podcasting...

I went through the free copy of 'Wired' I got from SXSW a few weeks ago and found an interesting article... Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star. (you can find the link to the right of this page).

I downloaded iPodderX (http://ipodderx.com). Which is pretty slick. Although, this (and any versions before) don't come with the slightest bit of instructions. Great interfaces don't need it, right? Well, there were some complaints about not getting it to work. For me, I had to Quit, then restart the app for it to Update any of the feeds.

What can we possibly do with podcasting? rebroadcast music? live sports? adult stuff?

hmm

Photos are up!

Send me your email address, and I'll send you an invitation to the photos.

here before we knew it

Contractions are still getting tougher and now Cheryl says, "My water just broke!" The nurse and I look, it's true. Things are going to really progress now.

Cheryl has the epidural put in. The anesthesiologist says it'll take 10 to 30 minutes for it to kick in. I take a quick couple of minutes to tell our folks how it's going.

When I get back, the doctor is there... he says, "It's time to push." I'm shocked and so is Cheryl. Neither of us can believe that she's at 10 cm and the time has come. I make an attempt to call our folks to give them the update so they can call people... but the doc says no way. It's time to go.

She's also disappointed. She went through basically the entire labor without medicine of any kind. By the time it's all done, only one contraction will have been covered by the epidural. Still, she thinks the epidural was good and helped save her some strength.

I've been giving you my viewpoint on how difficult it was for her labor, but I really have no idea. There is so much psychologically going on too. I'll let her tell you if you talk to her, what this was like.

After about 4 pushes, you can see the baby's head starting to emerge. A mirror has been placed so that Cheryl can see the baby coming out. This, she said, really helped her pushing because she can see the results her pushing is having.

After 7 pushes, the baby's head is about half way out. Gwenny's right hand is up by her face. Squeezing the head out now is a little more difficult. The doctor shows us. A couple more pushes and the baby is completely out.

Cheryl is exhausted; I'm pretty tired also. We're both in complete disbelief the work is done, and we're parents to a beautiful little girl.

Some of this is flash back to when Rich was born. Another greatest day of my life is here. And all I can do is smile and try to absorb as much of the feeling as I can.

one tough moment

The sensations of labor are overpowering. As they get stronger and start getting closer Cheryl seems surprised that they could get any worse. The pain completely takes over her body. They don't build, they come on strong and continue to build from there. It's hard to tell where they plateau, but they seem to be lasting at least a minute.

The doubt that she can continue to cope med free is increasing. It's been on her mind constantly. And now, she tells me to request an epidural from the nurse. I try the usual reasoning with her... all the stuff I practiced in my mind for denying her these requests. She knows what I'm doing and says, "I know I've said... and I can't make it. Ask for the epidural now." I'm stumbling what I've practiced like a rookie used car salesman. I know she can't continue, so I make the request. The nurse, well aware that we intended to go "natural" accepts the request quickly and spares us any grief about our previous intentions.

Our folks are in the lobby, but I can't leave her to let them know what's going on. The contractions are coming faster and the medicine can't get here soon enough.

not as far as we thought

We were checked in by a guy that obviously is new at the hospital and grew increasingly nervous as Cheryl moaned and hummed through contractions. We got into a labour and delivery room right away. While the nurse helped Cheryl get changed, I ran down to park the Jeep and bring up the bags.

It's windy and the grass from the maintenance crew is flying around. I walk through it with my hands full of bags and thinking to myself how this feels... because I know it's real. And wondering how I'll feel later, looking back at this moment. My mind is full of questions.

I get back to the room and the nurse checks to see how far Cheryl is dilated. Julia (the nurse) says Cheryl's dilated to about 2.5 cm. (0 - 10 is the scale) And she's 90% effaced (that means her uterus has thined significantly). She says it's paper thin now and is the longest part of labour. "You spend most of the time getting to 3 cm, then the rest (after the water breaks) escalates quickly." We're both disappointed. And for the moment, there is the possibility that we'll be going back home. But neither of us thinks that will realistically happen.

I haven't mentioned our stand-in delivery doctor, Dr. Locus. He has been great... he was in surgery early this morning, but has been calling us every couple of hours. Now that I told him we're at the hospital, he says, "I'm on my way." This is of course, very comforting.

He arrives shortly and informs us of the many ways things can go from here. He leaves the room to give us time to think about what to do next. We're left with the choice of breaking waters to induce labour or wait. We decide to wait for an hour and see if the membrane will rupture on its own.

Going to the hospital

It's just after 1Pm, and the ongoing topic has been, "when do we leave." That's of course between contractions. We don't want to go too early because we don't want her to be hooked up to machines and not able to freely cope with labour. All along we've seen modern American medicine as being less and less natural.

This morning there are no BBC baby story shows on, but we've seen them in the past. And we both agree, they are more liberal with coping methods, such as, water births and delivering while standing... neither of these can be done while under the influence of an epidural.

From time to time, Cheryl compares the strength of her contractions now to times before and remembers thinking, "this is not as bad as I thought it would be." And also thinking, "what a fool I was then." This discovery, of course, keeps repeating as labour progresses.

The last thing we were watching was some nature Discovery Channel thing where fish are fighting the current upstream to spawn... then something about flamingos. We only catch it peripherally anyway. The contractions appear to be more frequent and stronger. So, we see if we can take it just a little more.

I put in The Dick Van Dyke Show, which, not surprisingly gets a little annoying since we've seen this episode. It's the one where Dick brings home some baby ducks and they're trying to hide them from their kid. Who nags a lot for them when he can hear them. I turn it off.

Finally when we're sure we can't hold out any longer, we go downstairs and sit through a couple more contractions while I load the Jeep. We get in and off we go. Excited, optimistic, scared. We can't believe we're really driving to the hospital. I know I've thought about the short drive dozens of times; Cheryl has probably thought about it many more times.

Well, it's on

We're making phone calls, preparing things. Cheryl woke me up at 7:09 AM and asked me to time the contractions. She seems more uncomfortable now, but is finding ways to manage them. In boxing terms, I think the first couple of shots have been taken and she has her head in the game.

Some of you guys know we've been taking a natural approach to this, no just in trying to go med free, but understanding the process and knowing that all these sensations of labor are good and helping.

The most interesting part this morning so far has been that the baby lets her know when a contraction is about to start. The first thing I thought was that perhaps the baby is bringing about the contractions by her movement, but the contractions have had a pretty even pattern. And the baby has been participating in some of them. She starts to move only before one is coming... Cheryl can't tell that the contraction is coming, just when the baby warns her by moving.

Quotes from Cherl just now: "It's weird how you can dread something but hope for something at the same time." ... "C'mon contractions!... oh no here's another one."

The plan right now... We're both going to get something quick to eat, shower and get ready. Rich (our 12 year old) has been visiting his aunt Nora who is out of town and staying at a Best Western. We called them and asked that they bring him at 9 AM. From here, Beth (sister) will bring him to the hospital. Cheryl just called Rob (Cheryl's brother) and Delia to come pick up Grommit later (our dog). Cheryl called her folks. I'm about to call mine.

The stage is set, you've met all the characters...

I'm up

I'm up. We're both up. Cheryl woke me up about 3:35, just about 20 minutes ago. She has noticed ... for the weak, this is where you go here: http://homestarrunner.com... the rest can stay.

She noticed blood on one of the many times she usually goes to the rest room during the night. Don't worry, folks, this is actually a good thing. It might mean that Labor is starting. Hmm, just noticed I capitalized that. ... more on that later, perhaps?

A little fear set in (with her first). She is always sitting at the front. I tried to comfort her with some light humor. We decided to use Becky and Daniels (B&D)... B&D's palm pilot (whose sole purpose in life is apparently to run a small program that tracks contraction times. Has two buttons, 'Started' and 'Ended.'

The sprinklers are on, apparently. Right about here in the text, Bryan is reading this and remembering I don't post stupid stuff like, "today I went to the bank blah blah." But I think it's important to note things in detail as I'm experiencing them.

Cheryl's gone down to get something to eat and we'll both try to get a little more sleep, but we're both too excited, and I suspect we'll be up from here on if it is the real thing.

Flickr bought!

Holy Crap! Carl Stedman bought Flickr!

canned meat

Survey firm Ipsos-Reid has taken the interesting stance that spam to Canadians has been attenuated by 20% because of the federal privacy law PIPEDA which is so fearsome in nature that is scares off even the biggest- baddest spammers in other countries. CAUCE Canada has their doubts.