Daddy's Three Month Retrospective

Friday marked 12 weeks since Mackenzie joined us on this side of the world. Fastest twelve weeks of all time. Incredible.

Since we have hit the 12 week point, that means that Sarah will be rejoining the working world on Monday. Should be an easy day, right? Luckily we have a few things going for us as we start this adventure. First, we have decided to not send Mackenzie to the day care we had picked. She will now be going to Sarah's grandma's house. Several things factored into that decision, the most important being the piece of mind knowing that the person watching her absolutely adores her as much as we do. It does mean a bit longer of a drive for us each day, but it will be well worth it in the end. Second, we have already practiced leaving her for extended periods of time with family members (for a few concerts, a wedding, and the CSU football game). It is not like when we drop her off Monday morning it will be the first time we have left her for a while. There is a ton of comfort in that as well. Hopefully things work out great and we can get used to this new schedule fairly quickly.

Sarah and I have not been very good about updating this blog. Isn't having a kid supposed to make your life easier and less busy?!! Oh yeah - the exact opposite. If you know the two of us, you know how we are: we are on the go all the time. Adding Mackenzie into the mix has just made the down time part of the busy time. As a result, little to no blogging. We hope to remedy this in the upcoming months.

We did take Kenzie to her first CSU event - the Ram Rally on the 16th Street Mall prior to the CSU/CU debacle. I may be slightly biased, but she was definitely the cutest Ram fan there!

We have also taken her to several Rockies games. Thank you, Rockies, for deciding to start winning the last little bit. We are working on teaching her the Tulo chant along with the CSU Fight Song and the Fum Song. So far, she has not been able to sing any of them. Perhaps when she starts talking she might have better luck.

After 12 weeks, here are my views on being a dad. When we found out we were pregnant, I was excited to be a dad. Between my family, my friends who already have kids, and my coworkers, I got a plethora of advice and input about what it is like being a dad. In addition, I have been around babies my whole life. My dad is the oldest of 11 siblings and I am one of the oldest of the 40+ first cousins. My best friends both have kids. Despite my exposure, you CANNOT prepare yourself for having your own child. It is an absolutely amazing experience but something that is totally worth it. For anyone about to have their first child, listen to the veterans, but realize that NOTHING can get you ready for it. Nothing.

Hopefully we can get some more pictures up soon. And maybe I can get Sarah to post something soon!

Mikey

Precious Pixels Photography

Brooke, a friend of mine from high school took pictures of Mackenzie. Brooke owns a photography company named Precious Pixels Photography. She spent the afternoon with us and captured so many beautiful shots. We have included some of our favorites. It was hard to chose a few to put up because there were so many good ones. Thanks again Brooke.
Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
Sarah

Sarah or Mikey?

Since Mackenzie was born, everyone keeps going back and forth about who she looks like. So we decided to post our baby pictures to see what you think. It will be interesting as she gets older because she is already changing by the day. She looks so much different now than in her newborn pictures.

The top two photos are me as a baby:





Mackenzie:
Mikey:




Who do you think she looks like?

Mackenzie's Arrival

After a short hospital stay, a few hours of sleep, multiple visits from friends and family, two in home appoinments, one appointment at the clinic, and lots of diapers, we have reached the three week mark! As any parent can attest, these past few weeks have been chaotic. This would explain exactly why I am just now getting to a point where I am updating the blog. Here is a quick rundown of the past few weeks.

Monday, June 14th
Sarah and I have a doctors appointment to check on both Sarah and Mackenzie (Carlosa at that particular time). The doctor is concerned enough about Sarah's condition to schedule an induction for the 18th. He is not concerned enough to schedule it any sooner.

Wednesday, June 16th
Sarah calls the doctor's office to report that her symptoms are either maintaining or increasing their intensity. The doc tells Sarah to not work any more (meaning Thursday).

Thursday, June 17th
Sarah and I take the day off to kick back on our last day of just the two of us. We get the emission tested on the Mazda, go shopping, and take it easy all day. This day ends with an early bed time because. . .

Friday, June 18th
We check into the hospital at 7:30 AM. USA/Slovenia starts at 8:00. Pitocin starts at 9:00. Name decided around 11:00. No other progress all morning. Water broken at 12:30 PM. Contractions start like gangbusters immediately (every minute for a minute - hello epidural!!). Pushing starts at 4:25 PM. Baby comes at 4:57 PM. The doctors finally get Sarah's bleeding under control by 6:30 PM. Family meets baby after 7:00 PM. We change rooms at 11:00 PM. We are tired, but we have an absolutely beautiful daughter. Mackenzie Ava was seven pounds, ten ounces and 19.5 inches.

Saturday, June 19th
Mackenzie is latching on, feeding well, and looking great. She gets the thumbs up from the hospital to be discharged. Sarah does not. Some family and friends stop by to meet the little girl. We are still tired.

Sunday, June 20th
The hospital feels like Sarah is good to go home. Mackenzie says, "About time, Mom!" We get discharged around 2:00 PM. I can't believe that they are letting us take her home.

Monday, June 21st
A Kaiser NP stops by our house to check on Sarah and Mackenzie. Sarah is doing better, although she is still weak and tired. Mackenzie dropped over 9% of her body weight. At 10%, they start getting concerned. The NP, who Sarah knows, decides to come back in a couple days to check her progress and make sure she is gaining weight.

Wednesday, June 23rd
Andrea (NP) stops by again to check on Mackenzie. Mackenzie had gained 3 oz in 2 days. This is good.

Friday, June 25th
Our due date. We have a one-week-old baby girl. We are tired.

Wednesday, June 30th
Sarah is starting to have cabin fever and she is feeling better. We take a trip up to Silverthorn to wander around the outlet malls. On the way back to Denver, we take Mackenzie to the top of Loveland Pass. She is 12 days old and we had her at 12,000 feet above sea level. She is a champ.

Friday, July 2nd
Mackenzie has her 2 week appointment. She is up to 7 pounds, 12 oz (two over her birth weight). We are excited. We are also still tired.

Tuesday, July 6th
After the holiday, I have to head back to work. I don't like this. Sarah doesn't like this. Mackenzie does not like this. Why did this have to happen? After work, we were supposed to go to the Rockies game. Because the weather was looking less than favorable, we gave our tickets to two of my coworkers. They got to watch the Rockies score 9 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win the game. We were tired.

Thursday, July 8th
Sarah and Mackenzie go to a breastfeeding support group thing at St. Joseph's Hospital. Mackenzie weighs in at 8 lbs and 5 oz. The girl eats like her daddy.

Friday, July 9th
I arrive at the house after work to these words: "I CAN FIT IN NORMAL PANTS AGAIN!" Never has Sarah been more excited.

Saturday, July 10th
I mowed the lawn and Sarah took Mackenzie to Kellie O's baby shower. We are still tired, but extremely happy. This experience was nothing like we expected and a million times better.

'Til the next post,
Mikey

Can We Check One More Time?

Last week, Sarah ran into our perinatologist since they work in the same building. He was asking her how the pregnancy was going and asked her if she wanted to see how big she was. Since the last ultrasound we did was during week 18, she excitedly said yes. Today, the doc was awesome enough to squeeze us in during his lunch break for a quick ultrasound. It was absolutely incredible to see Carlosa's growth over the past 16 weeks. He did a quick check up on her, including a biophysical profile test. That test gives you a score between zero (bad) and two (good) in five catagories: muscle tone, body movements, breathing movements, amniotic fluid, and heart rate. Carlosa, already a good student like her mother, passed with a perfect score of 10. (Let us hope that she does not get her father's study habits.) He did a quick scan to make sure her development was on schedule, did some measurements, and estimated her current weight. According to his calcs, she is currently 5 lbs. 5 oz. Of course, there is a fudge factor of +/- 13 oz. For Sarah's sake, please don't be on the plus side of that correction.

Lastly, we made him double check that Carlosa is truly a Carlosa and not a Carlos. A quick check confirmed his theory that it is impossible to grow a weiner after 18 weeks. Phew. It was nice to hear that all the clothes that we have received would not have to be returned and that I would not have to spend this weekend covering up our Pepto-Bismol walls.

Our other baby developments: we had our baby shower the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. Since Sarah's list of things she hates include tomatoes, late patients, and baby showers, I agreed to do a coed function. We had a simple BBQ with no stereotypical shower activities. The only games that were played were bags (cornhole) and Flickergolf. No strings were tied around Sarah (or myself) and no one guessed how much weight Sarah has gained. When did someone decide that these moronic games were the best way to celebrate the miracle of carrying and giving birth to a child? This is one of life's questions that will never be answered. We did have the opportunity to (briefly) chat with some friends and family that we hadn't seen in a while. It is always great to catch up with those people.

Also happening around the Flick house - the organization of Carlosa's room. This past weekend we focused on clearing out the closet to make room for Carlosa's clothes and shelves. This required moving all 8000+ pairs of Sarah's shoes. (My fudge factor? +/- 15 shoes) First, I moved my shoes out of the front closet into the guest bedroom closet. This would seem weird until you know that all my clothes are stored in the guest bedroom. Sarah selected the shoes that would remain upstairs in the front closet. The remainder was shipped to the basement bedroom (aka Hillary's room). This was quite the adventure, but we knocked it all out. Carlosa's closet now has some clothes hanging in it and her shelves full of books, toys, and teethers.

Between the shower, our collection of gift cards, and some random donations, we have managed to get a pretty good collection of baby supplies built up. Our biggest worry was getting our travel system, since that included the car seat. Apparently the hospital won't let you take a baby home without a car seat. Who knew?!! Now that we have some newborn clothes, some newborn diapers, and a car seat, we are ready for the little chica to join us out here.

It is hard to believe that we are less than 6 weeks out from the due date. This pregnancy has flown by (according to the one without the baby growing inside of him) and we are so excited to meet little. . . wait for it. . . wait for it. . . just kidding. I'm not going to tell you her name. That's crazy. Let's stick with Carlosa for now!

Til the next post,
Mikey

Week 30

We have made it to week 30. Holy cow 10 weeks to go if we go full term. We had a doctors appt today. Everything was pretty status quo. She measured normal, good strong heart beat, we got approved to fly one more time next week so we continue on...

So here is what baby center has to say this week.
Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus.

Here is what I have to say about this week:
I am pooped again. They say the first trimester is rough because you are so tired. They say the second trimester is better and then you get tired again in the third trimester. Well I can say it is true. I don't feel like I am going to go into a coma like I did the first trimester but I am tired. I might be tired because in between my shoulder blades and my hips ache so I wake up to flip over all night. Or it could be the trips to the bathroom, or because I carry a bowling ball all day. Either way, pretty sleepy by the time 8 pm hits. Who am I kidding, by the time 6:30 pm hits.


Adventures since the last post: We started prepared labor class. It's an adventure to say the least. We have a pretty hippy lady teaching the class who is against all medical intervention. Being in medicine, it's a whole new perspective for me. We have learned some pretty interesting coping mechanisms. Mikey is intrigued because they have explained the anatomy and the physics behind how labor works. I seriously married a nerd.


Here are some other interesting things I have learned during pregnancy.

Number 1: Everyone wants to know the name you have picked. Let me start with this: we have not picked a name yet and when we do we will not be telling anyone and I will tell you why. Everyone has and is willing to give input. Here are some examples:

• They know someone with that name, they dated someone with that name, someone they know died and they had that name.
• They like another name better and they give you lists and lists of names they like better.
• They can come up with a million reasons why you should not name your child that. My favorite are nicknames that they might be called that have nothing to do with the name.
  
• The best is they just don't like it because it is too modern and should be a good wholesome saint name or bible name (like Michael and Sarah)

Number 2: The dirty dirty looks, comments, and talking-tos that I get for running and/or working out. A lady came up to me and said, "Do you really think you should be running in your condition." This is when I laughed and said, "Just trying to get rid of a little extra fat is all." She was pretty embarrassed.

Number 3: Pregnant bellies DO NOT have a sign that says "Touch Me" on them. However, people still think it is okay to do so. It is downright creepy. So now when people touch my belly, I touch their bellies back and they get the same creepy feeling.

Number 4: People comment on your size and weight gain. I though there was an unwritten rule you never comment or ask a ladies weight or age. So what makes this any different during pregnancy?

Number 5: Everyone want to tell you their labor story. The good, the bad, and the ugly. First time mothers are already freaked out enough so let's freak them out even more.

--Sarah

Baby Room!

People have been asking for pictures of the baby room. Here they are! Hopefully it's not a boy.

Yes, we know we are blowing people's minds by painting the child's room pink. We figure we have to start her off somewhat girlie. Now that the room is pretty much done, we have to figure out child care and a name. Until next time.


Sarah

FTSTBD

Hello. My name is Mike and I am a FTSTBD (First Time Soon-To-Be Dad). It is as exciting as you can imagine. Oh. . . and it is also scary as hell.

Despite the fact that I am 27, have been married for 2.5 years, and have a steady job, I still feel like I am too young and unprepared to be in charge of another human being. I barely (stressing the 'barely') take care of myself. Now I am going to be personally responsible for the well-being and growth of a tiny version of Sarah and me. This tiny Flick will require more attention than I am used to giving, more money than I am used to spending, and more patience than I am used to having. Best of luck to my sanity. And my pocketbook.

We started looking at day care facilities this past week. Sarah worked at a day care in Fort Collins all throughout college, so she has a pretty good idea of what things to look for and what questions to ask. After the tour and sit-down at the first center we visited, Sarah was laughing as we left the building. She asked me if I was overwhelmed. I told her slightly and asked her how she knew. She simply said, "I could tell because you didn't say anything in there." Silence is not my strong suit. Picking a child care facility is extremely important; you are trusting the employees to foster and care for your child when you cannot. That still does not take the sting away when you hear how much it costs per week. So far we have not been blown away by any of the places we have visited. We did find a place that we will not be taking her. The teachers were not interacting with the kids at all, the place was dirty and chaotic, and a kid came walking down the hall with blood all over his face. The teacher that was with him had no idea how it happened. If you are in charge of watching children, you better know what they are doing and how they got blood all over their face. It was super sketchy and a great example of what not to do. This adventure of looking for child care is incredibly stressful. I can't wait until we find one and get our spot reserved so we don't have to worry about it any more.  

The good news in all of this is that I have always known that one day I would be a dad. I am extremely comfortable around babies, so the realization that diapers and crying are in my future don't freak me out too much. I have seen our friends' kids grow and learn and knowing that our little girl is going to do the same is exciting. I can't wait to teach her everything I know. When that 15 minutes is done, I'm not sure what we will do. Probably watch baseball and discuss BABIP and UZR.

Til the next post,
Mikey

February 18th Appointment Update

Our appointment last Thursday went incredibly well and incredibly fast. It took me about 15 minutes to walk to my car, drive to Sarah's building, park, and get to her office. Our appointment maybe lasted 10 minutes. Maybe. It was probably closer to 5. Then it took me 30 minutes to drive back to park next to my building. Thank you, Obama, for having your speech right down the street from my office. People were everywhere and they were all driving like idiots. As Sir Charles would say, "Trrrrble".

During the appointment, the doc checked out Carlosa's heart rate (105 or so, which is good) and checked out the size of Sarah's stomach (all good here, too). He asked us if we had any questions and that was that. It is bizarre that it was so fast, but it is much better than having any reason to stay much longer.

On the nursery front, we cleared out more stuff out of the room. It is amazing how much stuff has collected in that room for the last 6 months or so. Crazy. It is almost ready for the paint to fly. We did take the window valence into Home Depot to pick a paint color. Yes, it is pink. And yes, it is my favorite color. We need some color in the room for a couple reasons. First of all, the room is south facing, so it gets a fair amount of light which brightens the room. Secondly, the bedding that we got is white with touches of pink and brown on it. We need some color on the walls to make sure the whole room doesn't get washed out. Our focus the next couple of weeks will be to clear out all the crap, paint the room, and find the furniture to put in it. This Friday is week 23 already. The weeks are slipping away; time to do work, son!

I need to thank my wife for something that is very near and dear to my heart. After 2.5 hours of walking around Babies R Us (during the Super Bowl, nonetheless!), we had to decide what diaper bag we wanted to register for. The daunting wall of pink floral patterns assaulted my eyes. The weariness from the registering process and the over-stimulation of the giant wall of pink almost pushed me to tears. As I hung my head to regain my composure, a dot of black caught my eye. It was glorious - a black Columbia messenger bag with no other colors besides the white of the Columbia logo. The awesomeness of this simple bag pierced through all my nightmares about pink and purple diaper purses and gave me hope. I just needed to convince the wife. . . I don't know if it was because she was tired or because she just really needed to pee, but Sarah quickly and painlessly agreed with my choice. We scanned the bag and headed back to the registry desk. Thank you, Sarah, for not forcing the prettiest bag on the shelf on your husband.

Til the next post,
Mikey

Carlosa Moves!

Last night was finally the night that Carlosa let me feel her move. Sarah has been feeling her jump around, jump up, jump up, and get down for a while now. She has been really good about calling me over when Carlosa is particularly active. Without fail, Carlosa would stop moving right before I stuck my hand on Sarah's stomach. Last night, Carlosa was particularly active as we were laying in bed. I put my hand on Sarah's stomach and waited. Of course, she stopped moving. After a couple minutes, I finally something rub along my hand. So freaking cool. After another couple minutes, I felt Sarah's stomach spasm. I looked at Sarah to see if that was her or Carlosa. Apparently, Carlosa decided to flip around and it shook Sarah's entire belly. This baby is going to be a bundle of pure energy. I can't wait.

We have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so there will probably be an update after that.

- Mikey

Carlos is a Carlosa

Last Wednesday, we had our 18-20 week ultrasound, ours just happened to be at 17.5 weeks. All week we had been anxious because this is the ultrasound at which you can most likely determine the sex of your baby. Since we are in the works of getting the upstairs bedroom ready to be turned into a nursery, it was pretty cool to figure out which color scheme we would be choosing. Early in the pregnancy, Sarah had a dream that we were having a girl. We also thought that it might be a girl because we were in agreement for boys names. Girls names? Not even close. Naturally, you never get the easy one!

Everyone has been asking why our ultrasound was so early as typically these ultrasounds are conducted between 18 and 22 weeks. We had several discussions about our family history with the OB/GYN, the NP, and the genetic counselor at KP. All indicated that the presence of a few developmental problems in my family were reason enough to take an aggressive approach to screening the baby's health. All this meant was that Sarah had to get blood drawn a couple extra times and we had an earlier and more involved ultrasound. This more involved ultrasound included the presence of a perinatologist whose purpose was to keep a close eye on the ultrasound. 

Back at the appointment, we went into the ultrasound room. We had the perinatologist, an ultrasound tech, a nurse, Sarah, myself, and some other nurse that just popped in for a while. We were glued to the monitor as the tech started flying through all the different views and measurements. I honestly had a hard time keeping up with all the stuff they were looking at and measuring. Thankfully, the perinatologist was using his laser pointer to point out things as the image changed. After lots of body parts being called out and measured, the doc asked if we wanted to know the sex. He told us congratulations, you are having a girl (laser pointer pointed appropriately). Carlosa it is! They printed out some images, the doctor ensured us that he'd "never seen a baby grow a weinie after 18 weeks", and we were on our way. As far as he could tell, there were no developmental issues with little Carlosa. She was healthy and growing exactly how she should be growing.

Regardless of how much you prepare yourself and how much your medically-trained wife tells you about the low percentages of risk for your child, there is no way to describe how relieving it was to hear and see that our little girl was healthy. She was a whopping 8 oz and 5 inches from tip to tail. Hopefully her activity level in utero is indicative of how much energy she will have. Both ultrasounds and both doppler readings have resulted in the tech having to chase her around the womb a bit. High energy = fun for Daddy.

Here are the pictures of little Carlosa with the doctor's notes below them.

 

 

 

 

By the way, Sarah says that she is totally creeped out by the fact that her uterus is on the internet!

Til the next post,
Mikey