From Wit’s End

I think Baby Nora really likes her Uncle Dave, and I think the feeling is mutual.

(Taken with Grandpa’s cellphone.)

Wow, just look at that. She’s a little miracle.

Which is different from last time, when things were so weird and fast that the doula never saw us.

The internal sensors were put in and are showing some mild contractions, but Rachel isn’t feeling very much yet. She is laying quietly and watching TV.

Jack rests up for the trip home..

…Jack either wore himself out yesterday, or that last “double-feeding” last night filled him up really well, or both, because he slept all the way through the night last night for the second time. Huzzah.

Me mum took this one with her spiffy cellphone. Thus the “neo”.

Rachel went into surgery one more time this morning – hopefully for the last time — to get her stitches replaced because the old ones weren’t doing the job. Ellie Stager came over early in the morning to take care of Jack while we were at the outpatient surgery clinic. Jack didn’t sleep very consistently or happily at all last night, so when he finally settled at 5 o’clock this morning, we knew he would mostly sleep while Ellie was taking care of him.

The morning went by quickly in a haze of daze and medical advice for both Rachel and I, but it ended well, because we each got a smoothie for lunch: hers was chocolate, banana, and yogurt; mine was chocolate, banana, & peanut butter. When we got home, Ellie said that her Deacon & our Jack pretty much took turns sleeping, so the morning went by really smoothly.

The afternoon was so quiet and wonderful! Rachel and I each figured out semi-independently that in order for tonight to go better, we should try changing our approach to Jack during the day. So we woke Jack up every two hours to change him and feed him. In between feedings, Rachel mostly rested and slept, and I mostly puttered around the house taking care of things and working on this new version of our personal website. At one point, though, I wandered into the guest room and took one of the deepest naps I have taken in a very long time for about an hour and a half.

Later…

A more structured schedule for Jack during the day seems to be working: as of this writing, he is sleeping through what for the past few days has been his cranky “witching hour” from 9:30-ish to 10:30-ish, and that is a good thing. The other thing that may be helping is what Ellie showed us about how she swaddles Deacon. She uses something called a Miracle Blanket, which seems to work really well to keep her son calm and feeling secure. I took note of the design and function of the thing, and we improvised our own with the materials we had on hand. This also made a big difference today, I think. Jack’s hands have been making like Houdini out of his wrapping and oppressing his poor little face, but this new wrapping style prevented that and helped all of us to be a little more at ease.

The proof of these new approaches remains to be seen through this coming night. Meanwhile, enjoy a small token of this wonderful afternoon with us:

I’m pretty proud of this picture. To see what it is a picture of, click on the thumbnail, download the picture, and zoom in on the very center of the picture.	Kat watching over Jack.

By “Mom-ular” demand, here’s today’s picture.

Jack’s proud poppa is always taking pictures of his son (while Jack’s momma rolls her eyes), so watch for more!

Just click on a picture to view a larger version of it.

[Note: Written the next morning after I got a good night's sleep. So don't worry, Mom. ]

[Also Note: Pictures are coming soon! Check back on the afternoon of Wednesday the 10th.]

Rachel is back safely from surgery. While she was in the recovery room, I went to the Special Care Nursery to spend time with Jack. It was so nice to just hold him!

At about 8:45pm, I went back to Rachel’s room, and she had just been brought back from recovery. I settled into the recliner and watched some TV, considering going back home to get some rest. The doctor told me that tonight would be the best night to go home and get some rest while the nurses watched Rachel closely while she recovered and slept after her surgery. I figured that I would head back after the show called “The Unit” on CBS was over.

My phone went off, and it was Jennifer (Rachel’s sister). She said, “Eve and Pastor Wilkes are in the hospital looking for you right now.” Just then there was a knock on the door, and the aforementioned walked in. I updated Jennifer on the situation and rang off, and greeted Eve and the Pastor. Apparently neither knew that the other was coming to visit and they had met at the elevator in the lobby. They asked if there was anything they could do for us. I said we were doing okay, and I was thinking of heading back home for some rest. I must have not looked so well, because Eve immediately offered to drive me home. I took her up on the offer, and we headed out. When I got home, I took some Aleve for my poor aching bones, legs and feet, and fell into bed, asleep almost immediately.

…and we had a splendid time. I will post some pictures and recounts of our time there over time.

Our last getaway was to Charleston, and we ran around so much that it took a day to recover from our vacation. Not so for this trip; we filled our time at most half full and lounged around for the remaining time. It was great. Strangely enough, at Sunday school today, we in the young couples’ class were asked to go around the room introducing ourselves, stating our names and our favorite vacation spot. My answer went something like this:

I’m Ben, and this is Rachel; we’re the Wisdoms. I’m not sure we have a favorite vacation spot. Anywhere we can do half-nothing and see the sites for the other half is fine with us, I guess. If we have to be particular, our favorite vacation spot is heaven, otherwise we’re just glad to be here.

On the way to getting our portraits taken for the church directory this morning, I picked up a rented garden tiller. When we got home, we finished clearing the garden plots, except for a small section in the middle, where last year’s strawberry plants were put in last year. We found 17 small strawberries, all ripe and ready, without us doing anything but dutifully pinching off the flowers last year, that the plants might be the more fruitful this year. It worked.

I had a wee bit o’ trouble with the tiller, but all it took was one magic word of advice from my merry pop-in-law over the phone, and it started right up with a whoop of triumph. We got it back to the shop five minutes before closing at one o’clock. We did some window shopping for a pair of nightstands, went to Fazoli’s for lunch, and then stopped at Home Depot to learn how to lay brick pavers, which we have plenty of from last years garden arrangement efforts.

After coming home, we found that the heat, walking around, and cheap italian food had exhausted us, so we each had a little siesta. After we slowly regained our respective consciousnesses around 5pm, we finally hung one of my Christmas presents between two trees, and rewarded us by laying in it and rocking for a good amount of time.