on the picture to see the slideshow: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.2vh4f43c&x=0&y=-5xo2hq&localeid=en_US
Brock at home
10/3/06 - First night home! The crib looks so big!
10/4/06 - 1 week old! Dad takes a break from homework...
10/12/06 - oops!-I messed up the snaps!
2 weeks old! Today was his actual due date. He looks kinda scrawny and awkward...
And it's the weirdest thing that his hair always looks red in pictures!
Friday, October 6, 2006
10/6/06 - 11th Letter
A long one!!
11th letter
Fri. 10/6/06
**Bryan read through this afterwards and added his own commentary which is the smaller, blue font.**
I finally have some time to sit down and write down my story. WE HAVE A KID!!!! For those of you who don’t know, which is everyone besides immediate family and whoever they told, Brock is now 9 days old. Yes that’s right; he was born Wednesday, September 27th at 9:30am – over 2 weeks before his due date of October 12th. But of course, I was induced, so that makes it a little different. So I will start at the beginning – it will be extremely detailed because I’m writing this for me pretty much. On Friday, Sept. 22nd I had my 37-wk OB appt (info for later). That night as Bryan was getting out of the shower right before we were going to bed (midnight), I, on sort of a whim I suppose, called Labor and Delivery to ask about my swollen legs and feet (because they remained swollen – there was no change when I got up in the morning). I knew that something like that happens all the time to pregnant people, but for some reason I just wanted to check to see what they had to say about it (never called them before with any problems). They said normally they’re worried about swelling in the hands and face, and that the legs and feet are expected. But they asked if I had had headaches and I said yes, realizing that I had had a constant headache for about the last 4 days (not a bad one, just a nuisance). They asked if my blood pressure was high and I said yes, since I had just had my OB appt earlier that day I knew this. I forgot what the bottom number had been but the top (systolic?) was in the 130’s when it’s normally between 100 and 110. They told me to come in and they would check a few things. So Bryan wasn’t too happy (not true, I was just tired) that I had called and asked if I really wanted to go in and I told him I had given them my name and everything so they were expecting me now. I offered to go by myself but he came with me (cuz I’m awesome). I thought we would just be there for like 10 minutes. We ended up leaving the hospital at 3:30am. What they did was have me lay down on a bed and over a long course of time periodically measured my blood pressure, heart rate, and contractions. I think at that time I hit around 140/90. They had me do a urine test and they took my blood, so we had to wait for the results of that while we were there as well. While waiting and continuing to be monitored I had a few contractions that for the first time were really very uncomfortable; so the nurse decided to check me and said I was 1cm dilated and 80% effaced. Finally we found out that the urine and blood tests had come back normal, but still the nurse was convinced that I had the beginnings of “preeclampsia” (where I guess blood flow to the baby ends up getting cut off and the mother is prone to seizures – and they don’t know what causes it), and I was to now do a 24-hr urine test, and she told me I needed to take it easy and do nothing except to eat and take showers (!) – (I didn’t listen because I was convinced nothing was wrong with me since the tests had come back normal and that she was over-concerned). [The next day – Saturday the 23rd – was my baby shower that the girl I met on the plane ride here threw for me, and tons of people came and I got loads of stuff! It was great!]. So from Sunday morning to Monday morning I saved all the ‘ol urine (gross!) and turned it in Monday morning (Sept. 25th) to the lab. Tuesday morning (the 26th) a nurse called Bryan and told him they couldn’t get a hold of me and that he “needed to find his wife and have her call them.” This made Bryan pretty mad and he called me and this time around I answered the phone (I didn’t the first 2 times and I guess that was the nurse). He wanted me to wait 20 minutes before I called her back because he felt she was so rude to him. (She was! I thought they just wanted to confirm some appointment and it seemed like she wanted me to put everything on hold to do her job of letting my wife know). I knew right away something must not have been right with my urine test, otherwise they wouldn’t be calling. Well that didn’t even cross Bryan’s mind and he thought they were calling to remind me of an appt that I had or something. Funny boy. Like they’d be that urgent for that. Silly. I called her back, it was 10am now, and she told me that I had higher levels of protein in my urine than I should have, reiterated that I should be taking it easy, and asked when I could come in that day for a “non-stress test.” (Julie thought she said anal stress test so she was kind of worried). I just wanted to put it off and I told her 2pm even though Bryan had been coming home from his training class at like 10am (he worked barely any hours in September while in this class, it was awesome – seriously sometimes only an hour and a half a day!). I had pre-planned to have this day devoted to doing homework because I had a test to take that night in one of my online UVSC classes and I hadn’t started any of the reading or homework for this first section. But instead of doing homework until 2 I felt for some reason other things were more important at this time and I packed the hospital bag you pack when you go in to have a baby. I cleaned up the baby room a bit and got things out of the way and the home was pretty much decent except for the mess in the living room from all the stuff I got at the baby shower that I hadn’t had a chance to put away yet. Because Monday I felt it was important to go shopping for food and for some baby things that we didn’t have and to get some other things done; Saturday night I was preparing the talk I gave in Sacrament meeting at church on Sunday, and Sunday night we spent eating dinner with the clan at Josh and Melissa’s house. So Bryan was home way before 2 of course and wanted to go early but I didn’t want to because I guess I just felt like I wouldn’t be leaving once I got there, and I wanted time to go pick up the rocker/recliner for the baby room from the furniture store. So we get there at 2 and I once again get hooked up to have my blood pressure monitored. This time it was consistently higher, and I think the highest I hit was 155/100. After about 45 minutes of it being high and not going back down (Friday night it ended up going a little down), they went to go show the doctor the results. They came back and said they had “good news/bad news: however I wanted to take it.” -That they were keeping me. I changed into a gown and they started an IV for magnesium which I guess is a muscle-relaxant to prevent me from having seizures. At this point I told Bryan that I was scared to death….. The doctor came in and checked me and I was still the same 1cm dilated and 80% effaced, so she manually (with her dang fingers) made me 2cm dilated, which was painful. She then put in the balloon thing (“bolus” I think it’s called-?), that would help me dilate to a 4 or 5. The nurses came back in and put in a catheter – which was interesting – but the most painful part was after it was already in – I constantly felt I had to go to the bathroom so bad that it hurt – very very uncomfortable. I told them from the get-go that I already knew I was going to want an epidural because I’m a wuss. They said to let them know when I wanted it and I mentioned that at my anesthesia appt they told me I had to wait until I was 4cm dilated. The nurse/doctor said it didn’t matter and if it hurt, it hurt, and I could get it whenever I wanted to. So I said ok, sure, I want it now. The contractions were already hurting but nowhere near unbearable, but the catheter was really really irritating and knowing that this balloon inside me was going to rapidly make me a 4…. but more so I wanted it because they were starting Pitocin (labor-inducer) into the IV and I’ve heard the horror stories of the contractions that come good, hard, and fast with that, and if I could, hey, why not avoid that. So they called in the anesthesiologist, who apparently had already worked all day and was already at home, and had to work the next day as well. So she finally came and it wasn’t all that bad at all, but I was definitely hurting a little more by then. The relief was freaking awesome and I could no longer feel the catheter – hallelujah. We go to church with one of the techs – Skylar - and he called the branch president – Shayne Stokes - to let him know I was in labor, because Stokes is one of the 2 pediatricians. (Skylar is the one who told us that a normal level of protein in one’s urine is between 50 and 250 and that mine had been 840. So after coming in and having high blood pressures once again, it was definitely confirmed that I had the infamous preeclampsia, and the only way to escape it is to deliver). Stokes came in and saw me and asked what he could do for us and he called the friends we were supposed to meet for dinner that night to let them know we definitely weren’t going to be able to make it. So that was really nice of him. So 3 of the girls came in and saw me and the word spread from there – I was in a happy-go-lucky mood due to the awesomeness of the epidural. Well as the night wore on the epidural was slowly wearing off so the anesthesiologist –Tori - came back in and adjusted the dosage (she was just resting in one of the other rooms…at my beckon call I guess!). The doctor had also come back in and the bolus came out with just a small tug so now I was further dilated. As the night wore on I did not further dilate. The nurse attending to me that shift (6pm-6am) said that my body was trying to catch up to what the bolus forced my uterus to do. So as it got later and later Bryan tried to find a comfortable sleeping position in one of the chair recliners and couldn’t really. (the chair sucked) And I slept maybe 20 minutes that night. The feelings of the contractions started coming back again but just on the right side, even though I was laying on that side (I couldn’t lay on my back because it made my blood pressure much worse than when I was on my sides) so the medicine should have technically worn off on the left first but it was always the right. After Tori tried to make dosage adjustments previously for this problem and it continuing, she knew she was going to have to redo the epidural so that when I was delivering I wouldn’t only be numb on one side and feel everything on the other. It was the middle of the night now, and I knew that she had woken up to come do this. I tried to wait to have someone get her until I no longer wanted the pain to get any worse, to avoid having to wake her all the time. (Just like Julie. Even in the worst pain ever, she doesn’t want to bother someone else or make them go out of their way to help her. I figured this was the time and place to make someone go out of their way to take care of her especially if that was her job). So it was re-done, a little higher than the first, and the pain subsided once again. Since I was not progressing past 5cm-dilated, they decided to monitor my contractions from inside the placenta by putting the little monitor way up inside me, so they would get an accurate measurement of the severity of the contractions (I guess the monitor on the outside measures them but is not accurate on how big they are). (I always thought that something comes out during the birth process not the other way around). Once it was inside me it showed a little bit smaller contractions than previously. It continued on and on like this. As it started to turn into the early morning hours they checked me again and surprise surprise I was 8cm and 90% effaced. I started to feel the pressure on my pelvic bone and that really was not comfortable and once again started to feel contractions so Tori was called in once again. She adjusted dosage and the pain went away but the pelvic pressure would not and she said there was nothing else she could do. (bologna) The nurse told me that they do not use as dense of a mixture here for their epidurals as where she had come from in the states (she’s only here for 8 months), and thus all pain was not gone during the final stages of delivery/labor. Tori (anesthesiologist) said that all of the nerves could not be numbed in the birth canal or something like that. So that was that. At this point the Pitocin level was extremely high so I was grateful I could not feel it. The morning wore on and the nurses had their shift change (which I was sad about because my nurse was AWESOME). The contractions had been starting to hurt again and just after 6am really started to get more intense. Then I swear I was dying. I felt every bit of it and there was no relief between contractions. My epidural was completely gone. They were coming hard and fast, one right after the other and I had to concentrate on my breathing and that was all I could do. Time wore on and it got worse and worse and unbearable. I was telling Bryan between gasps that I couldn’t handle it anymore. They checked me and said maybe I was now a 9 but the effacement was not progressing. I could feel his head and felt I needed to push so that made the constant contractions that much harder. I kept asking them to check me and when they finally did and I hadn’t changed I thought I was going to cry and cry because I could do nothing. The nurses were asking me questions I guess to “keep me calm” but it was only making me madder and more aggravated. (It was dumb. They wanted me to talk to her about anything besides what was going on. I could tell that she just wanted to concentrate on getting the pain to go away. So I figured the best thing to do was to just be there and help her do just that). I was breathing best I could and could only do that and didn’t want to answer their stupid questions. After about 2 hours of enduring this pain one of the nurses asked the question if I wanted any more kids, and between pants I said, yes, 5 more. She laughed at me. I was thinking yes I knew I wanted a big family, but thinking I couldn’t and never wanted to do this again because I wanted to shoot myself in the head – there was no light at the end of the tunnel – I just had to remain in this extreme pain and not progress to the point where I could push and get it over with – even though I was scared to death what THAT was going to feel like when I was already dying. At about 8:15am they checked me again and apparently my effacement was still a problem and they said there was just no way they could have me push in this state. So even with these horrible, hard, back-to-back contractions, my body wasn’t changing. The doctor had the Pitocin stopped and told me that they had another girl having a C-section right now and that once she was done I would be next. I was hurting so bad I was glad to hear that (especially since I’ve always thought a C-section would be easier) because I just wanted it to be OVER, but I was frustrated too because I just didn’t know how I could take it any longer and I didn’t want to wait! Ever so slowly there began to be like 15-30 seconds of relief between contractions (because the Pitocin was wearing off) so I had a chance to breathe normally for a little bit. (I thought that if they stopped the pitocin sooner and she had had a better epidural then she could have gone ahead and pushed like normal. It seemed that after the pitocin had worn off that her contractions went back to where they were supposed to be. I think then her body could have readjusted and she would have been ok but what do I know, I’m just a jet engine mechanic). Also during the last bit of this 3 hour pain-period I had fever of 101.3. I was mad because I was worried about that and they were acting like it wasn’t a big deal. (She even asked them to retake her temp a bit later. The nurse said that she would in about 15 minutes. I didn’t really get that since a fever during pregnancy seems like a big deal). A little bit after that Tori came back in and adjusted my dosage. She said she wished someone would have told her that I was doing so badly, because she thought I could only feel the pelvic pressure that she couldn’t get rid of and I told her I felt every bit of every contraction from side to side and front to back. With this last epidural dosage and the Pitocin stopped, relief came. I was so grateful (later I was mad that this hadn’t been done earlier and that nurses hadn’t went and gotten her!!! -because the only reason she came back in was to get me ready for the c-section)! At 9am they wheeled me and all my IV lines into the O.R. and I took as much pain medication as they would give me because I’ve heard horror stories about that too (!) – where people could feel their c-section – ouch! They were supposed to get Bryan in scrubs so he could come in there but he wasn’t in there yet. Just after they made the incision he came in. After that I could feel the tugging and pulling and them leaning on me and sheesh. (It was crazy! I swear they played tug-o-war with her belly. They got out all the spoons, scoops, ladles, and salad tongs. They opened her up and then started to push on her belly like they were trying to shoot the kid across the room. The two doctors weren’t very big so they had to lift themselves all the way off of the floor to get enough leverage to push). The baby was so far down in the birth canal that they had to go in from the bottom and push him back up so they could pull him out through the cut. [This wasn’t an emergency c-section or anything – baby was doing fine, but I guess later Skylar (the tech we knew) told us I HAD to get a c-section because the baby wasn’t reacting to the contractions like he should have – it was like he was fine where he was and he wasn’t coming out]. It definitely felt like my body was a rag doll being thrown around. It was crazy. Bryan watched it all and said he didn’t get sick. (That’s right. I had watched enough Discovery Channel so I knew I could handle it). Finally they said his head was out but I heard no cry so I started to worry and then finally sort of some grunting sounds and I got a little bit of tears in my eyes and Bryan said at that point he did too (the boy who never cries – seen him cry twice in the 7 years I’ve known him) (I told her not to tell anyone). They told me my uterus was on my stomach. Then they announced that the baby had peed on the nurses. After that I don’t remember a thing. Apparently they showed him to me. During this out-of-it period I was dreaming about this weird alternate world full of rooms of blocks and crap like that. I knew that I had just had surgery and that the baby wasn’t with me and I wondered if something had gone wrong or if I was dead. Man it was weird. (But funny) Later on I could tell Bryan was by me but I felt like I was half in this dream state and half aware of him. I tried to tell him that I was trying to get back to normal, but he recorded me telling him things like this with our digital camera and I look like I don’t know what I’m saying but I really did. I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t for a long time – I couldn’t focus. One of our friends brought Bryan some lunch and I ate his fries before I knew I was basically supposed to be on a liquid diet for 24 hours and I really regretted eating them soon after. I threw up twice. During labor I threw up 3 times but it wasn’t bad at all since all I had was water in me. They wouldn’t let me have water during the last crappy hours of pain when my throat was hurting so bad from all the breathing. Anyway, going backwards a bit – they took the baby to the nursery while they finished me up in O.R. I guess, and they said the father should go too so a nurse goes to take him there but just tells him they’re still working on him but that he’s doing fine and instead of taking Bryan back to the OR to be with me they took him to the room and he sat there by himself for like 30 minutes not knowing if either one of us was okay. Pretty dumb!!! It seemed a bit unorganized for sure. Bryan told me all this and told me that the longer he sat there the more worried he was and he didn’t know how long it was supposed to take with me and that finally he lost it and he said he cried! (I told her not to tell anyone). I wish I could have seen that – the last time I saw him cry we were 19. How sad huh?-stupid nurses. One of them finally came in and told him what was going on and that everything was okay and then he was okay. SO, back to Brock. He had a hard time breathing at first and he was either grunting or like hyperventilating, and they had him on oxygen. They started him on antibiotics because there was some sort of infection, and I also got 3 different antibiotics for infections as well and I was to still be on magnesium for 24 hrs afterwards. My legs and feet seemed to get even more swollen and they said the magnesium makes you retain fluid. I couldn’t get out of bed and so had a catheter that the O.R. put in – I of course was no longer on any pain medication besides Motrin – and I couldn’t feel it at all, so obviously the nurse who put my first catheter in when I was first admitted didn’t do a good job!! Bryan had to help the nurses with moving me just like when I was on the epidural (which was funny). When they came in to massage my stomach – I guess to feel for my uterus to make sure it wasn’t soft and to work out blood clots (really they wanted to check that all of the placenta was out and no pieces got left behind) – that hurt SO bad, it was very hard to breath. So since I was hooked up to a bunch of stuff and couldn’t move anyway, and since Brock was too, I didn’t see him for the first 24 hrs. Bryan left the room several times throughout the day to see him, and he took some pictures with our digital camera so I could at least see those. When I first saw them I was like, dang! - he’s got a big nose! Ha-ha. Bryan helped the nurse a little that night with his bath too, cuz they couldn’t wash him right away when they took him out of me due to his need for the oxygen. I got to see him Thursday morning when they wanted me to try to start breastfeeding. So Bryan helped me out of bed and helped me go to the bathroom and I ever so slowly hobbled down the hall to the nursery to see my boy. Later that day they were able to put him in our room in his little portable basinet-majigger (not to be confused with a baby carrying thing). They were in all the time to take him to do stuff and to check his vitals and stuff though. So they took his blood to test for this infection and it came back positive but the doctor thought it was a contaminant and with how well Brock was doing almost didn’t do another blood test. Saturday morning we found out that it really was positive and he did have Group B Strep (which they suspected due to his struggle to breath at first), which he got from inside my birth canal I guess. They tested me for it at my 36-wk appt and it had come back negative so they said either that was wrong or I had picked it up since then. They said they had already been giving him antibiotics for it since he was born so there should absolutely be no long-term effects. They said that they needed to check for meningitis though and that was scary, but a few hours later the results were back and were negative – phew. But they said even that wouldn’t have been a big problem cuz it was the same antibiotics they were already giving him, they would just need to administer them 14 days instead of only 10. So I tell you what, lots of visitors came and I was doing well and they said how they just cried when someone asked how they were doing after having a baby and I was fine. Yeah well it hit me that first night after seeing him. Just an overwhelming and worried feeling and dang I just felt so emotional. (She cried. Yea this girl that has cried like a hundred times since I’ve known her. She told me not to tell anyone). Friday morning they did his circumcision and they were taking forever so I got worried and cried, and I cried when Shayne Stokes’ wife Alison came to see me that day (she brought us treats!) and she was awesome. Saturday morning I really lost it when we found out that he really did have the infection and that we would be there until the next Friday for all his antibiotics and monitoring. Bryan had already been home a few times to grab things and stuff, and we decided I would go home that night to just have a little time outside of the hospital and to pack a bunch of stuff for our continued stay in the hospital. Because I had been officially discharged from the hospital Friday morning but we still got to stay in the same room with a bed for each of us so we could stay there and take care of Brock in between all the stuff they were doing. They still fed me and everything, and it was enough that me and Bryan could share it. But one guy we know brought Bryan breakfast and lunch on Thursday. And good thing there’s a café on base that’s open 24 hours otherwise we would have starved late at night. So Saturday night I felt good and thought I was a little more emotionally stable. Well, while trying to hurry to get stuff together and take a shower at home, my mom called, and I cried and cried telling her the update, I just couldn’t stop it. (Our families didn’t even know we had had the baby until more than 24 hrs after the fact when we finally called our parents on Thursday). I was so tired though, I could barely make the 10-minute drive each way from house to hospital that night. I had gotten very little sleep since I was admitted Tuesday. I cried as soon as I walked in my front door though – apparently Bryan had given some of my friends the key to the house and they had come and cleaned up the mess from the baby shower and organized it into the baby’s room and they vacuumed and cleaned some other stuff. (It’s a good thing too because if I did it, everything would have been messed up and she would have to redo it all over anyway). I would have never asked them to do that – I was so grateful. So that was awesome. And can I just say that breastfeeding is so stressful! I won’t go into a lot of detail with that, (thank goodness) but it was even more so a stressor because he wasn’t pooping and they were really worried because he was really yellow and his levels of Billyrubin (sp?) were higher than normal which can really only be adjusted by pooping out his excess levels of red blood cells I guess. So they were constantly bugging me about it and we were spending tons of time trying to get it to work and Brock was doing really well but just not getting anything from me. So we continued to just do what you were supposed to do except we had a little itty-bitty feeding tube with formula we’d insert on the side, so he thought it was coming from me, so that we could get something in his stomach so he could poop dangit. After about 24 hrs of doing this formula thing he finally did so that was a big relief, and we only did it once or twice after that. My milk came in late Saturday night finally so that was good but definitely one of the more painful things I’ve experienced. We pumped and got like 4 ounces but there wasn’t much relief at all. Bryan used that to give him a bottle that night because we wanted to see how much he was eating and we hoped that I would be able to get some sleep that way. He drank 2 ounces one time and 1 ounce the other. Well on Sunday I was just dying. I pumped 10 ounces!!!!! I tell you that to try to give you some idea of just how much pain I was in. So anyway, it’s better now and continues to get better every day. Sunday and Monday was spent trying to get another IV site started on Brock, but they kept blowing his veins. All veins had been tried and Stokes came to us and said there were a few spots they could shave on his head and try but couldn’t guarantee those wouldn’t blow too. We opted to go for the shots instead. That night a nurse discussed us going home because Brock was so stable and was doing really well (which is awesome considering they were at first considering sending him to Okinawa to get the help that he needed), and without an IV site we could just come back twice a day for his antibiotic shots. So we were discharged Tuesday afternoon and I was happy but scared too. I got all emotional that night again – man and I thought I had gotten it all out of my system – they weren’t kidding when they say your hormones crash! It was not too fun in the hospital and let’s face it, our bed compared to theirs…..but at the same time it was sort of fun because we were so dang tired that we laughed at everything the other did. Oh I guess I should tell you that Brock weighed 7 lbs. 14 ounces and was 19 ½ in. long. (wow, talk about beating around the bush for a birth announcement). Glad I had him early!! So tonight we went for Brock’s last injection – and wow, it’s over I guess. Now we’re just learning how to handle being parents and I think we learn a lot every day – like how to change his diaper effectively without him peeing all over the place….
So it seemed to be one thing after the other and I’ve been emotional for sure, but not depressed – it’s fun and Brock is awesome and it gets easier every day. Bryan has been awesome – he helps with everything and has been so supportive. I don’t know how I could have done – or how I could do it without him. He was able to get out of the last days of his training class without it affecting him, got this whole week off as a type of “maternity” leave, and 3 days at the beginning of next week because of something he earned for his score for physical training in tech school, so none of this time off actually affects his leave. Then my mom will be here next Friday. My c-section hasn’t been bad at all – the first day was hard but it’s getting easier and easier and now barely inhibits me at all. The shelf down there is weird, and the jiggly skin (although not so jiggly anymore) literally looked like a bowl full of jelly when I laughed and me and Bryan would just watch it and laugh and laugh. My legs and feet remained swollen for some time and even my arms and hands so when they were trying to draw blood they couldn’t find my veins and kept poking me to no avail when normally you can very easily see my huge veins. Just when I thought I was going to be cursed with fat ankles forever, I woke up one day this week and had my legs back. To me they now look “storkish” and I swear they’re smaller than before – Bryan can touch his fingers together when he grips my ankle. I weighed myself when we got home from the hospital and already have lost over 20 pounds – holy cow. We’ve had dinners brought to us so far it’s great.
So this is my journal entry so I’ll remember this experience of mine for the rest of my life. Takes a lot of time to write this much. We love our little babes! Brock Taylor Blumenkrantz is here!
Julie and Bryan
Quite a few pics I've posted below, but the rest can be seen here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.c67go73s&x=0&y=-atx8hs&localeid=en_US
Just click on the link and then click on the picture to start the slideshow. There are some scary pics in there so beware...
11th letter
Fri. 10/6/06
**Bryan read through this afterwards and added his own commentary which is the smaller, blue font.**
I finally have some time to sit down and write down my story. WE HAVE A KID!!!! For those of you who don’t know, which is everyone besides immediate family and whoever they told, Brock is now 9 days old. Yes that’s right; he was born Wednesday, September 27th at 9:30am – over 2 weeks before his due date of October 12th. But of course, I was induced, so that makes it a little different. So I will start at the beginning – it will be extremely detailed because I’m writing this for me pretty much. On Friday, Sept. 22nd I had my 37-wk OB appt (info for later). That night as Bryan was getting out of the shower right before we were going to bed (midnight), I, on sort of a whim I suppose, called Labor and Delivery to ask about my swollen legs and feet (because they remained swollen – there was no change when I got up in the morning). I knew that something like that happens all the time to pregnant people, but for some reason I just wanted to check to see what they had to say about it (never called them before with any problems). They said normally they’re worried about swelling in the hands and face, and that the legs and feet are expected. But they asked if I had had headaches and I said yes, realizing that I had had a constant headache for about the last 4 days (not a bad one, just a nuisance). They asked if my blood pressure was high and I said yes, since I had just had my OB appt earlier that day I knew this. I forgot what the bottom number had been but the top (systolic?) was in the 130’s when it’s normally between 100 and 110. They told me to come in and they would check a few things. So Bryan wasn’t too happy (not true, I was just tired) that I had called and asked if I really wanted to go in and I told him I had given them my name and everything so they were expecting me now. I offered to go by myself but he came with me (cuz I’m awesome). I thought we would just be there for like 10 minutes. We ended up leaving the hospital at 3:30am. What they did was have me lay down on a bed and over a long course of time periodically measured my blood pressure, heart rate, and contractions. I think at that time I hit around 140/90. They had me do a urine test and they took my blood, so we had to wait for the results of that while we were there as well. While waiting and continuing to be monitored I had a few contractions that for the first time were really very uncomfortable; so the nurse decided to check me and said I was 1cm dilated and 80% effaced. Finally we found out that the urine and blood tests had come back normal, but still the nurse was convinced that I had the beginnings of “preeclampsia” (where I guess blood flow to the baby ends up getting cut off and the mother is prone to seizures – and they don’t know what causes it), and I was to now do a 24-hr urine test, and she told me I needed to take it easy and do nothing except to eat and take showers (!) – (I didn’t listen because I was convinced nothing was wrong with me since the tests had come back normal and that she was over-concerned). [The next day – Saturday the 23rd – was my baby shower that the girl I met on the plane ride here threw for me, and tons of people came and I got loads of stuff! It was great!]. So from Sunday morning to Monday morning I saved all the ‘ol urine (gross!) and turned it in Monday morning (Sept. 25th) to the lab. Tuesday morning (the 26th) a nurse called Bryan and told him they couldn’t get a hold of me and that he “needed to find his wife and have her call them.” This made Bryan pretty mad and he called me and this time around I answered the phone (I didn’t the first 2 times and I guess that was the nurse). He wanted me to wait 20 minutes before I called her back because he felt she was so rude to him. (She was! I thought they just wanted to confirm some appointment and it seemed like she wanted me to put everything on hold to do her job of letting my wife know). I knew right away something must not have been right with my urine test, otherwise they wouldn’t be calling. Well that didn’t even cross Bryan’s mind and he thought they were calling to remind me of an appt that I had or something. Funny boy. Like they’d be that urgent for that. Silly. I called her back, it was 10am now, and she told me that I had higher levels of protein in my urine than I should have, reiterated that I should be taking it easy, and asked when I could come in that day for a “non-stress test.” (Julie thought she said anal stress test so she was kind of worried). I just wanted to put it off and I told her 2pm even though Bryan had been coming home from his training class at like 10am (he worked barely any hours in September while in this class, it was awesome – seriously sometimes only an hour and a half a day!). I had pre-planned to have this day devoted to doing homework because I had a test to take that night in one of my online UVSC classes and I hadn’t started any of the reading or homework for this first section. But instead of doing homework until 2 I felt for some reason other things were more important at this time and I packed the hospital bag you pack when you go in to have a baby. I cleaned up the baby room a bit and got things out of the way and the home was pretty much decent except for the mess in the living room from all the stuff I got at the baby shower that I hadn’t had a chance to put away yet. Because Monday I felt it was important to go shopping for food and for some baby things that we didn’t have and to get some other things done; Saturday night I was preparing the talk I gave in Sacrament meeting at church on Sunday, and Sunday night we spent eating dinner with the clan at Josh and Melissa’s house. So Bryan was home way before 2 of course and wanted to go early but I didn’t want to because I guess I just felt like I wouldn’t be leaving once I got there, and I wanted time to go pick up the rocker/recliner for the baby room from the furniture store. So we get there at 2 and I once again get hooked up to have my blood pressure monitored. This time it was consistently higher, and I think the highest I hit was 155/100. After about 45 minutes of it being high and not going back down (Friday night it ended up going a little down), they went to go show the doctor the results. They came back and said they had “good news/bad news: however I wanted to take it.” -That they were keeping me. I changed into a gown and they started an IV for magnesium which I guess is a muscle-relaxant to prevent me from having seizures. At this point I told Bryan that I was scared to death….. The doctor came in and checked me and I was still the same 1cm dilated and 80% effaced, so she manually (with her dang fingers) made me 2cm dilated, which was painful. She then put in the balloon thing (“bolus” I think it’s called-?), that would help me dilate to a 4 or 5. The nurses came back in and put in a catheter – which was interesting – but the most painful part was after it was already in – I constantly felt I had to go to the bathroom so bad that it hurt – very very uncomfortable. I told them from the get-go that I already knew I was going to want an epidural because I’m a wuss. They said to let them know when I wanted it and I mentioned that at my anesthesia appt they told me I had to wait until I was 4cm dilated. The nurse/doctor said it didn’t matter and if it hurt, it hurt, and I could get it whenever I wanted to. So I said ok, sure, I want it now. The contractions were already hurting but nowhere near unbearable, but the catheter was really really irritating and knowing that this balloon inside me was going to rapidly make me a 4…. but more so I wanted it because they were starting Pitocin (labor-inducer) into the IV and I’ve heard the horror stories of the contractions that come good, hard, and fast with that, and if I could, hey, why not avoid that. So they called in the anesthesiologist, who apparently had already worked all day and was already at home, and had to work the next day as well. So she finally came and it wasn’t all that bad at all, but I was definitely hurting a little more by then. The relief was freaking awesome and I could no longer feel the catheter – hallelujah. We go to church with one of the techs – Skylar - and he called the branch president – Shayne Stokes - to let him know I was in labor, because Stokes is one of the 2 pediatricians. (Skylar is the one who told us that a normal level of protein in one’s urine is between 50 and 250 and that mine had been 840. So after coming in and having high blood pressures once again, it was definitely confirmed that I had the infamous preeclampsia, and the only way to escape it is to deliver). Stokes came in and saw me and asked what he could do for us and he called the friends we were supposed to meet for dinner that night to let them know we definitely weren’t going to be able to make it. So that was really nice of him. So 3 of the girls came in and saw me and the word spread from there – I was in a happy-go-lucky mood due to the awesomeness of the epidural. Well as the night wore on the epidural was slowly wearing off so the anesthesiologist –Tori - came back in and adjusted the dosage (she was just resting in one of the other rooms…at my beckon call I guess!). The doctor had also come back in and the bolus came out with just a small tug so now I was further dilated. As the night wore on I did not further dilate. The nurse attending to me that shift (6pm-6am) said that my body was trying to catch up to what the bolus forced my uterus to do. So as it got later and later Bryan tried to find a comfortable sleeping position in one of the chair recliners and couldn’t really. (the chair sucked) And I slept maybe 20 minutes that night. The feelings of the contractions started coming back again but just on the right side, even though I was laying on that side (I couldn’t lay on my back because it made my blood pressure much worse than when I was on my sides) so the medicine should have technically worn off on the left first but it was always the right. After Tori tried to make dosage adjustments previously for this problem and it continuing, she knew she was going to have to redo the epidural so that when I was delivering I wouldn’t only be numb on one side and feel everything on the other. It was the middle of the night now, and I knew that she had woken up to come do this. I tried to wait to have someone get her until I no longer wanted the pain to get any worse, to avoid having to wake her all the time. (Just like Julie. Even in the worst pain ever, she doesn’t want to bother someone else or make them go out of their way to help her. I figured this was the time and place to make someone go out of their way to take care of her especially if that was her job). So it was re-done, a little higher than the first, and the pain subsided once again. Since I was not progressing past 5cm-dilated, they decided to monitor my contractions from inside the placenta by putting the little monitor way up inside me, so they would get an accurate measurement of the severity of the contractions (I guess the monitor on the outside measures them but is not accurate on how big they are). (I always thought that something comes out during the birth process not the other way around). Once it was inside me it showed a little bit smaller contractions than previously. It continued on and on like this. As it started to turn into the early morning hours they checked me again and surprise surprise I was 8cm and 90% effaced. I started to feel the pressure on my pelvic bone and that really was not comfortable and once again started to feel contractions so Tori was called in once again. She adjusted dosage and the pain went away but the pelvic pressure would not and she said there was nothing else she could do. (bologna) The nurse told me that they do not use as dense of a mixture here for their epidurals as where she had come from in the states (she’s only here for 8 months), and thus all pain was not gone during the final stages of delivery/labor. Tori (anesthesiologist) said that all of the nerves could not be numbed in the birth canal or something like that. So that was that. At this point the Pitocin level was extremely high so I was grateful I could not feel it. The morning wore on and the nurses had their shift change (which I was sad about because my nurse was AWESOME). The contractions had been starting to hurt again and just after 6am really started to get more intense. Then I swear I was dying. I felt every bit of it and there was no relief between contractions. My epidural was completely gone. They were coming hard and fast, one right after the other and I had to concentrate on my breathing and that was all I could do. Time wore on and it got worse and worse and unbearable. I was telling Bryan between gasps that I couldn’t handle it anymore. They checked me and said maybe I was now a 9 but the effacement was not progressing. I could feel his head and felt I needed to push so that made the constant contractions that much harder. I kept asking them to check me and when they finally did and I hadn’t changed I thought I was going to cry and cry because I could do nothing. The nurses were asking me questions I guess to “keep me calm” but it was only making me madder and more aggravated. (It was dumb. They wanted me to talk to her about anything besides what was going on. I could tell that she just wanted to concentrate on getting the pain to go away. So I figured the best thing to do was to just be there and help her do just that). I was breathing best I could and could only do that and didn’t want to answer their stupid questions. After about 2 hours of enduring this pain one of the nurses asked the question if I wanted any more kids, and between pants I said, yes, 5 more. She laughed at me. I was thinking yes I knew I wanted a big family, but thinking I couldn’t and never wanted to do this again because I wanted to shoot myself in the head – there was no light at the end of the tunnel – I just had to remain in this extreme pain and not progress to the point where I could push and get it over with – even though I was scared to death what THAT was going to feel like when I was already dying. At about 8:15am they checked me again and apparently my effacement was still a problem and they said there was just no way they could have me push in this state. So even with these horrible, hard, back-to-back contractions, my body wasn’t changing. The doctor had the Pitocin stopped and told me that they had another girl having a C-section right now and that once she was done I would be next. I was hurting so bad I was glad to hear that (especially since I’ve always thought a C-section would be easier) because I just wanted it to be OVER, but I was frustrated too because I just didn’t know how I could take it any longer and I didn’t want to wait! Ever so slowly there began to be like 15-30 seconds of relief between contractions (because the Pitocin was wearing off) so I had a chance to breathe normally for a little bit. (I thought that if they stopped the pitocin sooner and she had had a better epidural then she could have gone ahead and pushed like normal. It seemed that after the pitocin had worn off that her contractions went back to where they were supposed to be. I think then her body could have readjusted and she would have been ok but what do I know, I’m just a jet engine mechanic). Also during the last bit of this 3 hour pain-period I had fever of 101.3. I was mad because I was worried about that and they were acting like it wasn’t a big deal. (She even asked them to retake her temp a bit later. The nurse said that she would in about 15 minutes. I didn’t really get that since a fever during pregnancy seems like a big deal). A little bit after that Tori came back in and adjusted my dosage. She said she wished someone would have told her that I was doing so badly, because she thought I could only feel the pelvic pressure that she couldn’t get rid of and I told her I felt every bit of every contraction from side to side and front to back. With this last epidural dosage and the Pitocin stopped, relief came. I was so grateful (later I was mad that this hadn’t been done earlier and that nurses hadn’t went and gotten her!!! -because the only reason she came back in was to get me ready for the c-section)! At 9am they wheeled me and all my IV lines into the O.R. and I took as much pain medication as they would give me because I’ve heard horror stories about that too (!) – where people could feel their c-section – ouch! They were supposed to get Bryan in scrubs so he could come in there but he wasn’t in there yet. Just after they made the incision he came in. After that I could feel the tugging and pulling and them leaning on me and sheesh. (It was crazy! I swear they played tug-o-war with her belly. They got out all the spoons, scoops, ladles, and salad tongs. They opened her up and then started to push on her belly like they were trying to shoot the kid across the room. The two doctors weren’t very big so they had to lift themselves all the way off of the floor to get enough leverage to push). The baby was so far down in the birth canal that they had to go in from the bottom and push him back up so they could pull him out through the cut. [This wasn’t an emergency c-section or anything – baby was doing fine, but I guess later Skylar (the tech we knew) told us I HAD to get a c-section because the baby wasn’t reacting to the contractions like he should have – it was like he was fine where he was and he wasn’t coming out]. It definitely felt like my body was a rag doll being thrown around. It was crazy. Bryan watched it all and said he didn’t get sick. (That’s right. I had watched enough Discovery Channel so I knew I could handle it). Finally they said his head was out but I heard no cry so I started to worry and then finally sort of some grunting sounds and I got a little bit of tears in my eyes and Bryan said at that point he did too (the boy who never cries – seen him cry twice in the 7 years I’ve known him) (I told her not to tell anyone). They told me my uterus was on my stomach. Then they announced that the baby had peed on the nurses. After that I don’t remember a thing. Apparently they showed him to me. During this out-of-it period I was dreaming about this weird alternate world full of rooms of blocks and crap like that. I knew that I had just had surgery and that the baby wasn’t with me and I wondered if something had gone wrong or if I was dead. Man it was weird. (But funny) Later on I could tell Bryan was by me but I felt like I was half in this dream state and half aware of him. I tried to tell him that I was trying to get back to normal, but he recorded me telling him things like this with our digital camera and I look like I don’t know what I’m saying but I really did. I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t for a long time – I couldn’t focus. One of our friends brought Bryan some lunch and I ate his fries before I knew I was basically supposed to be on a liquid diet for 24 hours and I really regretted eating them soon after. I threw up twice. During labor I threw up 3 times but it wasn’t bad at all since all I had was water in me. They wouldn’t let me have water during the last crappy hours of pain when my throat was hurting so bad from all the breathing. Anyway, going backwards a bit – they took the baby to the nursery while they finished me up in O.R. I guess, and they said the father should go too so a nurse goes to take him there but just tells him they’re still working on him but that he’s doing fine and instead of taking Bryan back to the OR to be with me they took him to the room and he sat there by himself for like 30 minutes not knowing if either one of us was okay. Pretty dumb!!! It seemed a bit unorganized for sure. Bryan told me all this and told me that the longer he sat there the more worried he was and he didn’t know how long it was supposed to take with me and that finally he lost it and he said he cried! (I told her not to tell anyone). I wish I could have seen that – the last time I saw him cry we were 19. How sad huh?-stupid nurses. One of them finally came in and told him what was going on and that everything was okay and then he was okay. SO, back to Brock. He had a hard time breathing at first and he was either grunting or like hyperventilating, and they had him on oxygen. They started him on antibiotics because there was some sort of infection, and I also got 3 different antibiotics for infections as well and I was to still be on magnesium for 24 hrs afterwards. My legs and feet seemed to get even more swollen and they said the magnesium makes you retain fluid. I couldn’t get out of bed and so had a catheter that the O.R. put in – I of course was no longer on any pain medication besides Motrin – and I couldn’t feel it at all, so obviously the nurse who put my first catheter in when I was first admitted didn’t do a good job!! Bryan had to help the nurses with moving me just like when I was on the epidural (which was funny). When they came in to massage my stomach – I guess to feel for my uterus to make sure it wasn’t soft and to work out blood clots (really they wanted to check that all of the placenta was out and no pieces got left behind) – that hurt SO bad, it was very hard to breath. So since I was hooked up to a bunch of stuff and couldn’t move anyway, and since Brock was too, I didn’t see him for the first 24 hrs. Bryan left the room several times throughout the day to see him, and he took some pictures with our digital camera so I could at least see those. When I first saw them I was like, dang! - he’s got a big nose! Ha-ha. Bryan helped the nurse a little that night with his bath too, cuz they couldn’t wash him right away when they took him out of me due to his need for the oxygen. I got to see him Thursday morning when they wanted me to try to start breastfeeding. So Bryan helped me out of bed and helped me go to the bathroom and I ever so slowly hobbled down the hall to the nursery to see my boy. Later that day they were able to put him in our room in his little portable basinet-majigger (not to be confused with a baby carrying thing). They were in all the time to take him to do stuff and to check his vitals and stuff though. So they took his blood to test for this infection and it came back positive but the doctor thought it was a contaminant and with how well Brock was doing almost didn’t do another blood test. Saturday morning we found out that it really was positive and he did have Group B Strep (which they suspected due to his struggle to breath at first), which he got from inside my birth canal I guess. They tested me for it at my 36-wk appt and it had come back negative so they said either that was wrong or I had picked it up since then. They said they had already been giving him antibiotics for it since he was born so there should absolutely be no long-term effects. They said that they needed to check for meningitis though and that was scary, but a few hours later the results were back and were negative – phew. But they said even that wouldn’t have been a big problem cuz it was the same antibiotics they were already giving him, they would just need to administer them 14 days instead of only 10. So I tell you what, lots of visitors came and I was doing well and they said how they just cried when someone asked how they were doing after having a baby and I was fine. Yeah well it hit me that first night after seeing him. Just an overwhelming and worried feeling and dang I just felt so emotional. (She cried. Yea this girl that has cried like a hundred times since I’ve known her. She told me not to tell anyone). Friday morning they did his circumcision and they were taking forever so I got worried and cried, and I cried when Shayne Stokes’ wife Alison came to see me that day (she brought us treats!) and she was awesome. Saturday morning I really lost it when we found out that he really did have the infection and that we would be there until the next Friday for all his antibiotics and monitoring. Bryan had already been home a few times to grab things and stuff, and we decided I would go home that night to just have a little time outside of the hospital and to pack a bunch of stuff for our continued stay in the hospital. Because I had been officially discharged from the hospital Friday morning but we still got to stay in the same room with a bed for each of us so we could stay there and take care of Brock in between all the stuff they were doing. They still fed me and everything, and it was enough that me and Bryan could share it. But one guy we know brought Bryan breakfast and lunch on Thursday. And good thing there’s a café on base that’s open 24 hours otherwise we would have starved late at night. So Saturday night I felt good and thought I was a little more emotionally stable. Well, while trying to hurry to get stuff together and take a shower at home, my mom called, and I cried and cried telling her the update, I just couldn’t stop it. (Our families didn’t even know we had had the baby until more than 24 hrs after the fact when we finally called our parents on Thursday). I was so tired though, I could barely make the 10-minute drive each way from house to hospital that night. I had gotten very little sleep since I was admitted Tuesday. I cried as soon as I walked in my front door though – apparently Bryan had given some of my friends the key to the house and they had come and cleaned up the mess from the baby shower and organized it into the baby’s room and they vacuumed and cleaned some other stuff. (It’s a good thing too because if I did it, everything would have been messed up and she would have to redo it all over anyway). I would have never asked them to do that – I was so grateful. So that was awesome. And can I just say that breastfeeding is so stressful! I won’t go into a lot of detail with that, (thank goodness) but it was even more so a stressor because he wasn’t pooping and they were really worried because he was really yellow and his levels of Billyrubin (sp?) were higher than normal which can really only be adjusted by pooping out his excess levels of red blood cells I guess. So they were constantly bugging me about it and we were spending tons of time trying to get it to work and Brock was doing really well but just not getting anything from me. So we continued to just do what you were supposed to do except we had a little itty-bitty feeding tube with formula we’d insert on the side, so he thought it was coming from me, so that we could get something in his stomach so he could poop dangit. After about 24 hrs of doing this formula thing he finally did so that was a big relief, and we only did it once or twice after that. My milk came in late Saturday night finally so that was good but definitely one of the more painful things I’ve experienced. We pumped and got like 4 ounces but there wasn’t much relief at all. Bryan used that to give him a bottle that night because we wanted to see how much he was eating and we hoped that I would be able to get some sleep that way. He drank 2 ounces one time and 1 ounce the other. Well on Sunday I was just dying. I pumped 10 ounces!!!!! I tell you that to try to give you some idea of just how much pain I was in. So anyway, it’s better now and continues to get better every day. Sunday and Monday was spent trying to get another IV site started on Brock, but they kept blowing his veins. All veins had been tried and Stokes came to us and said there were a few spots they could shave on his head and try but couldn’t guarantee those wouldn’t blow too. We opted to go for the shots instead. That night a nurse discussed us going home because Brock was so stable and was doing really well (which is awesome considering they were at first considering sending him to Okinawa to get the help that he needed), and without an IV site we could just come back twice a day for his antibiotic shots. So we were discharged Tuesday afternoon and I was happy but scared too. I got all emotional that night again – man and I thought I had gotten it all out of my system – they weren’t kidding when they say your hormones crash! It was not too fun in the hospital and let’s face it, our bed compared to theirs…..but at the same time it was sort of fun because we were so dang tired that we laughed at everything the other did. Oh I guess I should tell you that Brock weighed 7 lbs. 14 ounces and was 19 ½ in. long. (wow, talk about beating around the bush for a birth announcement). Glad I had him early!! So tonight we went for Brock’s last injection – and wow, it’s over I guess. Now we’re just learning how to handle being parents and I think we learn a lot every day – like how to change his diaper effectively without him peeing all over the place….
So it seemed to be one thing after the other and I’ve been emotional for sure, but not depressed – it’s fun and Brock is awesome and it gets easier every day. Bryan has been awesome – he helps with everything and has been so supportive. I don’t know how I could have done – or how I could do it without him. He was able to get out of the last days of his training class without it affecting him, got this whole week off as a type of “maternity” leave, and 3 days at the beginning of next week because of something he earned for his score for physical training in tech school, so none of this time off actually affects his leave. Then my mom will be here next Friday. My c-section hasn’t been bad at all – the first day was hard but it’s getting easier and easier and now barely inhibits me at all. The shelf down there is weird, and the jiggly skin (although not so jiggly anymore) literally looked like a bowl full of jelly when I laughed and me and Bryan would just watch it and laugh and laugh. My legs and feet remained swollen for some time and even my arms and hands so when they were trying to draw blood they couldn’t find my veins and kept poking me to no avail when normally you can very easily see my huge veins. Just when I thought I was going to be cursed with fat ankles forever, I woke up one day this week and had my legs back. To me they now look “storkish” and I swear they’re smaller than before – Bryan can touch his fingers together when he grips my ankle. I weighed myself when we got home from the hospital and already have lost over 20 pounds – holy cow. We’ve had dinners brought to us so far it’s great.
So this is my journal entry so I’ll remember this experience of mine for the rest of my life. Takes a lot of time to write this much. We love our little babes! Brock Taylor Blumenkrantz is here!
Julie and Bryan
Quite a few pics I've posted below, but the rest can be seen here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.c67go73s&x=0&y=-atx8hs&localeid=en_US
Just click on the link and then click on the picture to start the slideshow. There are some scary pics in there so beware...
September pics
Another scary bare belly shot on 9/15/06. (Was due Oct. 12th, so this is the belly at the end of the pregnancy!)
Baby shower cake on 9/23/06 - Kasie made it for me!
9/27/06 - Brock Taylor is born!!
Brock was born Wednesday, September 27, 2006, at 9:30am!
(2 weeks early)
7 lbs 14 oz
19 1/2 in.
Our poor son!! - Born with Group B Strep - delivered by C-section after almost 19 hrs of labor!
ACK!
Saturday, 9/30/06
AAAAAAHHHH! I told you I had a rough day Sat. morning! (I'd been bawling all morning) Bryan put this Boppy around my neck and thought it was hilarious.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
