Yes, I'm a nerd

A friend from church pointed out that if he were born on 3/14, he would be a "pi baby". At first I dismissed this as a mere contrivance, but the thought nagged a bit. To be fair, this friend is not particularly nerdy, but was pointing it out to her preteen son who happened to be working on math homework.

Now, I won't do Camden (btw: thanks, Howells) the disservice of making him think this is cool, as it would probably lead to him getting beat up if he went bragging about it at school. Yet I couldn't keep myself from secretly, kind-of wishing that if he were born on 3/14, it would be at 1:59. He was born at 12:51, so at least we got that fourth digit, but five and six would have been complete, in a way (yes, here is where I broadcast my OCD tendencies to the world. Poor Adrian Monk - I'm not nearly that bad, but deep down I just get him.) So Chris, don't feel too bad about the logarithmic percentages comment you posted - it actually crossed my mind, although I didn't go so far as to actually calculate it.

Now, those of you out there even nerdier than I, who know Pi past 5 decimals, I'm sure will be unable to resist posting ways I could have taken this even further than a 1:59 time of birth. Doubtlessly it would involve height, weight, or some other birth statistic and allow for completely arbitrary use of units--grams, furlongs, troy ounces--to achieve the desired string of numbers.

Our family grows by 33.33%

Camden was born yesterday at 12:51 pm. Once again, Heather couldn't be rushed, laboring for 38 hours. At least it was a 57.78% reduction from the 90 hours needed last time. Most impressive of all: she did it unmedicated. How she managed after over over 48 hours without sleep, I'll never know. This is something I could never do. Heather's take: "I'm never doing that again." (Also, you know how they always ask you to rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10? I get the feeling that Heather now has a very well-calibrated pain scale.)



I brought Elaina for a short visit last night. She loves babies. I don't think she has a clue that this one is coming home with us, and the vast impact this is going to have on her life.



Unlike Elaina, he was actually born with hair. Blond hair. We'll see if he can beat the genetic odds and keep it blond.

9 days and counting

Am I in labor yet? I wake up at about 4 or 5 in the morning each morning with contractions that keep me from sleeping, but they go away in the late morning. I am really getting sick of this! I'm usually not able to fall asleep until about 1 in the morning, so my sleep hasn't been all that great - sorry to anyone I'm cranky to in the next little while. I'm thinking that when real labor starts I will probably be able to convince myself that it isn't real until it's time to go to the hospital. I really shouldn't complain - everything has gone so well with this pregnancy - it happened right when we wanted it to, I've felt pretty good up until now, and as far as we can tell the baby is healthy. What more could we ask for? I'm starting to retain water (hopefully that's what it is) and I am starting to recognize that old, familiar, fat face that I got so used to a couple of years ago - even though I'm a full 20 pounds lighter at this point in my pregnancy than I was then. I owe it all to a high-protein diet (Lots of skim milk and eggs - not my favorite). I find myself starting to rebel in small ways (eating more dessert, caffeine, anything with sugar) - I'd probably feel better if I didn't eat that stuff - but I already feel crappy so what's one thing more? Right? Yeah, I know.

But seriously, all that aside, I can't imagine being any more happy than I am now - maybe more content - but not happy. I really enjoy being a mother. Elaina is so much fun to have around and I love her companionship. She is such a great little buddy and with her I feel like I'm getting a second childhood. I love my friends and I'll be really sad for us all to move in June when school is over. I love Torry more and more each day - he is such a sweet, fun person to be around and I'm excited for this next quarter when he'll only be taking 2 classes so he can be around more. Life is just overall good and I'm excited for the next chapter of it - new baby, new job, new city. I'm beginning to look forward to the unknown - our Chicago adventure has been so much fun, I'm excited to see what is coming next.

Miss Potato Head

My little Miss Potato Head. I'm just glad she doesn't try sticking the nose up her nostril.

Fairy Princess TIme

Elaina and her friend Lucy like to get together for some girl time every-so-often. They both seem to enjoy doing girly things together - have tea parties, dance and play in the "princess house" (as Lucy likes to call it) It's fun having a little girl who is so into all of this fun stuff - it's like I get a second childhood again, experiencing it all through her.

Valentine's Day

Okay, so I've been a super-slacker and haven't blogged in a while, but I wanted the grandparents to see how much Elaina loved the Valentine's that they sent. She absolutely loved the candy and we let her just go for it. I didn't think that she would be able to pound almost all of the goodie bag from Grandma Johnson in one sitting and also eat quite a few M&M's (her favorite) from Grandma Guest. She was one happy child. Luckily, she ate it close to bed time and wasn't awake (or at least around us) for the inevitable sugar crash.

I took Elaina out on a day of errands and the last stop had to be the grocery store. She had just about had it, so I made a concession and got her this heart balloon out of the florist section. The child couldn't have loved anything more. She was totally entertained through-out the whole store, waving it around, cradling it like a baby and singing to it and bopping me on the head with it. We got into the car and she accidentally broke the stick that it was on, and I have seriously never seen her more devastated. Later on, she fell asleep on the couch hugging it. It has to have been the best 2 dollars I've spent in awhile.