Avery's Arrival story - Part II

We only thought Avery was almost to sleep. Instead, she decided she was hungry again and so I just gave her a bottle and she is now swaddled in the pack 'n play with my trusty iPhone next to her playing my favorite classical piece ever, Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune.

Great time for part II of the story.

Saturday was pretty rough on Sarah. We woke up around 8:00am when the doctor came in to update her and check some stuff. When the doc left, Sarah said she was just going to go back to sleep and so I decided to use that time to go home and check on the dog.

Layla. Second to Sarah, she might have had it the worst of anyone. Her little world really got rocked. Mom and dad up and disappeared on Friday. Our neighbors (who she knows almost as well as us) took care of her Friday and Saturday night. Daddy kept coming home for brief windows at a time and would leave again. Then he comes home on Sunday, only to pack her stuff up and take her to a house she's never been to before.

A couple friends at church who had a little puppy of their own offered to keep her for a few nights and I thought Layla might like it, so she stayed with them for three nights. At first, their 6-month old Yorkie, Lucy, was not too thrilled with the introduction of another dog to her turf, but apparently by the end of the stay, Layla had another best friend. (Apparently, she also seemed to rediscover her taste for puppy chow and put on a few pounds.)

Sarah's parents arrived in town Saturday afternoon from Arkansas and her mother and I began tag teaming staying with Sarah in the hospital while would occasionally run home and continue to try to get things ready for a baby to come home. When you think you have three and a half weeks to clean and that gets shortened to a couple days, there's only so much you can do.

I got back to the hospital on Saturday evening got settled in for the evening. First off, UGA and Arkansas were playing at the same time. I was fully prepared to defer to baby mama and not even mention watching anything other than her Razorbacks, but, to put in perspective what the mag was doing to her, she said without question we were gonna watch UGA as she wasn't sure watching the R'backs was going to help her keep her BP down.

We awoke Sunday morning to great news, they were going to start weening Sarah off the mag. They came in and took it down to 50% and I am not exaggerating when I say that I could see the difference in Sarah within 5 minutes. I left for church and then ran home for a little bit. By the time I got back to the hospital, they had taken her off the mag completely and my wife was back to her wonderful self.

At the same time, things got a little tougher in that it was up to Sarah to keep her BP down herself until delivery or they would put her back on the mag.

Avery's Arrival story - Part I

So, I should have done this two weeks ago when Avery first got here, but I didn't, so I'm doing it now before I forget even more than I already have. Here is the story of Avery's arrival from her daddy's perspective.

We learned at Sarah's 36-week appointment that her blood pressure was pretty high and so she was put on bed rest to try to bring it down. I was CONVINCED that would work as I was sure it was Sarah's job raising her blood pressure. Well, Sarah went back on Thursday to get more lab tests run and we would get the results on Friday.

Anyone who has ever lived in the Atlanta area can understand why any expectant parent in this city is terrified by the thought of getting "that phone call" on a Friday afternoon with Atlanta traffic being as awful as it is. Of course I was downtown at Turner Field that day, finished up a tour of the ballpark when, yep, I got the call...or the texts actually. "Call me" "ASAP." I also see that Sarah has already tried to call me. Her doctor had called and told her that she had preeclampsia and said that she should go ahead and come down to the hospital and that she should go ahead and pack a bag. She had texted me at 2:37 pm. I'm at Turner field, 35 miles from home. Doc wants us at the hospital (another 15 miles from the house) for an ultrasound by 5:00pm. After nearly having a heart attack when I get on the highway to head home, only to find traffic crawling...OF. COURSE., I slowly get out of downtown and make good time getting home, my heartbeat climbing with each mile.

I get home, Sarah's nearly ready to go. I throw some clothes and laptop in the backpack and walk Layla. We get down to the hospital shortly after 4 and they pretty much took Sarah straight to ultrasound after putting us in what I have to think is the smallest room at Northside Hospital. I'm pretty sure it wasn't originally a room, rather some extra space that they converted into one. Sarah was gone for close to an hour, but once she got back, we just kinda settled in to wait for whatever was going to happen next. At this point in time, we were still thinking there was a chance that we could be going back home.

Before we saw a doctor, the nurses returned and began prepping her for an IV, our first indication we weren't going anywhere. They said they expected the doctor to put her on magnesium sulphate to regulate her body and the BP so that we could try to get Avery to full-term (37 weeks). If Avery didn't tolerate things to well or Sarah's BP didn't calm down to a safe level, they would induce delivery even earlier so that she couldn't have a possible seizure. Awesome. Reality really settled in when a nurse told Sarah that the next time she went home, she would have baby.

Thoughts on the magnesium sulphate: it was described to Sarah that "the mag" would make her feel like she had the flu. By my observation, that was underselling it. That stuff looked like it packed quite a punch on Sarah. I've never seen her with so little energy. Even though they tried to give her meds for the headache that developed on the way to the hospital, those didn't seem to help because we were told the mag could cause headaches. Sarah was on that stuff from Friday to Sunday morning, making for a very long weekend. But the stuff did its job, it regulated her BP well and while she was on it, we didn't have a lot of worries, other than her over all lack of comfort.

Back to Friday night. Right before Sarah was put on the mag, we had a surprise visit from one of our church elders and his wife, whose daughter is one of our best friends and also works in Labor & Delivery at Northside. They were so nice to spend a few minutes with us and pray over us before heading out.

We had already asked a couple times about whether we were going to be in this "room" for the night or if we were possibly going to get an actual room? By midnight, I was worried we were going to be spending the next 4 days there. There was no room for visitors, and I cannot describe how much noise there was around the room. Several times, it really sounded like someone was slamming a hospital bed into the other side of the wall next to my chair. After spending about 30 minutes trying to get to sleep, I had just decided to go ask what was going on with the noise when the door opened and some angels disguised as nurses appeared and asked if we were ready to be moved upstairs to our room. I was up and ready to go in less than a minute, and we were taken up to the High Risk Perinatal unit where we would stay until Monday...and most importantly get some sleep after an emotional roller coaster of a day.

To be continued...

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Our Father who art in Heaven,
hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
on Earth as it is in Heaven.


So over the past two weeks, we've been trying to begin finding some sort of routine with Avery. One thing that Sarah said early on that she wanted to do was to read a book and pray with Avery every night before bed. I thought that was a great idea and was immediately on board. I was reminded of one of my good friends Jeremy and how he has read the gospel to his son every night for most of his life, so I tried to think of something I could do to also begin introducing God's word into Avery's life. And so I thought of The Lord's Prayer and decided we could add that on to the end of our nightly prayer and that could just be something that even though Avery's not "learning" it right now, she's still hearing it.


Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive our trespasses
as we forgive those that trespass against us. 
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

The first night went great. It was just me and Avery and it went off without a hitch. Hadn't said The Lord's Prayer in a long time, but somehow it came right back to me. So the next evening, I shared the idea with Sarah and that I wanted all of us to do it, and we finished that evening's book and then prayed.
For yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Yep, turns out I did in fact need a bit of a refresher on the Lord's Prayers as somehow Psalm 23 found it's way into the prayer. I think Sarah also tried to throw in a couple of the beatitudes.


For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory
forever and ever, Amen.

So there are two takeaways from this endeavor:
1) Study up in advance of new initiatives.
2) Even though I've been primarily reading from the New Living Translation the past couple years, apparently I'm doomed to be permanently stuck with King James in some areas.

Thoughts on my 1st Peachtree Road Race

I first began running on a somewhat regular basis during the 2009-10 winter season and did pretty well through the spring, however I completely fell off the wagon over the summer. I hated the humidity, the heat, the sweat, everything. But I LOVED the feeling I had when I finished a winter run, especially when the temperature neared freezing, and so I started getting back into it in December of last year. In February, we got the news that Avery was on her way, and in line with many fathers-to-be, I decided to take getting in better health more seriously.

With the help of the Couch to 5K training program, I ran my first 5K in May and then turned my focus on today's race. Having lived here in Atlanta for 19 years, it was about time I ran the Peachtree. I've always felt a twinge of jealousy every time I see someone wearing a Peachtree Road Race t-shirt, so this year was going to be MY year. So after running the PRR today, here are some thoughts from my first experience with it:

• I'm not sure there's a good way of getting to the race. Everything in print says to take MARTA because you're talking about getting to and leaving a 60,000-person race. I took MARTA, and while I'm sure parking at Piedmont Park would have been a nightmare, getting back to MARTA after running 6.2 miles STUNK!!! I'm guessing it was about 1 mile to walk back to the 10th street station and the majority was walking up a hill that was worse than ANYTHING on the actual race course.
• Speaking of hills, the rumors of "cardiac hill" (also known by some as "heartbreak hill," "pill hill," etc..) are fairly true in that it's no fun at all. That being said, I didn't think it was any worse than the other hills, they're all absolutely no fun.
• Guys, if you have Sherwood Forrest on your back, shoulders, arms, legs, and heaven knows where else, sleeveless shirts are not kind - to you OR anyone else.
• Walkers, I'm going to try to show some restraint here......WALK ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!! (Right as in the "right-hand" interpretation, not "right-correct") There is plenty of room on the road for people to run and walk, and it is clearly stated on every website and print instructions pertaining to the PRR that walkers are to stay to the right. Seriously, the most. annoying. part of the whole experience for me were the people who insisted on walking side-by-side on the left side of the road where we were running.
• Very fun atmosphere. Bands and DJs along the whole route, spectators cheering the entire way, plenty of water and misters. Aside from the aforementioned walkers, it was pretty fun to be out there with the crowd and it wasn't too hard to settle into a comfortable pace.
• My goal was to finish the race in 1 hour and 15 minutes. My official time was 1:14:59. Wow.
• I got my t-shirt. That might be the best part of the whole experience for me. Every bit as good as a trophy to me.

When I first started running in '09, I said that I just wanted to experience what it felt like to finish a race. I've finished two now and it's pretty cool. Gonna take the rest of the week off and figure out what I'm going to do next. One option is to begin working up to a half-marathon. I've got some good momentum now on the running and I really don't want to lose  it, especially after how hard it was to start up again this past December. On the other hand, I've been thinking about borrowing the P90X program from one of my friends. I don't know anyone who's finished the program, but I figure it's worth a shot and who knows, it could possibly help with my running. I'll decide later this week and get at it next week.

Fan Friendly Fridays - Dark Horse edition

With the MLB Playoffs beginning a couple days ago, I figured this week's FFF should be something related to the postseason.

A term you'll hear in almost any sports is dark horse. In most circumstances, this is a team that begins in relative obscurity and quickly rises to prominance.

Naturally, the term comes from the "sport" of horse racing where a horse that nobody knew much about would be entered into a race, making it difficult to bet on. According to our dear friends at Wikipedia, the first time the term was used occurred in 1831. In his novel The Young Duke, Benjamin Disraeli wrote,
A dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph.

Many mistakingly use this term to mean the same thing as an underdog. The difference lies in the "obscurity." Just because a team may not be favored to win doesn't mean they're a dark horse. Here are a couple examples:

• In the first round of the 2010 ALDS, the New York Yankees are facing the Minnesota Twins. Now let's say that...obviously hypothetically...the Twins are favored to win. For the simple fact that the Yankees are the Yankees, one of the most well-known brands in sports with a very high media following, I would argue that they can not and will never be able to be labeled as a dark horse. Everyone knows who the Yankees are and they they always have a chance to win.
  
• In 2008, the Tampa Bay Rays, long time residents of AL East cellar successfully made it to the World Series with a roster devoid of "superstars" and came from a city many people forget even has an MLB team and had minimal media exposure. In my opinion, going into the playoffs that year, the Rays fit the definition of a dark horse.
  

Thankful Thursday

Let us give thanks.

• I am SO. THANKFUL. for a job. I'll be going in Saturday to fill out paperwork and resume working at Starbucks. No, it's not in sports, and I don't anticipate it being long-term. However as I am REALLY wanting to get into sports broadcast production but am having difficulty getting in the front door, I really needed to do something to bring in a paycheck. Plus, there's something that happens mentally when you sit at home and don't have a job, and it's not good. I had to get out of that and get busy.
• I am thankful for Men's Fraternity. MF is a weekly curriculum that focuses on helping men identify, learn about, develop, and maximize their God-given responsibilities. We started back up last week and its really been a blessing for me, and I hope that Sarah has benefitted from it too. If there is a church near you that is offering the program, I highly recommend looking into it.
• I am so thankful that the Braves were successful in returning to the playoffs after a 4-year hiatus. We didn't make it in pretty, but we're in and that's all that matters now. Obviously its a little extra sweet because of this being Bobby Cox' final year. The Braves are going to have it tough facing the Giants because both teams have great pitching and both teams struggle to score runs, but I am really hoping we can split the two games in SF to start the series. If we can do that, I like our chances of moving on.
• I am thankful for a new opportunity to serve as a "Trail Guide" in the NACofC Youth Group this year. Trail Guides is kind of like a mentoring program where I've been given 4 7th-grade young men to meet with each month and just be a positive influence in their lives. I met these young men this past Sunday and I can already tell I'll benefit from this as much, if not more than they will.
• I am thankful for our small group at church. Sarah and I were reading a humorous blogpost yesterday about small groups in general, and while we were laughing at some of the parts of the blogpost that applied directly to us, it yet again reminded us how thankful we are for ours.
• As always, I am constantly thankful for Sarah. She's really hung with me through the job issue and I know that she spends a lot of time helping me find job postings and helping me think of possible ways to get some editing training. She's the best!

Sorry I haven't been around much. Fan Friendly Fridays will return tomorrow.

Pinch Hitting: Sarah of I'm Just Saying

Editor's note: Last week I came up with the idea of bringing in some Pinch Hitters, so to speak. I've invited a couple friends and fellow bloggers to write posts for you, our loyal fans in the stands. Naturally, the honor of the first guest post should go to none other than my esteemed wife and author of the well-read blog, I'm Just Saying. I was going to introduce her post saying "I am thrilled to present our first guest columnist"...but then I read the first line of her post below. By the time Saturday gets here, I'll be able to support the Hogs in their efforts against Alabama, but I'm not there yet. So with what bitterness I am still carrying from my UGA Dawgs choking and handing the win over to the Hogs, I'll say...

*queue up "SexyBack" by Justin Timberlake*

Now hitting: #41, the second baseman, Sarah.

Wooooooo PIG SOOIEEEE! Go Razorbacks! Hogs rule, Dawgs drool!

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, I'll tell you why I'm here. This blog needs a feminine touch!

Tonight at 11:09pm, we enter the most glorious season of them all. It's FALL, y'all! Why do I love Fall so much? Oh, let me count the ways! Cooler temperatures (allegedly), jackets and long sleeves and sweaters, chili and soups, and college football. Now, I can blog with the best of 'em about my favorite Autumn clothing and I can share a darn good chili recipe, but Michael has asked me to write about my love of college football. And what better time to do that than right after my team mopped the floor with his team the beginning of Fall?

I think the reason women can get into college football so easily is because we can relate it to our past. We can remember our high school days (and even younger) hanging out at the football game on a Friday night. I remember all of us girls worrying about dates to the Homecoming game, the VERY LARGE AND OBSCENE Homecoming corsages, playing in the band and marching at half-time, making fun of the cheerleaders cheering at the top of our lungs, dressing in school colors to show our spirit, and of course, checking out the hot football players. Good Friday night memories.

The excitement - for me - dropped off dramatically in college, because my alma mater didn't have that great of a team to speak of. I went to some games, but there was so much other fun stuff to do in college! Besides, our team mascot was gramatically incorrect. And that's just embarrassing.

But then.

In the late 90s, I went to work at a television station in Little Rock. It was there that I worked with The Voice of the Razorbacks, Mr. Paul Eells. How on earth could you not be excited about Razorback football when working with this man? I discovered my love for college football. There was so much excitement to be had! Calling the Hogs, tailgating, crazy fans, SEC rivalry games, wearing Razorback red, and of course, the hot football players. You just couldn't help but be excited...especially when some games went into seven-freaking-overtimes. Yep, I caught a serious case of college football fever.

And now, I live far from Razorback country. I married into the Georgia Bulldogs family. I have friends who are LSU Tigers fans, Tennessee Vols fans, Auburn Tigers fans, Ole Miss fans, and Alabama Crimson Tide fans. I even have a few friends who cheer for the Florida Gators...bless their hearts, they just don't know any better. I love them dearly, but I will always root for whatever team is playing the Florida Gators. Even surrounded by a melting pot of fans of other teams, I still call my Hogs on Saturdays. THIS is college football, readers. College football is the smack talk between rival teams, it's losing your voice from cheering, it's the car flags whipping in the wind, it's the tailgating with your friends and complete strangers, it's the heartbreak of a loss and the joy and gloating of a win. And for me, there's just something about hearing "TOUCHDOWN ARKANSAS!" that lets me know Fall is officially here, regardless of the date on the calendar.

It's just nostalgic.

That and it feels darn good when your team straight up rolls over your spouse's team.

~Sarah