First attempts at family photo

Jack's first act of rebellion was not cooperating in the family photo op before we left the hospital. First he wouldn't put the water jug down. Then we had to identify everyone's ears. Jack did decide he wanted to give the baby some love. Unfortunately his version of "gentle" was learned while handling our dog, not quite good enough for a newborn.

Rest of Hospital stay

After hanging out with us for a couple hours and getting her first feeding (which went really well) Lily was off to the nursery to get cleaned up and checked out. The monitors showed that she was having respiratory stress, breathing at over 100 breaths per minute when normal is under 60. She also wasn't getting ideal Oxygen levels. I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to use medical terminology, I'll embarrass myself with my poor man's explanations. The oxygen in her blood is measured by sticking a red light thingy on her foot and somehow converting that into a percentage. The number should be above 90 but hers was in the mid 80s. I'm sure there are those that know what I'm talking about anyway.

First the nurse put her on oxygen with a giant space mask like helmet. She did calm down a bit and her oxygen levels went in to the normal range but after an hour she still wasn't getting enough air on her own. The Dr. decided to put her on CPAP. This is short little tubes inserted into her nose to force air into her lungs. The way they hook it up looks like a head gear contraption from her Orthodontist. I chose not to take any photos of her with these things. Not a site I wanted to remember.

Once she had the CPAP it was off to the special needs nursery. Since she wouldn't be able to nurse while hooked up the respiratory devices they hooked her up to an IV. I elected to walk out of the room at that point which turned out to be a really good idea. They poked her anywhere and everywhere to try and find a spot, including both sides of her head. The Dr. also chose to start her on antibiotics just in case it was pneumonia or some other kind of infection that was causing her distress. Initial thoughts were she had some fluids in her lungs, some sort of pneumonia, or her lungs just hadn't fully inflated.

Skipping ahead 48 hours she got to come home with us with no worries. It was a nervous couple days but she ended up being just fine. The next morning Dr. took off her CPAP and said the x-rays showed that her lungs just needed a little extra help to inflate fully. She still had to stay in the special needs library until she was weened off the IV, the heated bed, and passed respiratory tests like breathing normal in a car seat. At least we could then pick her up and Beth could feed her.

Tuesday afternoon Jack made his first trip to the hospital. He, like most everyone else, wasn't allowed in the nursery so he had to watch through the window and really didn't get to see her until we were released. He was interested but mostly interested in anything other than what he was currently doing. Here's some more photos from the rest of the hospital.
Beth smiling at Jack outside the nursery.
Jack trying to catch a glimpse of mommy's baby.
Here she is all hooked up with monitors and the IV on her hand.
Jack was happy to be relaxing in bed again with his mom. Especially if she has a Cheez-Its and a drink.
Looks like Grandma made a trip to the vending machine.
Wednesday waiting for Lily to be let out.
Finally we can roll her down to our room.
So cute. She seems to like her binky.
Poor little beat up feet.
After she was changed into her first outfit.

Hospital Portrait

First glamour shots found at:

http://www.utahportraits.com/hospital/index.php?action=view&BabyID=052608lae

Introducing Little Lily Ann

Well she made it and we couldn't be more pleased. Just look at her, isn't she the best?


The adventure actually began last Thursday, May 22. That afternoon Beth had a Dr.'s appointment and she was already dilated to a 3.5. First progress in three weeks since she first dilated. As the afternoon wore on she started having regular contractions, about 5 minutes apart. We dropped Jack Jack off at Grandma and Grandpa McEuens (thanks!) around 5:00 and headed to the hospital. To make a long story short after an hour and a half she didn't progress past a 4 and the contractions didn't worsen so we got the boot.

The nurse suggested a dollar movie and returning later that night if she felt any different. After a light dinner and walking around the mall Beth didn't feel any worse and certainly didn't feel like a movie, even though the 11:15 showing of Indiana Jones wasn't sold out yet. We headed home and Beth slept like a baby, allowing me to sleep like a baby. All things considered not a bad night.

For the next three days we were on the edge of our seats but Lily was in no hurry. Everyday Beth would have a period of an hour or more with discomfort but then it would subside. We past the time with a movie (Indiana Jones which was just what you'd expect from an Indiana Jones movie, lots of fun with a little weird), walks anywhere and everywhere, house preparation/cleaning, cursing Kurt and Jordan for having their baby before us, visiting Kru McEuen and putting on the "we're so happy you had your baby when you're not even due for 10 days after us" face.

Monday morning Jack left for Logan and Memorial day festivities with Grandma and Grandpa Emmett who had flown in the night before. We were treated to an as usual excellent Memorial Day breakfast hosted by Scott and Ann. We resigned to the fact we would have to wait for the induction scheduled for Tuesday morning. That afternoon with no Jack, no chores (at least not in the rain chores), and golf on T.V. it was a foregone conclusion that a nap was not too far behind.

About 2:00 Beth started feeling uncomfortable. Shortly before 4:00 she thought we should go to the hospital. Just as I was driving through town and thinking to myself that I am about to set a speed record for driving the canyon a sheriff pulls in behind me. Son of a gun! I finally have the perfect excuse and before mile 1 have a cop in tow. After a couple miles of the speed limit he pulls me over, proceeds to tell me my registration is expired, I explain that actually it isn't I just haven't put the new sticker on and it will have to wait a little longer because we are on our way to the hospital. He was cool, told us to be careful and sent us on our way. I was careful. I didn't obey the speed limit per se but the canyon was crowded with Holiday traffic and I'm no idiot. I don't want to be that guy that crashes his car with a pregnant wife on the way to the hospital.

At 4:30 Beth gets changed and starts with the barrage of check-in questions. The nurse then checks her and sure enough she's at a 7 or 8. Yay! Beth was so relieved. Dr. Paul administered the epidural about 5:30. Beth's Dr., Dr. Broberg, was conveniently already at the hospital and came and broke her water. 10 minutes later he returned and started putting on his battle armor. Apparently it was already go time. Much faster than with Jack. At 5:45 it was time to start pushing and at 6:05, Lily popped out. She was a day late but just in time for shift change.

She was just beautiful. She looked 100% confused but healthy. Her stats were 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 19.5 inches. Beth was awesome, I sure love my girls.

I will eventually get to the remainder of the story. In answer to your questions: No this isn't the end, yes there is an end, and yes I could have made it longer.

Swim Swimmin Swimmer

In an effort to make sure Jack at least liked the water before we hit summer we've made a conscience effort to take him the pool at least once a week. Now we've created a monster, a health risk to himself and others around. He likes step into the pool before we can even get our shirts off or run the deep end and try to jump in before we can get there. It's fun to watch but also a little frightening.

He loves it. Yesterday he was whining and I asked if he wanted to go swimming. He immediately started laughing and ran to get his swim diaper. Last week while the carpet cleaners were working I picked him up and asked him where we should go. He started pointing and I followed his finger all the way to the pool. Once we got there I tried to explain that I didn't bring the pool key but he didn't want to hear any excuses.
"Can I jump to daddy? What do you think?"
"Can I swim to daddy? Well that's a little harder."

Not for the faint

I heard about this from some family members who were at the track meet but I just came across this photo and article. Don't look too closely if you have a weak stomach. Apparently at BYU for the high school state track meet a photographer was in the WAY wrong place at the WAY wrong time. That didn't stop him from snapping a couple more photos.

San Jorge Triathlon

There's something about a picture of this kid that immediately adds likability to a post. This was taken after a pit stop where he picked out a new Chevron toy car. Actually he picked out the truck with farm animals in the back but in an effort to curb any cowboy tendencies I grabbed the Woody with surfboard on top. He seemed to like it just fine. You may also notice that the DVD player was within reach of his toes. That was a mistake. He likes pushing buttons with his toes.This was my 4th annual St. George Triathlon. It almost didn't happen. The combination of lack of training and the proximity to Beth's due date was making it easy to bail out. The night before we left I got pretty excited as I looked at my times from the years past. Beth decided she would obey the Dr. and stay home which was a drag. Part of the reason the Dr. said she shouldn't go was because if she went into labor in St. George our insurance wouldn't cover it. I was pretty sure he didn't know what he was talking about and confirmed with Altius the next morning that we would be covered. After that Beth was an easy sell (as long as she didn't have wake up early and drag Jack along to watch the race).Check in was both good and bad. The bad part was they reminded me and Casey that we are turning 30 (ugh) this year by tattooing it on our calf. The good part was it gave us an excuse to take a picture of our calf:) Actually the good part was the haircuts. The race has always encouraged participants to buzz their hair. This year they were giving out $5 bills to anyone who took advantage. I asked the girls for a #2, they took a minute to shave off my grown out #4 and handed me a crisp Lincoln. It's fun to be paid for the same haircut you plan to give yourself the next day.We then joined Casey and Ryanne at Olive Garden for some carbo loading.

I don't have any pictures from the actual event. If the website ever puts some up I'll insert them here.

The race itself was wild. The course has changed a little here and there but not much. My times from 2005-07 were 2:40, 2:39, and 2:35. After crunching the numbers (busier with school-add 2 minutes, busier with work-add 1 minute, borrowing dad's "old" bike-subtract 2 minutes, added step in transitions-add 1 minute) I set a target time of 2:37. The added step was checking phone messages to make sure Beth wasn't in labor. I thought about adding a minute for one year older but the winners are traditionally from my age group (30-34) so that was a push.

That all went out the window when I got to Sand Hollow Reservoir. The sun wasn't even up and the wind was consistently blowing with gusts between 20-30 mph. The lake was whipped with white capped wind swells. Say that seven times. And it was unusually cold water, for the first time I regretted the sleeveless wetsuit. At least the violent waters and head winds provided an excuse for a slow time.

As I walked down to the water to warm up I had my fourth "D'oh" moment. The first three were 1. Where's my bike pump? 2 Where's my water bottles and gu? and 3. Where's my sunglasses? #4 was the most disturbing, where's my swim goggles? Luckily the tri community rallied around me and provided me with their spares. It turned out that warming up wouldn't ever happen so I walked back out of the lake to wait for the start. Despite the conditions I remembered why I love these races as soon as my face hit the water. My swim (1.5K or .92 miles) was 33 minutes which was a full 6 minutes slower than my previous worst. The way the course was set up you swim along the lake to the boat ramp which meant the majority was against the wind and swells. I swallowed quite a bit of water but at least the cold temperatures have kept the boats off this spring and it didn't taste too bad. Friends of mine that were racing Sprint distance in later heats said the pontoon rescues boats were coming in with 15+ people per run. That help explains all the DNFs. Apparently it was at this point that the race organizers cancelled the swim portion for the Sprint (I was doing the Olympic). The Sprint Tri was now a Sprint Duathlon. Not to be confused with the alpine sniper event, the Biathlon.

The bike (40K / 25 miles) and run (10K / 6.2 miles) went fine. The desert winds created some interesting sand drifts on the roads that were tricky to navigate. At one point I had to stop and raise the seat on my bike because I failed to tighten it down enough when I raised it that morning. By mile 8 it had lowered several inches and I was now lowriding and burning a part of my quad I'd never used before. My total time was 2:50 which was disappointing but considering the conditions I guess I'll take it. The best part was I felt really good afterwards. Next stop Battle at Midway and then it's onto the inaugural Irvine Stake Tri.

After the race it was lunch (see separate post), relaxing while Jack napped at Kathy and Ruben's (thanks for letting us stay at the casita), and then homeward bound.
The fifth "D'oh" moment happened on the way home. Last year we flirted with $90 fill ups and it looks like $100 is just around the corner.
I'd like to take a moment, swallow my pride and pat Casey on the back. My padowan apprentice has become the master. He's come a long way from this picture taken at St. George two years ago. Yes that's a mountain bike, yes it's a girls bike, and yes it has a kickstand. I taught him humility that summer of 2006. He switched to Sprints the next season and started racking up the podium finishes. This was his first Olympic distance race in while and I took this picture before he picked up his 2nd place plaque. Way to go buddy. When I got to the first transition area and he was already gone I thought to myself "I should make a goal not to get lapped by him on the run". Mission not accomplished. I was at mile 3.05, about to finish my first lap, when Casey comes sprinting by to finish. Casey, I didn't mean what I said as you went by.

In-N-Out Utah

Remember in the mid 1990s when In-N-Out opened in Las Vegas? Wasn't that awesome? It was right around that time I heard the first rumors of an In-N-Out in St. George. Those proved to be false. The reason I heard (and bought) was because their products are fresh from California and never frozen. If they opened a store too far away from the suppliers it would never work. As if the extra two hours on a truck made a life and death difference.

It wasn't long after my return to BYU in 2000 that I heard the rumors again. Except this time everyone was so sure. The location was picked out, everything had been paid for, it would be there the next time I drove through. Well the years went by, the locations changed, the reasons evolved, and still no In-N-Out. I stopped listening a couple years ago no matter how credible the source. My hopes had been up for too long now to be messed with. I would just have to see it to believe it.

Well last month on my way home from a weekend working at the river I took this picture. It wasn't open but it was there. I had to take it not only for myself but as proof for friends that would react the same disbelief I usually did.

This is a very long way to say that we ate there after the triathlon. Beth and Jack had had a busy morning shopping with Kathy and Ruben met us as well. It was pretty crowded. Think UCI In-N-Out late on a Friday or Sunset In-N-Out after the Las Vegas Bowl. Nevertheless the burgers were fresh, fries were hot, shakes were so good you could cry. Or at least Jack would cry if you tried to take it away.

Big Brother in Training

Jack has gotten serious about his big brother training. Last night as Beth exposed her belly to give it some breathing room Jack started laughing and repeatedly hugged, kissed, and rested on it. He has also been carrying around and giving love to this doll. He no longer carries it around by the ankles which is a good sign. Now if we could only get him to stop smothering and poking out her eyes.