It's been 2 months and one day since I last posted anything here; all the while my intention was to post weekly about my life as a father of four boys or anything else that came up along the way. Well, life showed up in a big way in the form of a 7 lb. 8 oz. baby named Levi on, of all days, Super Bowl Sunday, Feb 7th. Since I haven't talked to you in a while, let me give you a bit of the back story.
My wife was scheduled to be admitted in Clovis Community on Friday the 5th with the intent of being induced. We show up at 5 pm and aren't given a room until 8 pm; gotta love the waiting room. When we get the room and she gets into that ubiquitous gown, a nurse comes to check her and tells us that she's at a 1. For those of you not in the know, a one means her cervix is dilated one centimeter and a 10 means she's ready to birth the child.
So, they put a suppository up in there to soften the cervix and help it move along. That first night was the last of the good nights for awhile I'm afraid. Besides being poked and prodded every 3-4 hours by the nurse, we slept fine; I even did on that little bench/couch thing that I'm sure was built as a deterrent for anyone to stay over night. Anyway, Saturday morning rolls around, a nurse takes the suppository out and checks her and gives us the great news that she went from a 1 to a 1 1/2. Now I know all about God's time and our time but come on, a half a centimeter in 12 hours; unfortunately this was but a small foreshadow of the events to come. Brenda was put on pitocin later that morning and that's when the fun began. The painful cramps didn't arrive until later in the afternoon but she did begin to show the first signs of her discomfort pretty much since the first trimester.
Now the hospital said they only allowed 2 people in the room at a time, but what they said and what they got were two different things. Her parents, my parents, and her sisters and brother-in-laws all made an appearance at one point during the labor process. What a blessing family is to have in a time like this; they kept me full of Starbucks and Mc Donald's and her sisters, Kathy and Stephanie, kept reminding Brenda of the joys of motherhood while the giant contractions were ripping her insides out. Oh happy day.
Saturday night finally came, albeit at a much slower pace than we thought. The nurse checked her again and at 8 pm she was now a, wait for it, a 5. Keep in mind that by this time, Brenda's had the epidural and pitocin drip going for about 8 hours; pitocin to move the cervix along and the epidural to relax her to let her body work. Well, you can forget about relaxing now, she was mad. She cursed Eve, she was mad at God, she was mad at me for letting her want to have a baby; if you were in the line of fire, you got hit. Her doctor offered a c-section, which is what he wanted to do on Friday, by the way; but she declined and said she wanted to go till the morning.
Well, a long painful night made made very short, morning came (again, finally), she was dilated to a 7 now (whoopty-doo), she threw in the towel and had a c-section at 8:30 am Sunday morning and Levi reared his bloody head (I have pictures to prove it) at 8:52 am. Let the fun begin, bring on the pain meds, the Super Bowl in the hospital, the bloated belly, the uncomfortable recliner to "sleep" in, the tar-y diapers, the forced walking, the gas, the lactation specialists, the pooping-yourself-when-you-think-it's-gas, the granny panties, the wonderful post-partum nurses, more pain meds, an air mattress, and the best words ever spoken since "I now pronounce you..."; "Everything looks good, you're free to go home." Yessss!
The longest 5 days of our lives up to that point ended Tuesday afternoon at 2 pm. The next chapter in our marriage was just beginning; we are the parents of a helpless, selfish little creature that we must raise to be a God-fearing young man. It's not an easy task before us but we will cherish the opportunity and, God willing, be successful.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Most Bestest Post Ever!
So I was laying in bed (read: couch) this morning and was thinking about, of all things, superlatives and hyperbole. Now just hear me out on this one, because chances are you engage in this very serious faux pas on a daily basis just as I do. For those of you who need a little English lesson on what superlatives and hyperbole are; they are this:
S. of, pertaining to, or noting the highest degree of the comparison of adjectives and adverbs, as smallest, best, and most carefully which are the superlative forms of small, good, and carefully.
H. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.” (dictionary.com)
Okay, so that probably still doesn't mean anything to you, so allow me to elaborate. We humans have the innate tendency to make things either sound better than they are or use our most colorful language to say that something is the best, most amazing thing we've ever seen/heard/read/done/etc. Which then forces everything else to a lower status. "That is the cutest kid I have ever seen in my whole life!" "That was the greatest movie ever made!" "That book is the last best book ever!" "He/she is my best friend ever!" Well, you get the idea.
Now I would like to look at the Creator of our universe and see what he has to say and what, if any, superlatives or hyperbole He uses to describe His creation. If you will, turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. In verses 3-25 we see God creating the earth, the atmosphere, and the living things to inhabit the planet. He calls His creation good. Okay, our finite human pea-brains can handle good, we understand good; if we were doing the writing, we might've used a different word, but we can leave good enough alone. We can see that He was pleased with Himself enough to call it good when He was done. Then we get to verse 31. God just finished forming man from dust and woman from man's rib and He sits back and says of His work that it is, wait for it, very good. Wait a cotton-pickin' minute. Very good. What the heck is that. We are the crown jewels of the created world, we are what He made for His please, we are told to multiply and subdue the earth and He has the audacity to just call us VERY good?! Why not something like, the greatest thing He's ever made, the most amazing species on any planet, the list is as long as there are adjectives out there, but come on, very good. I feel sick to my stomach now. A story with the words "very good" in it would be kicked back with an editor's mark saying, "Be more creative, use better word choice".
Let's take a lesson from God Himself on this one. We, being created in His image, are very good. You are very good, your kids are very good, your friends and family are very good, the people you don't get along with are very good, those coworkers who seem a bit "off" are very good, that guy who cut you off on the freeway is very good, my wife and four sons are very good; you get the drift. It's time to stop making the unfair comparisons of things and people at the expense of the other things and people in our lives, cutting them down to a point where very good just doesn't seem to do it anymore. Leave the unnecessary superlatives and hyperbole to the literary geniuses who know how to properly handle them.
Lets just love the people we know and be kind to those we don't.
S. of, pertaining to, or noting the highest degree of the comparison of adjectives and adverbs, as smallest, best, and most carefully which are the superlative forms of small, good, and carefully.
H. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.” (dictionary.com)
Okay, so that probably still doesn't mean anything to you, so allow me to elaborate. We humans have the innate tendency to make things either sound better than they are or use our most colorful language to say that something is the best, most amazing thing we've ever seen/heard/read/done/etc. Which then forces everything else to a lower status. "That is the cutest kid I have ever seen in my whole life!" "That was the greatest movie ever made!" "That book is the last best book ever!" "He/she is my best friend ever!" Well, you get the idea.
Now I would like to look at the Creator of our universe and see what he has to say and what, if any, superlatives or hyperbole He uses to describe His creation. If you will, turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. In verses 3-25 we see God creating the earth, the atmosphere, and the living things to inhabit the planet. He calls His creation good. Okay, our finite human pea-brains can handle good, we understand good; if we were doing the writing, we might've used a different word, but we can leave good enough alone. We can see that He was pleased with Himself enough to call it good when He was done. Then we get to verse 31. God just finished forming man from dust and woman from man's rib and He sits back and says of His work that it is, wait for it, very good. Wait a cotton-pickin' minute. Very good. What the heck is that. We are the crown jewels of the created world, we are what He made for His please, we are told to multiply and subdue the earth and He has the audacity to just call us VERY good?! Why not something like, the greatest thing He's ever made, the most amazing species on any planet, the list is as long as there are adjectives out there, but come on, very good. I feel sick to my stomach now. A story with the words "very good" in it would be kicked back with an editor's mark saying, "Be more creative, use better word choice".
Let's take a lesson from God Himself on this one. We, being created in His image, are very good. You are very good, your kids are very good, your friends and family are very good, the people you don't get along with are very good, those coworkers who seem a bit "off" are very good, that guy who cut you off on the freeway is very good, my wife and four sons are very good; you get the drift. It's time to stop making the unfair comparisons of things and people at the expense of the other things and people in our lives, cutting them down to a point where very good just doesn't seem to do it anymore. Leave the unnecessary superlatives and hyperbole to the literary geniuses who know how to properly handle them.
Lets just love the people we know and be kind to those we don't.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Date Night?
My wife and I had a date night last night going out to dinner and the movies. Well, dinner consisted of Der Wienerschnitzel (keep in mind she's still pregnant) and the three dollar movies to see Couple's Retreat. The movie was worth the six bucks we paid for it, I would've been angry if I shelled out a twenty. The dogs were exactly that, dogs. They fell down your throat like long tubular bricks until they slammed into the bottom of your gut and then sat there for the next eight hours. I can still taste them as I sit here writing this.
Anyway, it's the whole concept of the Date Night that I want to talk about. I love the idea of taking a night to be with your spouse whom you haven't spent much time with throughout the past couple weeks because of work or life or the constant need to keep ourselves busier than we ought to be. The tricky part is not letting the date fall into the same patterns of life-as-usual, the daily goings-on, the coming home talk about dinner talk about the day fall asleep on the couch and go to bed separately kind of pattern. If that's what you'll end up doing on your planned Date Night, save the six dollars and indigestion stay home watch a redboxed movie and fall comfortably asleep knowing your night only cost you one dollar.
Having said that, my wife and I need more time together. And not necessarily more Date Night time either. Just the kind of time where we sit down at the table and eat without the TV on and comment on how good the food tastes. The kind of time where we watch a movie or show together that one of us doesn't feel obligated to watch. The kind of time when the TV is off and we sit and read peacefully together sharing passages with each other that we find to be interesting. And the kicker, the kind of time where we go to bed together sleep together and wake up together. One of us has literally been on the couch for the last two months because my wife has the pregnant snore.
That snore has done more to physically separate us than anything else I can remember, even our fights. My hope and prayer is that once Levi is born, that snore goes away (or at least diminishes) and we can get on doing our next "kind-of-time" together, raising and caring for our son. I am actually looking forward to the feedings poopings cryings and awakings in the middle of the night simply because we will be doing that together. I am not naive about how hard this can be, Levi will be my fourth after all, but it's the together that counts.
It is not the what; it is the who with.
Anyway, it's the whole concept of the Date Night that I want to talk about. I love the idea of taking a night to be with your spouse whom you haven't spent much time with throughout the past couple weeks because of work or life or the constant need to keep ourselves busier than we ought to be. The tricky part is not letting the date fall into the same patterns of life-as-usual, the daily goings-on, the coming home talk about dinner talk about the day fall asleep on the couch and go to bed separately kind of pattern. If that's what you'll end up doing on your planned Date Night, save the six dollars and indigestion stay home watch a redboxed movie and fall comfortably asleep knowing your night only cost you one dollar.
Having said that, my wife and I need more time together. And not necessarily more Date Night time either. Just the kind of time where we sit down at the table and eat without the TV on and comment on how good the food tastes. The kind of time where we watch a movie or show together that one of us doesn't feel obligated to watch. The kind of time when the TV is off and we sit and read peacefully together sharing passages with each other that we find to be interesting. And the kicker, the kind of time where we go to bed together sleep together and wake up together. One of us has literally been on the couch for the last two months because my wife has the pregnant snore.
That snore has done more to physically separate us than anything else I can remember, even our fights. My hope and prayer is that once Levi is born, that snore goes away (or at least diminishes) and we can get on doing our next "kind-of-time" together, raising and caring for our son. I am actually looking forward to the feedings poopings cryings and awakings in the middle of the night simply because we will be doing that together. I am not naive about how hard this can be, Levi will be my fourth after all, but it's the together that counts.
It is not the what; it is the who with.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Where do I start?
According to the well-meaning doctor, we will have our fourth baby within the next two weeks. But it's not just our fourth baby, it's our fourth boy. And it's not just our fourth boy, it's my fourth boy and my first boy with my wife Brenda.
This long story, and I'll bet many more, will be played out here for the next year; at least that's what I've promised myself. Whether you'll like it or not, I don't know. I hope. I hope that somehow you might be edified in some small way and connect to the situations as they happen as I try to lead and raise a Godly blended family in this life.
By the way, the new baby will be called Levi Gage. I was pushing for Luchesi but, you know how it goes...
This long story, and I'll bet many more, will be played out here for the next year; at least that's what I've promised myself. Whether you'll like it or not, I don't know. I hope. I hope that somehow you might be edified in some small way and connect to the situations as they happen as I try to lead and raise a Godly blended family in this life.
By the way, the new baby will be called Levi Gage. I was pushing for Luchesi but, you know how it goes...
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