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startle reflex

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grandma rank

Swirly has a name

The Ohsiek swirl lives on to delight and torment another generation.

Deciding on a name has been more difficult than I thought it would be. We've known for the last 6 months that it would be a boy, but still left the hospital without a name. Lots of contenders though-- Hank, Frank, Jesus, and Zebedee, among many others. To some he'll always be known as Moe, Mountain Man or just Baby Boy. But officially (once we get the birth certificate form filled out) it will be Hugo Paul Jitsudo Rank.

Paul because he was born on the same day as Joe's dad Paul/Popper, plus it's a good name and Joe's middle name.
Jitsudo because that's my grandfather's name, and many Ohsiek girls have Japanese middle names, but why limit it to just the girls?
Hugo because it just fits him. I personally don't know anyone else named Hugo, as I'm sure is the case for most of you, but that's what I can see myself calling him... more than Jesus (that's the Spanish pronunciation mind you). There are other Hugos out there (besides Hugo Chavez) -- Hugo Weaving, Hugo Peabody, Victor Hugo. But now when I think of the name Hugo I'll think of my sweet little baby.

Thank you to everyone for the warm wishes and happy thoughts. It's been great reading through the comments and emails and hearing from you. We're lucky to have such good family and friends.

Welcome Baby Boy Rank

July 11, 2009







Yes, July 11 was a momentous day for Maria. This is my bystander view of the events.
11:55 pm July 10 - Maria's "bag of waters" broke. "Gushing" is how she described it. Every term pregnant woman's fear of gushing waters came true. Fortunately, she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, after sitting up talking to her niece Crystelle, who made a quick trip to Seattle and spent the night. More on that later. Really, the bathroom is probably the best place in the world to break your "bag of waters". This happened only days after reading the reassuring words in "What to Expect...", which state that the waters really hardly ever "gush" when you are standing, so being in public is safe. The baby's head acts as a sort of cork and the "gush" just doesn't happen. Well, Maria may have an opposing opinion to declare.

After checking our sources, we found several suggesting we call the midwife and possibly go into the hospital. We gathered up the things we wanted to bring with us. Maria had her bag all ready to go two weeks ago. We didn't hear back from the midwife for over an hour, because she was delivering the baby of one of the other couples in our Centering Group. When she called back, she had checked the status of Maria's Group B Strep culture. The culture was positive, so we knew that she would receive antibiotics and probably be induced if labor didn't start soon. The midwife called us in to the hospital and we arrived a little after 2 am.

We learned that Swedish hospital has a new policy of inducing labor almost immediately for Group B Strep positive women with premature rupture of membranes. At this point Maria was not having contractions, didn't seem even close to labor. We were given options. 1- get some rest, and induce labor in the morning (rest includes a shot of morphine in Maria's tush). 2- induce now and get labor going. Naturally we chose option 1. We had been up all day most of the night and had both worked a full day on Friday. Within 30 minutes of getting the morphine shot, Maria had started contractions that kept going, keeping her awake through the night. So, after a refreshing 15 minute nap, we were in the middle of "having a baby" time.

The short story is that Maria's labor progressed steadily and rapidly. By 4 am she was at 3 cm. By 5:15 am she was at 6 cm. By 6:30, after a stint in the jacuzzi, she had only a "rim" of cervix left on the anterior side. It looked like she would deliver before 8 am, but things slowed down at this point. That last rim of cervix was stubborn and did not go down quietly. She tried different positions, squatting, standing on her head etc. The labor became more intense during this time, and it was frustrating that the increased pain did not produce better or faster results. (Like any of this makes sense or should happen a certain way) Finally around 8 am the baby's head made it over the rim of cervix and she could start pushing. The pain of pushing, the contractions and progression of decent of the fetus combined to make that last hour the most painful and the loudest. Yes, Maria managed to get a few words in between contractions. "It's stuck, not moving" were among the vocalizations.

However, Hercules was a wimp next to Maria, and she just hunkered down and pushed and pushed and pushed that baby out.

A dark head of hair was emerging. When he finally made it out, the prominent cone head and bruises told the story of head butting the pubic bone, maybe he is bound to be a rugby player. However, uncomfortable to all, to say the least.

The baby had Apgar scores of 9/9, and we are sure this will get him into Harvard.

The placenta was delivered later with a somewhat "short" cord and looking very normal- I should know, I have looked at lots of them.

Besides the headache of staying up all night, the whole experience was a blessing. This baby is beautiful. Maria is AMAZING. I am in awe.

I was also able to bring Teo to see her new little brother. Nothing is as pleasing as the true excitement for life of a seven year old.

Baby takes first bath.

So around 11 am Maria called Crystelle to tell her she had a new cousin. Evidently, Crystelle had not remembered Maria waking her at 2 am and telling her we were going to the hospital. Crystelle woke up, wandered around the empty house wondering why we had ditched her there, gone off to breakfast or some wild tour of Seattle chicken coops. Crystelle was truly pleased to be the first of the Ohsiek side to hold the baby.

Barefoot and pregnant

I know where that saying came from. Just look at my little puff balls. There's no way they are going to fit into shoes. Doesn't help that it's 90 degrees outside, and 80 degrees inside.














I'm up to 46 inches now. That's almost as tall as Teo.

33 weeks

Toenail update

Since you're all dying to know...

The toenail sprung a leak last weekend. Blood started shooting, or rather, oozing out the end of the nail where it had separated from the skin. Over the course of 2 or 3 days I was able to squeeze out most of the blood and goo, kind of like draining a big blister. But like a blister, there's now a big space left behind that keeps filling with a thin clearish liquid - pus, I guess. When I press down on the toenail it comes bubbling out.

Prepare yourselves...




...

Several people have suggested Joe take some pliers and get rid of it once and for all. Or even going to a podiatrist to have my nail "professionally" ripped out. Listen people, I am not a fan of pain. There is no way that pulling the nail out of my toe will not be painful. Just the shot to deaden the toe is painful - if you've had a shot in the toe then you know what I mean. I'm just going to let it slowly grow and cut the free-hanging portion off whenever it gets long enough. In 9 months I'll have a perfectly normal toenail again.

Disfigured toenail

I fear for the future of my big toenail. It all started in Mexico about a week and a half ago. For those who may not know (mainly because I never tell anyone anything I'm up to), Joe and I went on a last-hurrah-before-the-baby vacation to Ixtapa, Mexico.







It was kind of a package tour through Landmark. I don't really know how to succinctly describe Landmark Education, so just go to their website to learn more. Anyway, we met up with a group of about 25 people and had ballroom dancing lessons every day. Then while Joe went to a discussion group with them I went to the pool or took a nap or walked on the beach. Very relaxing vacation and the dance lessons were really a lot of fun.

So back to the toenail. The travel information sent to us ahead of time said we should wear thin flexible soled shoes for dancing. Huh? Like flip flops? Slippers? Joe asked for clarification and the response was suede soled shoes, which we don't have, or something appropriate for dancing on a variety of surfaces including wood, stone, sand, carpet, hot coals, etc. We were at a loss. So we brought some sandal type shoes, plus Keen sandals for everyday wear and some flip flops. We decided to do lessons in the Keens because they were more supportive than regular sandals, plus they offered some toe protection - very important when learning to dance with a bunch of people who are also beginners. Very important. Feeling confident in my abilities by the end of the week, I decided to wear regular sandals to the lesson because I thought they would spin better on the turns than the Keens, which they did. So I'm partnered up with Joe, feeling quite at ease going through the T-A-N-G-O (count it out, like bingo) because the instructors keep telling us how well we were doing. Then I stepped forward with my left foot just as Joe stepped forward with his right foot. My big toenail scrapped across the entire sole of his thick, heavy, rubber, traction tire Keen sandal.

The pain was immediate and intense.

I sat down for a few minutes, unable to stand. The nail almost instantly took on a pale bluish hue. Stood up again to dance after a while, even though the toe was throbbing.

The next evening was our farewell dinner/dance/social. I had been carefully tiptoeing around all day, wearing the Keens, sleeping with the foot elevated, and so by the time evening rolled around my toe was feeling pretty good... so I wore open toed sandals, because they were black and went well with my dress. After dinner there was open dancing so people could show off what they had learned during the week. I proceeded to kick my toenail against the heel of my right shoe - oww! But I couldn't stop because the instructors asked us the day before to do a special dance. We had mentioned earlier in the week that we never had a wedding dance - it just wasn't that kind of reception. So this was our wedding dance. We chose the rumba because it had very basic steps and we could do one turn in each direction, so there was little chance of messing up and stepping on each other in front of the group. The dance was very basic but very nice and romantic. No colliding feet and no missteps.



A week and a half later...

The toenail had been feeling fine, though I could still sense the slightest pressure on the nail. Joe and I splurged and went to go see Wolverine in the theater. It was immediately after Saturday night stake conference so I was wearing a dress, and those blasted open toe sandals. On the way up the stairs to the bathroom at the theater I tripped on the last step, and caught myself on THAT TOENAIL! I thought I would pass out from the pain, but had to go to the bathroom (I'm nearly 7 months pregnant, remember?) and quickly make it back to my seat before the movie started. I hobbled back to my seat and could feel my pulse beating in the toenail for the next two hours as blood pooled below the nail.



I'm afraid the nail will be lost. It's beyond repair. The toe is still swollen to about twice the thickness of the other, and the nail is perched on top of the toe rather than embedded. It's too late now to do Kimball's trick of boring a hole through the nail to release the blood. It's just going to fall off.






Yes, my toes are very puffy. You should see them after riding in a plane for three hours. Notice how the cutouts of the sandal are perfectly imprinted on my foot.




So last month when I was debating whether or not to post something gross about my toenail - yeah, it was nothing compared to this. I was simply going to say that I never removed the nail polish from my wedding manicure and it had just barely grown all the way out - 9 months later. I just wanted to see how long it takes to grow the entire length of a toenail. Now I know.

43 inches

Only one inch gain, though I feel much rounder. Maybe it's because everything else is swelling. I think sometimes I don't look as big...


as other times.


We had a fun quick weekend in Utah.


Spent Easter with the family and had fun coloring eggs, lots of fancy eggs. We bought a book on decorating Ukranian style eggs. Multi-step process involving melted beeswax, dyes, varnish and suctioning/blowing out egg yolks.











Some of the tools



Got to meet Eden, and darn it I forgot to take pictures. She's so cute and tiny, like a little doll and she was unfazed by all the loud noises and big faces coming at her. It will be so nice to have Nat, Carlota and Eden here for 3 months. I can't wait to have lots of face time with the baby!