Birth Story!

The Friday before my last week at work (3 weeks and a day before my due date) I woke up with achiness in my low abdomen that felt kind of like mild menstrual cramps. It pretty much continued all day, and I thought perhaps labor was coming soon, so when I got home from work Chad and I did a few of the last important things that needed to be done, like pack a hospital bag and such. I could tell that very mild contractions were happening by pressing on my belly and feeling the difference in the muscles, and when we timed them they were 8 minutes apart. I figured that, since they were so mild, I should just go to sleep and see what the morning brought. The next morning the achiness was gone and I couldn't feel any more contractions (bummer! that would have been 3 weeks less of my being pregnant), but it was obvious that he had "dropped" significantly. At Monday's doctor's appointment (7.16), the doctor said I was 2cm dialated, 75% effaced and -1 station. He thought the baby could pretty much come at any time but said he would be surprised if it wasn't in the next week or two.

The next three weeks are a little bit blurry to me, but the mild-contractions-all-day-long scenario repeated itself at least once but I think twice. I guess those contractions might be called Braxton-Hicks, but I never did figure out where the line is between Braxton-Hicks contractions and "real" contractions. The next Monday (7.23) I measured the same as the Monday before (2cm dialated, 75% effaced and -1 station). By the next Monday (7.30) I was getting pretty tired of the waiting game and had almost run out of interesting things to do at home (I started my leave from work 2 weeks before my due date) even though I still had a week to go to the due date. Measurements that day were 3cm dialated, 90% effaced and -1 station. The doctor said he'd willingly induce me if I wanted and we'd have to talk seriously about it the next Monday if I still hadn't gone into labor. I was getting pretty impatient (as were Chad and his whole family), but I really, really wasn't interested in being induced.

Saturday (8.4) was my due date as well as our friends' wedding, and I again was having mild contractions when I woke up in the morning. This time I decided ignoring them and going 0n with our day as planned was the best bet since this had happened several times before and it hadn't seemed to produce a baby yet. The wedding and reception were great, and we got to sleep about 11 or midnight.

I woke up at 5:30 on Sunday morning with nasty bowel cramps, so I went to the bathroom and then back to sleep. About 15 minutes later, I woke up again, with more bowel cramps, so again I went to the bathroom and back to sleep. About 10 minutes later I woke up again. Going to the bathroom didn't seem to fix the problem and my stomach wasn't feeling that great, so I made a piece of toast with jam. I didn't quite get finished with my piece of toast before I began feeling significantly worse and having more pressure in my low abdomen. I thought maybe I was having contractions again and should wake Chad so we could time them (this was about 6:45am). After about half an hour of timing contractions, we decided they were 3 minutes apart, lasting for about a minute or so each. I wasn't feeling great, but I was still walking around just fine and talking. We called the doctor, who said yes, I should probably go ahead to the hospital and have them check to see how far I was dilated (he later said he figured I was still in early labor and wasn't too concerned) and so we headed for the hospital. As we arrived (probably 7:45am), I was still generally fine and the contractions weren't terribly painful, but the pressure that was building in my low abdomen was beginning to be really uncomfortable. By the time I got into a wheelchair and made it to the maternity ward I felt better with my eyes closed and I was pretty sure this was the real thing. I think they checked my cervix at 8:00 or 8:15 - 7 cm dilated. I laid down in the hospital bed for a few minutes before I threw up. Two nursed tried three different times to get an IV put in my arm but weren't able to do it. At some point (after giving up on the IV) the nurse asked if I wanted to go to the jacuzzi tub. I'm not sure how long I was in there, but at least the last 30 minutes or so my body was trying to start pushing, but the nurse said I was only at 8cm and couldn't. Keeping my body from pushing while having a contraction was the second hardest thing, I think, only followed by the actual pushing process. Finally at about 10am the nurse checked me again and said I was at 10cm and we could go back to the room. I think my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart most of the time. I actually walked back to the room (there was no way I could even think of sitting down at that point). My contractions never got any further apart and even started double-peaking during the pushing process (annoyingly contrary to what we had learned in our Bradley birthing class - I had been looking forward to a little break). About an hour an a half later I could see the baby's head crowning, but I couldn't get him any further out. I think about this time until the birth was the only time that I actually wanted to give up and didn't feel like I could keep going, not because of pain but because I was so worn out. We decided to do an episiotomy since it seemed that I was very tight and would definitely tear and that the tightness might be keeping the baby from being born. After two different snips, the baby still wasn't coming out, and the doctor said that it seemed that his shoulders were a little stuck. I was exhausted and couldn't keep pushing through the whole contraction, and the baby's heart rate started to drop during the contractions. The doctor decided to try the vaccuum extractor, and within 10 to 20 seconds during the next contraction, with me pushing and the doctor pulling, Gavin finally emerged. That was about 11:45am, only 6 1/4 hours after I had woken up that morning.

Gavin had a full head of red hair when he was born and weighed 7 pounds and 5 ounces. I think his Apgar scores were 8 and 9. The nurse put him on my stomach within a minute of his birth, but I was so exhausted that I had a hard time keeping him from slipping off. I don't think I really had many thoughts or feelings at that point other than relief that it was over with. I wasn't very cognizant throughout most of the labor process once we were at the hospital. It seems now almost like a dream - for certain, my brain was not functioning like normal. I birthed the placenta sometime in the next 15 minutes or so and was then stitched up (and my brain was recovering, too). Chad went out and announced to everyone that we had a little boy! (we hadn't known the gender until birth). I was told later that there were about 15 people waiting immediately outside the birthing room door while I was pushing, listening intently for Gavin's first cries. My mom and dad (who were on the east coast at the time) even got to hear him through my MIL's cell phone.

Gavin nursed for a few minutes within the first hour and latched on at least once more for a minute or two after that but then wouldn't latch on at all until about a day and a half later, with much effort and frustration and the help of a couple lactation consultants, first a syringe with a tube and sugar water with a finger to stimulate his sucking reflex (which apparently was NOT well developed) and then later a nipple shield with the syringe and sugar water. The short breastfeeding story is that we basically had to teach him how to suck. We were overjoyed when he finally would latch on to the nipple shield with less than 45 minutes of crying preceding it on Wednesday (I think - the days run together when you only sleep a couple hours every night). He lost one ounce less than 10% of his body weight, and my milk started to come in just in time so that he started gaining weight back and we didn't have to give him formula. I think by the end of the week he was taking the nipple shield relatively well (meaning, less than 5-10 minutes of crying before latching on). Over the next 2 weeks or so I gradually weaned him from it (again with much effort and frustration), and now he is a champion at nursing straight from the breast. I feel like that synopsis by no means conveys what a huge effort and how emotionally wrenching it really was. At one point at some wee hour of the morning during the first few days were were home from the hospital, I'm not sure if it was Gavin or me who was crying more, and poor Chad had to console us both. Thankfully God gave us grace for the moments as we went through them, and I am very happy to be on the other side.

Gavin's own blog

We decided to have a separate blog for Gavin, so here's the link: http://wmgavin.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!

Photos

For photos of Gavin, see our flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cm_young/

We'll be uploading more in the future, but for right now there are just photos of him on his birthday.

It's a boy!

I know it's been almost a week, but life has been crazy! William Gavin (he'll go by his middle name) was born on August 5 at 11:45 am after about 6.5 hours of labor. He was 7 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long. I'll have to write more about the whole experience later.

We are so in love with our little boy! He is incredibly cute (and it's not just me who thinks so). I am continually amazed at the fact that he was inside me less than a week ago. God has given us such a wonderful gift! I could not have anticipated what a joy it is to have a child. We've been getting very little sleep (last night was the most since birth at 5.5 hours, divided up over about 3 feedings), and nursing is still quite a bit of a struggle, but we are making it through and loving it.

T minus one month

It's been quite a while since I posted last - I discovered that preparing for a new person's arrival into the world is a lot of work! And probably not nearly as much work as afterwards! As of yesterday I am 8 months pregnant and still feeling good for the most part. (Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures to post that include my belly.) I'm trying to make sure I think of the "due date" as more like a "due month" so that I'm not too surprised when the birth happens early or, more likely, late. So really, it's quite likely that a new little one will make his or her appearance into the world about 2-6 weeks from now. :-) I am very ready to be finished with work, at least for the time being, but I still have two more weeks to go. Sometime in the past week or so the fact that I am soon going to be a mom has started to seem weird to me, and very exciting and incomprehensible, all at the same time.

My father-in-law wrote a book about a year ago and it is now published ("The Shack")! It was never in his plan to get the book published - he wrote the story as a gift to his six children - but it seems that God has other (better!) plans. :-) It's been amazing to hear how profoundly the book has affected so many people. You can read more about it (and read the first chapter, I think) on the website. It's a fictional story interlaced with simple truth about the reality of God's love for us.

There's not too much else in other news. A friend, who is getting married at the end of August to another friend, moved into our basement last weekend, which is very fun for us. I am hoping she doesn't mind crying babies too much!

Happy Pi Day!

Chad and I celebrated by having the pizza variety for dinner (at Hot Lips Pizza - yum!!) and the chocolate variety for dessert. Unfortunately, we didn't remember it is Pi day until today, so the chocolate variety was store-bought and not nearly as good as home-made.

We're having a baby!

Due date is August 4 (I am 10 weeks, 3 days pregnant)! No ultrasound until much later (unless the doctor thinks it's necessary), but hopefully we'll hear the heartbeat when I go in for the second appointment a week from today. We told our families at Christmas and they were all thrilled (first grandchild on both sides, first great-grandchild on my side). We are super excited, too! It certainly doesn't seem to have quite sunk in yet, though. Perhaps it doesn't until the baby is actually born??

We found out just after Christmas that Chad's brother and his wife are also having a baby! She's not quite sure how far along she is, but we suspect we're about 2 weeks apart. It will be so fun to have two cousins born so close!

It is such a joyous thing to anticipate meeting this child that is being formed inside of me. At the same time, I know that many women lose their babies well before they are born and that I am not immune to that possibility. I am so thankful that God's hand is forming my child, and I trust Him to do what is best for us and for him/her. I know that I am not in control, and I am so thankful for the grace that God has given me to be able to stop struggling with Him for it. This child has already been such a blessing to me in helping me to give up fear and to rest in knowing and trusting Jesus.

For all those who want to know the details (please skip if you get grossed out by these types of things):
Yes, I have felt nauseous. Many times, and apparently there's not really any pattern to it, which is annoying to me probably mainly because I like predictability (but likely good training for later). :) I threw up for the week that I had a cold and lots of congestion was draining down my throat, and then I threw up randomly yesterday morning (didn't even feel queasy beforehand). Some days I feel fine pretty much all day long. Some days I can't do anything to quell the nausea except perhaps suck on something citrus-y (the Altoids Citrus Sours have probably kept a lot of food from exiting my digestive system).

I haven't been all that tired, but I have been trying to sleep an extra hour or so each night. I had several days of feeling exhausted right at the beginning. Those days and needing to buy bras 2 sizes bigger by the first day of missed period were my first indicators that, yes, something different was definitely happening in my body.

I bought my first maternity pants yesterday and wore a pair today. I probably own (ie, have accumulated over the years) about 12 pairs of (normal) pants, and currently I can (semi)-comfortably wear 3 of them, one of which I bought a size bigger than normal not that long ago so I would have something comfortable to wear. It's kind of funny to me, though, because I *might* have gained 1 pound so far. I suppose that's the way it works. :) I tried the rubber-band-through-the-button-hole approach for one normal pair, but the button was much farther up than where my pants are tight, so it didn't help much. For all you seasoned veterans, any advice on maternity clothing is much appreciated. It seems Old Navy has some nice, reasonably inexpensive things, but that's about all I've found so far.

Glasses

Today I got my first pair of glasses. I had been getting headaches at work and felt like the lights were dimmer and it was harder to see for several months, so I finally decided to see an opthamologist last week. Apparently I have mild stigmatisms in both of my eyes. I was quite excited to get the glasses this morning - it's so nice to be able to see clearly without straining! And I actually think they look nice on me. Perhaps I'll post a photo of them on our photo page soon...

Photos!

Chad and I have uploaded some of our photos from the past 6 months or so. You can view them here.

In case you're wondering, the "Mr. Ggnome" pictures are from a week where we stole a friend's plastic gnome that they take traveling so that there's something to take a picture of and took photos of him in different places. (Our other friends found another girl gnome of the same variety and married them, too!)

GIS

I haven't really said much about my job in my blog so far. People often ask me what I do, and I always have a hard time explaining most of it unless they understand acronymns like GIS, DEM, LiDAR, GPS, ESRI etc. And then for the rest of what I do, it's really good to understand what benzene, gas stations and the EPA have in common along with a whole new set of acronymns (PCB, PAH, VOC, PCP, BETX, DEQ, RBC, PRG, MTCA, etc. etc. etc.)

So, here goes for part 1: GIS.

Most of what I do every day is GIS (Geographic Information Systems). What is GIS? "GIS is a collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information." My job is to display, analyze and sometimes create spatial data - that is, pretty much anything you can think of that has a location in the world. For example, some of our data sets are roads, tax lots, aerial photography, sampling locations, wells, buildings, and rivers. I use specialized software to make maps showing combinations of data (the "display" part),. I analyze different relationships between the data layers (maybe you'd ask "which eagle's nests are within 300 feet of this building" or "which houses for sale that are south of Freemont St, north of Broadway, west of 39th and east of 15th are in the Grant High School district, are within 1 mile of a park, have at least 3 bedrooms and are cheaper than $250,000?" - if you're from Portland you know the answer is "none!"). And sometimes I make new data layers through the analysis of what we already have or by manually digitizing in information (perhaps I'd make a new data set with only the tax lots of the houses meeting the above criteria).

Here's a real-life example: I recently worked on a project where there was a lot of contaminated dirt at a particular site in Washington. A field guy went out and collected soil samples (little jars of dirt) from the surface of the site and sent them to a laboratory where they determined what concentrations of nasty substances were in the dirt. As he took his samples, he used a super-high-accuracty GPS unit to record exactly (within about 1 meter) where he took the sample (creating spatial information). He then sent the GPS file to me, and the laboratory sent me all the contamination information. I joined up the x,y information (where the sample was taken in space) with the contamination information and compared the soil concentrations to standards set by the state (WA Dept of Ecology). I made a map showing where the soil concentrations were still too high, and the field guy directed the contractors to dig out the contaminated areas(analyzing spatial information). This process iterated through lots of times - they dug out a big area and took more samples, I figured out what areas were still too contaminated, they dug out more areas, etc. etc. ect. In the end, the field guy took over 1,000 soil samples. I made lots and lots of maps of the area showing where we took the samples and what areas had been dug out (displaying spatial information).

It can get incredibly more complicated, but that's a pretty straightforward example, I think. It's actually quite fun - I get to use a lot of problem-solving skills in planning out the analysis processes to efficiently get a useful result . And it's quite amazing all the applications that GIS has - cities and counties use it to track their utilities, emergency agencies use it to respond to calls, mapping websites use it to get driving directions, I've used it to evaluate relative rockfall hazards in subdivisions built near steep cliffs, it can be used to track wildfires, and on and on. In fact, if you've ever zoomed around on Google Earth, you've used GIS yourself.

Re: Pre-natal vitamins

I finally found a chewable vitamin that doesn't contain aspartame, has approximately 100% of the recommended daily value of quite a few vitamins and minerals (16 at 100%, 6 at something less), and tastes reasonable! It's Trader Joe's High Potency Chewable Multiple Vitamin and Mineral Formula. It's also not horribly expensive - about $6 for 90 one-a-day tablets. Yay!

Allergies!

I've never had major allergies before. Portland apparently has a very large number of allergens and lots of people here have some kind of allergy symptoms. I went to the doctor thinking I had a sinus infection, but apparently there's something in the air that's giving me severe sinus-pressure headaches that I've never had before. Phooey. I was hoping I'd escape unscathed. It's taking a little while to find some sort of medicine that works and doesn't give me unacceptable side effects. At least I have lots of sick time built up and am not in the middle of any major time-critical projects at work.

It's been a while...

Wow, I just realized it's been almost a month since I posted anything. It seems a little overwhelming to comment on everything that's happened in my life in a month, so I guess I'll just write whatever comes to mind.

I really like the songwriter/singer Bebo Norman. And not just because he's from Georgia, though it seems like a lot of the artists I like are from Georgia, even though none of them sing country music (I really, really dislike country music). I like that he tries to sing about things that are real, things that he's experienced himself, and things that are deeply true about God, and I like that he is a good poet as well as a good composer. I was listening to some of his songs the other day as I was working at home (another story in itself) to finally finish a very time-consuming and mind-numbing project. One song (Home is Where You Are) is about his mother and how deeply she has affected his life. Another song (All I've Sown) is about his grandfather's deep love for his grandmother who has just passed away and talks about what amazing joy and fullfillment there is in the relationships of family. I think that in all my thoughts about having children sometime in the (hopefully) near future, I sometimes forget about the deep joy and love that many people have expressed about their children - perhaps because I've not yet experienced having them myself, although I do have great examples of that love and joy in both my and Chad's families. I hope that when we do have children, I don't forget that joy in the everyday chores and tasks that come with being a mother. Even more, I hope that I can find more of the joy right now in my everyday life, both the "good" and the "bad" - in washing the dishes, deadlines at work, watching our herbs grow, dealing with micromanaging and passive-aggressive project managers, great conversations with Chad, dinner with friends we're getting to know better, dealing with anxiety, paying the bills, etc. etc. etc. I know that in everything there is a bit of Jesus waiting to be found, noticed. I know that I can rejoice in my struggles because in my weakness, He is strong, and He is shaping me. I think most of the time, I just don't remember that those things are true and I don't live in/out that truth.

I am excited that three of my friends from college have just had their first babies, and all are healthy and recovering well (2 C-sections!).

Enough thoughts for now. Perhaps I'll write more often. :)

Home again

I was in Redmond, Washington all last week for work. It was okay, not terribly exciting, but it was nice to have a little free time in the evenings to relax and not feel like I should be doing something useful. I went shopping for clothes a couple times (which I very rarely do, since it's more of a struggle than fun, and I often feel like I'm trying to find something that looks the least bad on me out of the possibilities - thus, my summer wardrobe in particular is shrinking as I notice another stain, hole or general fadedness in yet another short-sleeved shirt). After two evenings of shopping, I ended up with a shirt I can wear to work, a pair of shoes, and a frivolous shirt (aka, I can't wear it to work and it wasn't cheap, but it actually looks good on me and I like it - doesn't happen often so I took advantage of the opportunity!) That's probably on average one item for every 1.5 hours of shopping. No wonder I don't look forward to it...

I also got to have dinner with Garrett (friend from college) one evening, which was great. I really enjoy seeing good friends and catching up on their lives. I'm excited that Mary (one of my college roommates and Garrett's fiance) will soon be in WA, too, and hopefully we'll get to see them more often, since it's only about a 3-3.5 hour drive to get there. Unless you're trying to come back to Portland on Friday at about 3pm, and then it's actually a 5-6 hour drive. (Ugh.)

It's nice to be back home. I spent yesterday mainly relaxing and enjoying being with Chad again. I've had a cold (or some kind of upper respiratory ailment) for about 3 weeks now, and I will be glad to be done with it, hopefully soon. We were planning to go to the beach today with Chad's family, but I had a stomach ache this morning, probably from too much drainage ending up in my stomach over night, so by the time I felt good enough to brave the 2-hour drive on somewhat windy roads, it was a little too late to go. Bummer. But maybe we'll make it out there to celebrate our 3-year anniversary next month.

Next weekend Adam (Chad's college roommate) is getting married! We're excited to see him and meet his fiance, and it will be great to see some other friends and visit Tech, too. Maybe we'll venture into the neighborhoods south of campus and see if we can find the street corner where we got engaged. :)

Pre-natal vitamins

Anyone have advice or other information on taking/not taking prenatal vitamins, when to start and stop, what they should have in them, or what brands are good? It seems like there is a lot of contradicting information out there. The only thing I know is that you should take folic acid before getting pregnant and at least for the first few months.

Hyperventilation and the aftermath...

Two weeks ago a very bizarre thing happened to me. I went to the gym over my lunch break, did some cardio and some free weights (arms). I remembered as I was doing the free weights that, during my personal training sessions that came with our signing up for the gym, the lady had told me that breathing properly was important, and that you should breathe out while you're "doing the exercise" and in when you're getting back to starting position. So, I did this. I felt a little weird after the first exercise - my fingers and nose were a little tingle-y, and I thought maybe I needed to rest for a minute and just get some good regular breaths in. I finished up the other two exercises and still felt a little odd.

At this point, I started to worry and wonder what was going on, so I sat down on one of the chairs near the entrance and focused on taking deep, regular breaths. I felt a little better and decided I should drive back to work (about a 5-7 minute drive) and maybe sit at the front desk for a few minutes with the receptionist to make sure I was okay.

I guess I must have panicked at some point while I was driving, mainly because both of my arms started going numb. I was on the freeway at that point nearing the exit I needed to get off on, so I drove up the ramp and parked on the side. I realized that I needed some medical help, but by that point, my hands were contracted into tight balls and I couldn't move them. I waved out the window and yelled for help, and someone stopped and called 911 for me. In the meantime, my toes, calves, stomach, lower arms and probably some other things tensed up so that I pretty much couldn't move. The guy who called 911 came over and talked to me and I realized that my jaw was stuck, too - I sounded like I was mentally handicapped or something as I tried to talk to him. As I talked and told him what had happened, my muscles began to uncramp, and by the time the ambulance arrived I could at least move my legs a bit, although my left hand was still pretty much stuck in a ball. The paramedics asked me lots of questions and took my blood pressure several times. By then I was feeling mostly better and was able to move again, but I opted to go ahead and take the ambulance to the hospital to find out what had happened to me and to make sure nothing was horribly wrong. I left the key to the car with the paramedic and someone from my office came and took my car back to work for me. By the time I got to the hospital, I was pretty much back to normal, except for being shaky.

Somewhere in there I managed to talk to Chad, and he figured out how to get himself to the hospital. We only have one car, so his co-worker drove him back to our house, and he borrowed a car from one of the guys who rents out our basement to drive down to where I was (I work about 10 miles south of downtown, where he works).

After waiting a couple hours in the emergency room, the doctor came and asked about what happened. Pretty much immediately he knew I had hyperventilated and that nothing else was wrong with me. I felt more than a little silly. But when I looked up hyperventilation online after I got home, I found that only in very severe cases do people get tetany (which was lots of my muscles seizing up), and that it really is a good thing to go to the ER if it happens to make sure nothing else is wrong. Apparently, although it certainly feels like something is very wrong, there's no permanent physical damage done by hyperventilating, and it's pretty much impossible to die from it.

So physically, I am fine. But I am having some troubles with the emotional side effects. The day afterward, I was on edge and anxious all day long. Driving will sometimes make me begin the panic process. I went back to the gym a week later, and it was hard. I kept having to keep myself from giving over to anxiety about having the whole thing happen again. It's really frustrating - it's not something I can get through by thinking rationally; I realize the whole time that my thoughts are irrational, but yet I don't have control over them. Thankfully, I've found some things that help me to cope whenever something triggers the panicky feeling - like praying out loud, or calling someone on the phone and talking (which regulates my breathing). I haven't hyperventilated since then, and I think that talking with people about it and time will also help.

I talked with a co-worker yesterday when I started feeling anxious at work, and it turns out she has had some of the same aftermath to a scary physical situation. I am so thankful to have someone at work who understands and can help me do some physical things that calm my brain.

The brain is such a weird thing - you'd think that you should be able to control it by thinking things that are true and reasonable, but alas, it is not always so.

Re: Children and Working

Thanks to everyone for your comments! It is really helpful and encouraging to hear your thoughts about yourselves and other moms who stay at home (or don't). I don't know many people in Portland who have small children right now, except for some of my co-workers whose ideas and attitudes I don't necessarily trust to be the best.

What I am thinking right this moment is I would love to stay at home and maybe do something like tutoring or (like Katie) teach an hour a week or something. Of course, there's no baby on the way yet, and there will be much prayer and consideration given, so we will see what happens! I mainly want to make sure that my brain still gets stimulated in the science-y problem-solving type of way, at least moderately every once in a while. (But from what I read on everyone's blogs, the problem-solving part happens at least fifteen times every day!) It's great to hear that there are lots of possibilities for friendships with other moms through groups/organizations/etc.

The month of birthdays

For some unknown reason, the Young family has a habit of having birthdays in May - actually, the later 3 weeks of May. (I suppose when you have six children, it's pretty easy to get a birthday cluster.) Birthdays in the Young family mean that everyone gathers at the Youngs' house at least for dinner, and if it's a child who is having the birthday, there is a party (sometimes on another day) as well. And, interspersed is also Mother's Day, which is, in the Young family tradition, the day that the children spend all day doing things for Mom Young. The Birthday Month officially started on Thursday, my father-in-law's birthday; tomorrow (three days later) is Mother's Day; next week (three days after Mother's day) is my sister-in-law's birthday (the second youngest) - and she is also having a party two days after her birthday; the next week (seven days after her birthday) is my brother-in-law's birthday (the very youngest); then three days later my mom's birthday (but she doesn't live close); and the next day is another brother-in-law's birthday (the 3rd oldest). (And if that wasn't enough, a week later is my other sister-in-law's graduation party.)

May in Portland is also (often) the beginning of begin able to be outside and do yardwork in pleasant weather, go hiking, soak up the sunshine, and generally do lots of fun things with friends because it's not raining out (at least too much) anymore. Upon this sudden break of beautiful weather, I am finding that I really want to do all the lovely outdoors things that are just not fun when it's chilly and raining. However, I am also finding that, on average, every three days I need to drive to my in-laws' house to do some sort of celebrating, and I need to either have gone shopping or done some other preparation beforehand. I have to say it's frustrating, because I really love and enjoy my family, and I want to honor them and celebrate each of their lives on their birthdays (and Mother's Day), but I also am itching to be outside! And I think even if the Birthday Month was January or February (when it can be truly dreary here), I would be a wee bit weary of all the celebrating by the time it was over! Ah, well! I am truly thankful to have so many wonderful people to be celebrating about.

Today Chad and I spent mostly working in our yard. We've been weeding and putting down bark for several weekends now. It's great to be outside, but I do feel like this project is taking a while! Our lot is incrediby tiny (0.09 acres, I think - better measured in square feet), and our "yard" has no grass - all bushes and flowers and other pretty plants. (The only grass we have is the 1-foot-wide strip between the sidewalk and the road.) It has been fun to see what flowers popped up in the spring and what kinds of blooms the different plants have. Now I just need to learn what to do to keep them all alive!

Children and working

Chad and I have been talking a lot about having children. I don't know much about children or having them, but I suppose that neither does anyone when you get right down to it, until they have them. One thing I've been contemplating is whether or not I would want to at least attempt to work one day a week, or something like that, once we do have a child. We won't really need the extra money (and I wouldn't be generating much extra anyway), but lots of people that I work with now talk about how their wives "just want some adult conversation" or work just for the social experience. So, do you get bored or lonely when you're a new mother (or, only have one child) and stay home with them all day? Or is there plenty of work to be done caring for your child that you wouldn't have the time to work one day a week anyway? Or are there so many other fun and useful things you can do with your time with your child that you wouldn't want to anyway? Or would you not want to leave your child with someone else one day a week, even if you were bored and lonely?

My first attempt at blogging...

I've never really been good at keeping a journal or keeping in touch with people, so I suppose it will be interesting to see how disciplined I can be at keeping up with blogging. But, after seeing that most of my Caltech girlfriends have blogs and keep in touch that way, it's defintely worth a try! I guess partially it means I have to come up with something to say, which is sometimes difficult. But I think my two largest obsticles are remembering to sit down and type and then actually forcing myself to take the time to do it. The great thing is, though, that I'm actually writing to people I know and not just to the world at large (although I suppose some members of the world at large might accidentally happen upon it).

I think I will try for at least one post per week, and I'll set my Outlook calendar to remind me on Friday evening at 5pm so that I'll have to whole weekend to do it. Anyone have any other suggestions for getting started?