[Daniel] For Parent Of Colicky Infants...

I can not recommend this source enough: http://www.thehappiestbaby.com/. The Happiest Baby On The Block is a technique for recreating the womb for infants. According to Dr. Harvey Karp, for the first three months of life, infants are in their "fourth trimester", where they still need an experience like the womb for comfort and security. Using a very simple set of easy to remember things, it can calm a crying child quickly.

This technique has been an (almost literal) life-saver over the last month. Moriah and I had a very rough time up until an acquaintance of Moriah's loaned her the tape. Worked for us from the moment we started using it and the effect on Baby Lindsley has been fantastic.

[Moriah] From Out Of The Depths, I Emerge

Where have I been since the end of September, you might wonder? Oh, just giving birth, recovering and caring for our little baby boy, that's all. :)

Sunday, October 8th, I was still showing no signs of going into labor. I even talked to some family members on the phone and had to tell them the disappointing news. I guess I'd just have to keep waiting as I got closer to my due date, October 14th. Daniel and I went to bed that night around 10:00, both of us feeling tired. At 1:43 AM, I woke up feeling incredibly sick. I went into the bathroom, feeling like I was going to vomit. Daniel woke up from the noise and came in to see if he could help me. After a while, the sick feelings started to pass and I went back to bed at 2:50 AM. At 2:51, just after we settled in and pulled the covers back over ourselves, I felt it...my first real contraction. This was no Braxton Hicks contraction. I felt it deep within my lower abdomen, and it was fairly painful. I started my labor breathing and squeezed Daniel's hand as I said, "that was definitely not a Braxton Hicks." He looked at me with realization and shock in his eyes. Five minutes later, another one came on and I squeezed Daniel's hand again while I breathed through it. For the next hour, my contractions were a steady five minutes apart. Daniel called the hospital, we packed our last-minute items and off we went.

We arrived at the hospital at 4:00 AM and I got checked into an LDR (labor/delivery/recovery) room. The contractions continued as the nurses set up the IV and fetal heart monitor. I breathed through each one, practicing the relaxation techniques we learned in our childbirth prep classes. Daniel called into work around 7:30 AM and told them what was going on. Around 8:00 AM, my OB/GYN came in to see me. Since my water hadn't broken yet, I opted to have it artificially done to speed things along. (I had only dilated 3 cm by that point.) Oh my god, I'm not sure if that was a mistake or not. Yes, in the end it did speed things up. But my contractions instantly became almost unbearable. Before that, the contractions were somewhat painful, but I was able to breathe through them without too much issue. After my water was broken, holy crap did it become awful! The contractions continued to get stronger and closer together until, around 11:00 AM, I was literally on the verge of hyperventilating and was dry heaving over the side of the bed. I was in so much pain, I started hallucinating during contractions. I almost couldn't speak enough to ask for a pain killer, Stadol, which I eventually received, though it didn't really do anything. I was going to give in and get an epidural, but I quickly went into the pushing stage and it was too late. Everyone I had talked to said the pushing stage was supposed to be easier. Ummm, right. It was not much easier than the transition stage right before it. I kept passing out between pushes, I was so exhausted. I pushed for about 10-20 minutes, and at 12:10 PM our son was born. I'd love to say it was a golden moment where the pain simply dissolved as they lay him on my chest to bond...but, I passed out right after the placenta was delivered. When I did wake up, they placed him on my chest and we had our special moment of bonding before he was taken to get cleaned up in the nursery.

I am very happy the delivery went well, aside from the intense pain, and that no problems arose. We have a beautiful little boy that we love very much. It's been an interesting two months since he was born. And, while we've had some difficulty adjusting to life with a very colicky newborn, we are so excited to raise him and watch all the stages he goes through as he grows. We can't wait to hear his first word, see his first step, feed him his first finger food, and all the other experiences we'll have as he gets older. For now, we'll take things day by day, enjoy each adorable little smile, and hope his colic clears in the next month or so.

[Daniel] One Year Of Veganism

Last month (Nov. 28th), Moriah & I turned over one year as vegans. It was exciting to me because, when we started, I wasn't sure it was going to last and that I would be able to do it. One year later, I can say that it has worked out for me.

And the health benefits (for me) have been fantastic. I've lost 35 pounds in this last year (265 -> 230) without trying to diet. That's been natural weight loss without substantial changes to intake or exercise. I was very pleased with this.

I also have been sick much less, 2 times for the whole year versus the 20-30+ times per year previously.

And then there's the fact that by being vegan, I saved roughly 135 animals last year by not consuming products made from their skin, flesh or byproducts. It's really a good feeling, though I doubt most people would care or understand.

I am very happy with everything about being vegan. The only problems are how difficult it is to explain to others and how trying to find food sometimes is frustrating. I'm excited about the next year, to see if the benefits I've experienced so far hold.

[Daniel] Snow-Wolf.net, Version 5.0

We've revamped Snow-Wolf.net once again. There's lots of changes all over (as well as some work to do yet) but we wanted to get it launched and we'll refine it as we go. Here are the changes:

Django-Powered: The site is now powered by Django. Almost of the PHP code is gone and I had a good time removing it. And after all, we can't let only the Rails folks have all the fun. ;D

Tumblelog: We've adopted a style of blogging called "tumblelogging". The idea is to incorporate not just standard blog entries but also other items, such as images, code, quotes, lyrics and other things. Hopefully, this will also involve more frequent postings. :D

New Design: We've crafted a new design for the website as well. It still needs some tweaking (especially on the various entry types, the same rounded rectangle is a little boring) but we'll do that over time.

As said, we're still tweaking the design, fleshing out all the pages that were here before and making sure everything is working. Thank you for your patience and enjoy!

[Daniel] Is this thing on?

Just a blog test. Are we sure this thing is on?

Whoa, feedback. Someone please turn that down. Much better.