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April 26, 2007
Good ideas are better than speed
I should be home right now, napping. Eleanor decided her "wake and lively time" (i.e alternately breaking your heart by looking at you with her blue-brown eyes and crying her lungs out) would be from 2:30 AM to 6:00 AM. Sarah and I handed her off, but Sarah did most of the heavy lifting, since a lot of that waking time was hunger. Eleanor is also doing this thing where she wants to eat a little bit every hour or so for 2-3 hours at a time.
So we didn't get much sleep. My plan was to get into the office by 10, grade, and be out by 2:00 so I could go home and nap. Then, I would grade some more tonight. But I got to talking about my on-line course and a few other things with a colleague and, lo and behold, a lot of good ideas about the course and some concurrent research were generated. It's pretty exciting, which is why I am still here at 3:40.
Posted by Nakia at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2007
A Good Wednesday
Exams have begun here at Winthrop. I know it's early, but we did begin a week before most other universities. I am glad the semester is at it's end. It's been a hard one for a variety of reasons -- most of them baby related. Eleanor's development, birth, and now infancy has certainly distracted me from focusing 100% on school. I am glad I have the summer to spend with her and Sarah, while adjusting to having her around in terms of focusing on and managing my workload.
My students don't have a traditional final. Instead, they present their group projects on the ideal school. I'm looking forward to hearing what they come up with. I'm also turning this assignment into a research project for myself. More on that later.
Sarah's parents left yesterday after being aroud for a week. They were a huge help -- doing laundry, making dinner, running errands. I want to thank them for all they did and was glad they were able to spend time with their new granddaughter.
Now, it's a beautiful Wednesday afternoon. Bright sun, warm air, and a nice breeze. My wife is at home with our new daughter, who is doing great. She's gaining weight, trying to figure out how to hold her head up, and sleeping a lot (except from 4 --7 AM, when she wants to be entertained). It's a good day.
(Oh, and I know the comments are screwed up. My brother is on it, but he just bought a house so I am cutting him some slack).
Posted by Nakia at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2007
No more Dungeon and Dragon magazines
Given all that's going on in the world -- the Virginia Tech tragedy comes to mind -- and in my own corner of the planet (Eleanor, of course) feeling bad about a magazine seems a little silly. Yet I did feel a bit of sadness when Paizo publishing announced last Thursday that they had lost the rights to publish Dragon and Dungeon Magazines. Wizards of the Coast, who owns the rights, said that those magazines would no longer be published.
I had not bought either one of those magazines in awhile, but I read a whole lot of Dragon magazine back in middle and high school, when I was gaming regularly and when I wasn't. They always seemed a bit above me, in a good way, challenging my reading skills, and asking me to think harder about the game I loved. They had good articles and cool art. Now (or in a few months) that magazine won't be around any longer; that makes me a little sad.
This signifies a subtle but powerful shift in me and my relationship to gaming as a hobby, I think. I'm older, have a child now, work full time, and certainly don't game as much as I used to (okay, ever). But D&D seems to have changed a lot, too, and not really for the better. I am still struggling to put my finger on my own shift and how that's related to the shift in gaming/gamers. I'm still working on it.
Posted by Nakia at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2007
Eleanor at night
Posted by Nakia at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2007
Eleanor at home
We brought our daughter home on Friday. So far it's been a tiring, wonderful, amazing thing to have her with us.
Now, for example, it's 7:50 AM. I've been up since 6:30 or so, staying up after I helped get Eleanor to sleep. The past few nights, she's been active from about 3:30 until 6:30 or so. She'll cry for her feeding and Sarah and I will both get up. I'll get her ready, checking her diaper, while Sarah preps with the Boppy and gets herself comfortable. Sarah will start to feed her while I prep the forumula. I'll deliver that to Sarah and then lay back down. Eleanor inevitably falls asleep while feeding (she usually feeds for 20-30 minutes), so Sarah will have to work to wake her back up for the formula. The feeding formula with the syringe takes at least an hour. After that, Eleanor will usually want more to eat from Sarah, will often need another diaper change, and will then be awake for a bit. I am only semi-conscious or asleep during most of this time, but will try and wake up to help change her again or get her to sleep.
Yesterday, Eleanor stayed asleep until almost 9:00, giving her mother a good 3 hours of sleep. Today, unfortunately, I am going to have to wake them both up soon. Eleanor's first visit to the pediatrician is at 10:30. I am praying he'll say it will be okay to take her off the formula suppliments. That will make things much easier. I think he will; she's clearly no longer jaundiced and, if her *ahem* excreatory functions are any indication, she's getting plenty of food. So hopefully she'll have gained some good weight and we'll be able to avoid the two hour feedings that have taken up most of our time lately.
I'll be the first to admit it's hard, especially for a guy who likes and needs his sleep. It's hard on Sarah, who wants to take care of everything, including trying to assure that I get my sleep, and entertain anyone who comes to visit. But when Eleanor looks at us with those dark eyes (we still can't figure out the color, though they look kinda dark blue now) or grabs our finger, we'd have it no other way.
More pics soon. We've only taken about 6,000 since she came home.
Posted by Nakia at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2007
Eleanor, Day 2
It's Eleanor, day 2, here at the hospital. Got a little more sleep last night, but one thing I've come to realize about hospitals is that they never leave you alone for more than an hour. Someone is always coming in and checking or emptying something.
Our doctor told us this morning (at 7 AM. He does is rounds at 7 AM. Who is coherent enough at 7 AM after sleeping with baby to understand medical directions?) that Eleanor had a pretty high bilirubin count and had lost a little more weight than he would have liked, so he told us to start suplimenting her breastfeeding with formula. Sarah was pretty bummed -- she's pretty dedicated to breastfeeding. I called the doctor after a little while to get some clarification. We just need to give her an extra ounce of formula after each feeding and we can give it with a syringe. After a couple of days, when she's older and both her and Sarah are used to feeding, she can probabll go back to breastfeeding only. So, it's some extra work for a couple of days, but no big deal. We should get to go home tomorrow.
Posted by Nakia at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2007
Another Eleanor pic
Posted by Nakia at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
The New Pope
Eleanor Rose Pope Born April 10th, 2007 at 10:39 PM. 7lbs, 5oz. 20 inches long.
And awesome.
Posted by Nakia at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2007
Labor beginnings
We're up after a decent nights sleep in the hospital. It would have been a good nights sleep, but the alarm kept going off on the fetal monitor. Nothing bad was happening, just the settings on the monitor were turned up too high, so it beeped every time BGP's heart rate dropped below 120. They finally adjusted it about 2:30 AM, so we got some good sleep after that.
They came it about 6:45 and hooked Sarah up to the pitosin drip. We saw the doctor a few minutes ago. Of course, the on call doctor today is the one doctor we never got to see during the pregnancy, but he seemed very nice. He checked Sarah out and said that we didn't need to get impatient, because it could be a long day. Sarah's having a few contractions now, but it's just the beginning.
Posted by Nakia at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2007
At the hospital
Sarah and I are chilling out in Labor and Delivery room #1 at The Women's Center in Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill. Yes, they have internet. And, yes, I brought the laptop. Sarah's due date was Friday, but no baby then, so we went back to the doctor today. He told us that the fluid in Sarah's uterus was getting low, so we should probably get the baby on out of there. We checked into the hospital at about 7:30. They are about to give Sarah some medicine to help thin her cervix, then they'll start the pitocin tomorrow morning which will induce the labor. So, maybe this time tomorrow Baby Girl Pope will be here!
Posted by Nakia at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)
Teachers and the Law Powerpoint
Posted by Nakia at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2007
Movie Junk
I know I am about to have a kid, which means I won't be able to go to the movies for 15 years or so. That sucks, because there is lots of cool movie-ness out there. Seeing the trailers has me sold that Transformers will be cool, despite earlier misgivings. And there's the new Pirates movie, which will be fun even though the last one was a little over-the-top (not in a good way). There is also, of course, Grindhouse, which, according to this review (for adults only) promises to be better than a napalm zombie explosion. There's also Indiana Jones 4, which finaly starts filming this summer. Live Free or Die Hard looks pretty rockin (I love how the teaser is just explosions, car chases, and gunfire). And there's Sunshine, which I just found out about today. The premise looked a little shoddy, but it's Danny Boyle directing, who pretty much kicks all ass.
I guess I need to start lining up babysitters now.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot Spider-Man 3. Duh.
Posted by Nakia at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2007
A family weekend
Sarah and I capped a weekend spent with family by hearing from the doctor this morning: no new family member this week. So, we're still waiting. If there has been no change by next Monday, we'll starting thinking about inducing.
Friday Sarah and I watched The Prestige, which was lots of fun. The movie looked cool, had an interesting structure, and Christian Bale was awesome, as usual. Someone needs to put him in a role where he can get noticed by the Academy. Plus any movie that has David Bowie as Tesla is good. Still I think I liked The Illusionist better, albeit only slightly.
Saturday we went into Charlotte to watch my cousin, Shanna, play in a vollyball tournament. Shanna is 14 and plays for a club team in Conway, which was competing in this giant tournament (over 100 teams on 18 courts) at the Charlotte Convention Center. Robert and his kids came as well; it was fun to watch and cheer Shanna on. Dad came into town in the afternoon, so we all cooked out over at Robert's house that evening. We watched some basketball in HD, too.
Sunday was breakfast with Dad, then church, then a quick trip to REI in Pineville. Instead of a daddy diaper bag, I bought a new day pack which will serve diaper and hiking duty. I needed a new one and this was a good reason to get one. We ate lunch at our favorite Mexican place (in Pineville), then chilled out at home for the rest of the day.
Posted by Nakia at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2007
Sarah at nine months
It's almost time!
Posted by Nakia at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)