News

I took a small movie with the digital camera of Anna crawling back in the beginning of January or so. It's 4 megabytes so it could take a long time to download. For dial-up, that could be an hour or more. Click her to start downloading it. If you click with the right button on the mouse and select "Save As..." you can keep a local copy and avoid downloading it again.

There are also new images at the end of the Anna gallery, plus in the Home gallery.

We've sucessfully managed to move out of our old house and into the new one on time, but boy are we worn out. The movers even managed to get the piano up the split level steps, but they damaged the railing in the process. I think we're supposed to get a refund for that. It was mud and snow central that day too, so the new carpets got broken in. The person from the fire department who's cleaning the carpets at Price street said he could stop by and go over the new house if we needed. Most of it has come up with the vacuum though. Also, the giant armoire from Ikea didn't fit through the door into the master bedroom so I had to take it apart (including what seemed like 400 nails that held the back panel on) and put it back together. At least that was an option!

Both Anna and Atticus seem to be happy with the new house and are settling in. Atticus has already staked out several lounging locations and has decided to sleep in the master bedroom closet for now. The new house looks more like a stockroom with boxes literally everywhere. I had to dig out the couch and some floor space last night just so we could watch the Superbowl. We'll be having a massive yard sale when the weather is right for it to get rid of a lot of the things we don't really need. Of course, sorting and putting things on shelves and such will help a lot, however we've gone from two linen closets down to zero, and the kitchen has a lot fewer drawers and cabinets. We currently don't even have a place to put silverware. :(

Anna is really mobile these days, crawling around to get where she needs to be. She's pulling herself up without a problem and sometimes for just a second takes her hand off of whatever she's holding on to and stands on her own. When a tooth isn't bothering her, she continues to be happy, playful and full of smiles. It's hard to see because we're always with her, but it does appear the baby fat is starting to go away on her face now that she's working it off.

Latest game: Daddy lies on his back with knees bent in the air. Baby sits on knees and then leans forward and "falls" into daddy's arms. Fun!!

The new house didn't have DSL so I wasn't able to keep my server. A friend has offered to host my site on his machine, which is very cool. In fact, it's already there! You probably didn't even notice the difference except that the galley might be faster (except for people on dialup. That means you Connecticut people...). Hopefully I'll have some pictures up soon, plus a movie of Anna crawling.

I've finally gotten the new sets of pictures up. The Anna gallery has some new photos, including her first time pulling herself up to standing. Then there are also the Christmas pictures for Anna's first Christmas. Anna is getting to the point where she's going to start crawling around. She can scoot backwards pretty well and get into a sitting position from her belly. She still loves to stand and also to ride on Daddy's shoulders, which has to be one of the most fun things in the world from her reaction. Her teeth have started to really come in; she has two on the bottom and some starting on the top. In the pictures below you can see her bottom teeth, and grandma's loot from Santa.

Well, it's been a while since an update. Anna is almost ready to crawl these days but isn't quite there yet. She will stay standing if we stand her up next to a table, and she's gotten up on her knees every now and then in the last few days. Look for the new images here in the Anna gallery, plus in the new Emily's Birthdayalbum, the Pictures with Santa album and Christmas Play album.

Also, all the pictures we currently have of the new house are here.

Anna is now 6 months old. She sits up by herself and is starting baby food. She went to visit her great-grandfather Mason in Pennsylvania this past weekend. He could not see her since he is blind, but he was thrilled she came to visit. There are new pictures starting here.

New pictures in the Labor Day gallery. Anna was very happy to have grandma, grandpa and auntie visit! We got to be outside a lot, got to see a lot of new things and had a lot of fun with the relatives.

Wow, four months! Anna's gotten so big, has started doing so much and looks around like she wants to learn everything, or at least put whatever she can in her mouth. She routinely smiles, especially if we wake her up (instead of her waking us). She's doing a lot of standing on laps (no balance yet, but she's strong) while staring into mommy and daddy's face. She doesn't like to go to sleep at night, but she sleeps most of the night when she finally does. Momma says she's a good girl "most of the time" during the day when momma's trying to work. We're up to size three diapers, and boy does she need them when she's been storing up for a while.

I've put up various new pictures. Some of them start on page 11 of the Anna gallery. Also, there are pictures from Anna's dedication in a gallery by that name.

Check out the two new albums in the 2004 gallery. Melissa and Bill come to visit, plus we take a 2 1/2 hour road trip to Natural Tunnel State Park. It was a good trial run for going to the beach in two weeks! The park is really great. You can take a $3 chair lift ride down into the gorge, or walk the trail. There are several other trails around the ridge, and lots of cool looking shear rock cliffs. There is an active rail line through the tunnel, but we just missed the train as we were riding back up. D'oh!

More pictures at the end of the gallery. Anna is really starting to put on her baby fat now, which makes sense given that she's ALWAYS hungry. :) She's also been having some stomach issues (gas) which has made for a grumpy baby. On the other hand, she's really doing well sleeping through the night, although because she's not feeling well she wants to be held until she's asleep. Good thing we have a comfortable recliner in the bedroom!

I think that's a real smile! More pictures at the end of the gallery.

Hi everyone! We are home now! There are more pictures in the gallery.

Our beautiful Anna Elizabeth was born via emergency C-section on Sunday, April 4 at 4:20 AM. The labor and delivery was scary due to some physical issues with mom and baby, (that is what I get for having an easy pregnancy), but everyone is doing well now.

The birth story.

After showing signs of preeclampsia (high blood pressure from pregnancy), my OB decided that I should be induced the next day, Saturday. They would give me a drug, Cervadil, to open the cervix and dilate me so I could go into labor, hopefully somewhat naturally. The whole day they had me in bed and checked my blood pressure and temperature. They had me hooked up to some contraption that measured the baby's heart rate and my contractions. Neil and I were so bored waiting, that we called the Phillips to come by for games and to chat. We chatted for a while and suddenly I had this massive lower back pain. Contractions! We applied heat and that helped some, but not a lot. They gave me Nubain for the pain and it helped, but only for a half hour. Then I was cramping massively. They watched me for hours and then gave me an epidural. While they were doing that, the OB came in and did an internal check of baby's heart rate and my contractions. Whenever I had a contraction, the baby's heart rate would drop dangerously low, indicative of the umbilical cord being wrapped around her neck. The OB decided then that I needed to go in for a C-Section immediately. So they prepped me and wheeled me down to the operating room. Neil had to wait until they were ready for surgery. It seemed like forever before I got to see him. As soon as he came in the OR, they started surgery. At 4:20, Anna was born. It seemed like forever before we heard a noise from her or that she was doing well. But, thank God, she was doing beautifully. Her temperature was a little low, but nothing bad.

However, I was very sick to my stomach. I had a decent dinner thinking that I would not be in labor until much later. I also could not feel my legs because of the epidural and it was a strange feeling. It really bugged me and freaked me out. There was a lot of fear on my part. I could not breast feed her for the first couple of feedings because I was drugged out and weak. I could not hold her. I could not sleep either. Neil took care of her and fed her some formula.

Later that day, I was kept on bed rest for all of Sunday. Those of you who know me know how crazy that would make me. I was too weak to get up. I had to feed her laying down in bed which was difficult. Funny, it was a miserable day, but I cannot remember too many details because the result was so amazing and wonderful! Apparently there really is something to the full moon. The birthing center was completely swamped this past weekend. We even had to move from a labor room to a recovery room, which isn't normally done if they don't have to. However, there were just too many babies coming in.

Monday and Tuesday I was able to get up and walk around. I became significantly stronger, especially when I found out that I had to request pains meds and that they did not just give them to me. I am still in pain. I cannot use stairs on a daily basis or lift anything heavier than baby. So I am sleeping downstairs in the guest room with baby. Neil will try to move the recliner downstairs so I can sit in the family room. The couches are too soft and it hurts to get out of them. I will be out of work for 8 weeks recovering.

I want to thank all those who helped us the past few days. Mom, Pop, and Cheryl for running errands and getting Neil food. The Phillips for entertaining, getting food, running errands, feeding the cat, and offering to help do things around the house. The nurses, staff, and docs at the hospital were the best we could ask for. They did so much to make sure that when we went home, we would be as prepared for everything as we could be.

If you want to visit us, call first. We welcome people to stop by! Just be prepared, if you are a guy, that I may have to leave the room for a while to feed Anna. The best time is late afternoon, early evening for a visit. Don't expect me to dress up for visitors LOL!

Anna arrived around 4:20am Sunday morning! She's 6 pounds 4.8 oz and 18 inches long. She's the most adorable little thing in the world. :) Click here for a small movie of her wiggling around (3 megs). Click here for the Anna gallery, and here she is!

Added new photos in various places. Click here and here for some. The house and all the baby gear is slowly coming together. We just hope she waits until the scheduled time. :)

Some of the gallery has been updated. Look for the Christmas images in the 2003 album, the new Lisa gallery in the family section and these pictures.

The rooms are slowly getting finished. Any day now and the furniture should be all set up. Everything but the crib came assembled, which made fitting it in the truck for the trip from Roanoke to home interesting! The guys are the store thought it would never fit, but we got everything into the truck. We also had the fireplace, etc inspected in case we need to start a fire during one of the many ice storms we seem to be getting.

Anna is starting to kick like crazy!

We heard Anna's heartbeat again a few days ago, everything is sounding good now!

Progress is being made on the rooms in the house. We now have all the baseboard cut (thanks for the help and saw Jeff!), painted and ready to go up. It took two days straight due to all the small corners and the need to adjust some angles. I guess the house isn't as straight as it looks. I still have to paint two of the rooms though! :(

My back issues appear to be to a pelvic bone out of alignment on the right side. It should be possible to bring it back into line through exercise and therapy, which I guess is good to hear.

Lisa is going to change jobs at the beginning of the year! She'll be moving to a job which is much more oriented to her skills, namely video editing and production. It also pays better and is full time, meaning benefits. Yay!

I'm putting together a new photo gallery on the website for all the digital images we have. I can also allow other users to create sub-albums and put photos and captions up themselves. There are settings to allow voting on images and comments as well. To comment or create sub-albums, you need a username and password. Ask me if you are interested. Apparently it also has links allowing users to order prints online. I haven't checked into any of that yet, so beware. For instance, I can go print images onto photo paper at Walmart for 39 cents each, which might be a better deal.

The gallery can be found at: http://www.cxi.cx/gallery/

This software is something new that I'm trying. It seems to be somewhat of a heavy load, but hopefully the old computer will be able to handle it. If not, I may have to go back to something less functional, or perhaps upgrade the server.

We went to the doctor in Roanoke again today for another follow-up (she had a slow heartbeat once a few weeks ago but not since). Everything was checked out great! Here are some new pictures from today:

I'm creating a new web site for the house, the family and anything else I want to put up.