Birth Annoucement

Wow, I really suck at blogging. I promised I'd blog all through the pregnancy w/updates but working at the new Toys R Us Express really sucked up a lot of my time since I ended up working 8 hour shifts 5 days a week, then of course preparing for the baby, sleeping, squeezing in as much of a social life as possible, and other tasks. So it's understandable I didn't have the time to type up a blog. There wasn't much of interest to post anyway; my pregnancy was the easiest & most inconsequential pregnancy ever. Nothing happened. I found out it was a girl, I got a bigger bump, she moved around a lot. But the delivery is quite a story, so here I am finally blogging.

So Shannon was due on the 23rd. Everyone had bets on when she'd actually be born. My mom wanted her to come on her birthday, the 21st. The most popular prediction was Christmas Eve. Even a psychic my mom sees regularly said the 24th.
The 23rd came & went. So did the 24th and I got through Christmas Day without a twinge. Then at about 1230 in the morning on the 26th I got up to pee & had bright red bloody show. A mild cramping soon followed & we headed to the hospital. While I was under observation for about an hour/hour & a half they became definite contractions, not very intense but regularly spaced 5 minutes apart. However, my cervix didn't dilate at all and I was still at only 1cm so they sent me home to wait out the early labor stages.
Now a massive blizzard was heading down to us later that day, so we were dreading that my labor would intensify during the worst part of the storm. I took a warm bath and shower and was able to doze a little, but the contractions continued to come. They weren't so bad early in the morning - like menstrual cramps, maybe a little more painful, something I could easily grit my teeth & wait out, but as the day wore on and the snow started falling they gradually got more uncomfortable. The pain didn't get worse but the pressure against my rectum and pelvis were tough to sit through. I was contemplating whether I would be able to wait it out through the night & go to the hospital the next day during the tail end of the storm. So far, my water still hadn't broken and there was no sign of further dilation. Finally, more bloody show was appearing and the contractions were so uncomfortable that we braved the storm and headed to Winchester. The roads were treacherous & visibility very low, but we made it there safely & as soon as I was checked I was 3cm dilated. Finally things were moving along.
I was hoping I'd be able to hold out & have a natural birth, but the combination of pain & pressure from the contractions were getting to much and I broke down & got the epidural. I'm so glad I did. It made it so I didn't feel a single contraction and I was able to sleep. Well, I would've been able to sleep if I didn't have this thing where I never sleep well in other beds (I never fall completely asleep at hotels either). But I dozed enough. They had pull-out bed for Wig & he slept like a log the whole night.
My cervix continued to dilate steadily throughout the night but my water never broke. At about 7AM Monday morning the doctor broke my water and I began to try to deliver my daughter. It was tough. Sometimes I could feel the pressure and need to bear down w/the contractions but other times I had to go by the doctor reading the monitor that said when I had a contraction. I was pushing well, and I was expecting Shannon to come out any minute but after an hour of pushing the doctor checked her head position & said her head was not able to pass through the pelvic bone & molding was starting. On top of that there was meconium & I had a low-grade fever & infection so all those factors led to csection. I was wheeled into the OR and prepped. Wig looked so adorable in his scrubs. He was so fascinated with the whole procedure and the fact that I was so numb I didn't feel a single thing while they rooted in my wide opened stomach cavity. Then at 9:48AM, Shannon officially came into the world kicking and screaming, weighing 7lb 12oz and 20 3/4 inches long.
They wisked her away to Special Care to treat her w/antibiotics and it took me neary 4 hours to finally see my little girl. But it was worth the wait. Everyone sees a little bit of someone else in her. I think she has Wig's nose & ears, others say she looks like me or my sister. Some say she has my mom's chin. She already has quite the personality. I'm so glad I have her. She's the best Christmas gift I ever got.

Oishii desu yo

Tonight I got together with my friend/anime-convention-partner-in-crime Inyx and the gang for our New Years celebration. Since we technically work for Inyx helping her set up and sell buttons and other wares at the conventions, she also likes to give us all a year-end bonus. Last year was Best Buy gift cards, this year was dinner on her. It was me, Inyx, Catherine "Ninja Shuichi," Xaqu (Zack) and Inyx's boyfriend Chris from Maryland and we went to Bisuteki Japanese Steakhouse in Revere. Wig would've gone too but he had to do something for his grandparents tonight. My mom got a free copy of the Entertainment '09 coupon book at the most opportune time because there was a coupon for a free entree with the price of another in it, so I saved Inyx $23. It was that Benihana kind of thing, where there's a huge Hibachi grill on your table and the chefs come out and prepare the food right there with fancy chopping and flipping moves and onion ring volcanoes. Our chef was funny cuz he messed up a couple times and he was joking about it, like saying the shrimp was still alive and the lemons were bad. I thought the food was pretty good but Inyx and Chris are used to a much better Japanese steakhouse in Baltimore so they were disappointed. They give you a lot, though. You get a bowl of some Japanese mushroom and onion soup, then white rice, and then the dinner comes with whatever you ordered plus a side of shrimp, noodles and vegetables. The cocktails were pretty good too. I got one that had vodka, Kahlua, Bailey's, amaretto and milk in it. So while nothing to brag about, it was an interesting evening with decent food. I'd go again.

So tomorrow I'm working 930-130, one of only 3 days I got this week because hours suck right now. Everyone's hours are in the shitter, I think some of the people who haven't been there as long or have a more limited availability only got one day. Fortunately, we're able to pad our paychecks with our Earned Time hours, which are usually used for time off. At Toys R Us the Earned Time accrues pretty quickly, so it's not like a waste. (The first year I worked there I accrued enough Earned Time from January to July to take the entire week I went to London off fully paid, with leftover, so that's more than 40 hours in 6-7 months). As soon as I can physically have my degree and teaching license in my hands I can talk to Jim Devaney at the McGlynn about a teaching job. I'm so lucky to have a shoe-in in this economy. I should also look into substitute teaching in the meantime. Apparently Medford and neighboring cities - especially Arlington - are hurting for substitutes. It doesn't pay a lot though, $50 a day ($60 in Arlington), but if I'm doing subbing in the day and Toys R Us in the night and weekend then it'll make a bit of a difference. Plus it'll give me experience and further put my foot in the door. The only thing that's going to suck is not knowing if you're going to work until that morning and getting the call at like 630AM.

Anyway, I got to make some Brain Slug amigurumis to sell on Etsy. I got to look for patterns for some other shapes too. Probably go with animals and foods.

I think Gavin Rossdale of Bush has an oral fixation because he has a song called "Mouth" and a song called "Swallowed." Just something to ponder.

And on that note, I sign off. Until next time, stay bloggy.

Closing out '08 with Epic Fail.

In case you haven't already heard or were directly affected by it, all first-run 30GB Microsoft Zunes worldwide froze on New Year's Eve. The reason was faulty programming that didn't recognize Leap Day, therefore making the Zune think it was already Jan 1, 2009 and then for some reason not recognize the year 2009. So Zune owners across the globe were a combination of confused, shocked, pissed off and panicking because they didn't have their precious music. People were accusing Microsoft of purposely selling faulty hardware to force consumers into having to buy one of the newer model Zunes - most likely the 80 or 120GB because who's going to to downsize from 30 to 16, 8 or 4GB? Many were comparing it to the XBox 360's Red Ring O'Death and the problems with the first batch of Vista. Some have lost faith in Microsoft altogether. Lots of people, mainly the more technologically talented, were taking apart their Zunes to remove and reinsert the batteries to reboot it. If they were just a little more patient, they would've found out about the new update that was available the next day. It sucked that everyone had to go a whole day wihtout their music collection, but I think a lot of people overreacted. Although at first Microsoft wasn't saying much and tech support wasn't even working because of inundation of people, in the end they got the update out in around 24 hours and it was quick and painless. Still, it shouldn't have happened in the first place and it's pretty funny that such a juggernaut in electronics programming could fuck up something on such a grand scale like that. I mean this is a bigger mistake than Nintendo making the Virtual Boy...wait, I take that back. At least Zunes don't give you migraines, make you go blind, had only 13 games 2 of which were playable and force its creator to feel so ashamed that he quits Nintendo, placing him in a situation where he got hit by a car and died. (Google that shit, it's true. Guy's name is Gunpei Yokoi)

Anyway, my New Year's was uneventful. I didn't have any commuting issues on the way to work since it just started snowing when I left and it was still really light. My Zune was dead so I was forced to listen to the radio. It was OK cuz WFNX was talking about the best movie deaths and it was fairly entertaining. I wanted to call in to say the scene in Maximum Overdrive when the guy is pummelled to death by soda cans by the possessed soda machine and the first can nails him square in the nuts, but the line was busy then my phone died. Work was pretty slow and by the time I left at 430 the snow was almost stopped but the roads were still pretty shitty. It took me almost an hour to get home but the only problem I had driving was having to go really slow. Then I went to Wig's and we watched Step Brothers which is hysterical. But for some reason the cable wasn't working right so very few channels weren't working so we couldn't watch the ball drop. Instead, we watched SpongeBob cuz the Nicktoons Channel was, like, the only channel that was working. I didn't get any alcohol cuz I didn't want to fight through Kappy's horrendous parking lot in the snow. But we did get Domino's.

New Year's Day I worked and it was even dead-er. Then I hung out with Flav and crafted and watched Big Fish. If I'm not called into work I'm gonna hang out with her again, try to start walking again and probably watch another movie. I told work I could work today if they needed me cuz there are no hours right now and I need to get as much as I can. But they probably won't call me in. I'm going to have to use my Earned Time to pad my paycheck until hours go up again. This usually only happens for 2 or 3 weeks after Christmas, but in the past I've always still gotten plenty of hours because I'm spoiled rotten at that job.

Maybe That 70's Show shouldn't be aired on ABC Family. They have to put a "Some Content Not Suitable for Children" disclaimer at the beginning of each episode. This really isn't the channel for pot and sex references. I mean, it's owned by Disney. Besides, That 70's Show reruns are already on, like, 3 or 4 other stations.

Well, that's all for this post. I never know how to end these things except like, "That's it!" or "The end" or "Until next time..." It's dumb...

The End