Everyone says they grow so fast, but it seems an eternity ago that I was childless, or pregnant, or in that delivery room.  Just put my baby girl down for the night.  What a privledge…to be able to hold her and play with her and just be with her.  Sometimes when I am done feeding her I prop her up on my lap and we just sit and snuggle for a few.  And sometimes when I’m walking around with her I just smother her little cheek with kisses and I can’t stop and she just lets me.  It’s all just so beautiful and precious.  Yes…it is boring sometimes.  But I will never forget when my dad was dying in the hospital (though I didn’t know it at the time) and I spent so much time there.  I was itching to get a job, being just out of college, but nothing was working out.  And when he died I realized how good it was that I didn’t work because it was just a short special last time I got to be with him. 

And now I have this beautiful little baby.  And sure…I could work and leave her with someone, but I don’t want to.  And not just for her, but for me too.  This is such a special and rare part of my life right now.  She won’t ever remember it…but I will.   It is like the scripture says, “ To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”  So now is a slow, quiet, miraculous time that I am just enjoying for the short while it lasts.  Because whenever we have baby#2….

Thanks to my sugar daddy for bringing home the bacon so we can party all day.  I feel very lucky and blessed.

So here’s how it went: We had an induction appt. for Friday morning at 8am. Thursday night I had Back to School night and then stayed until 10pm to make sub plans for the 3 days I was going to be absent. When I got home, Megan was pacing and breathing. Turns out she had been in labor for a couple hours. She stayed up all night and at 6:30am, we decided it was time to go in. When we arrived at the labor & delivery desk at 7am, the nurses said “You’re an hour early!” By the time the doctor checked her at 9:30am she was 5-6cm. No induction needed they decided. By 10:30am when the anesthesiologist came in to start the epidural she was 8-9cm.

Megan pushed for about 1.5hrs. and did awesome. After the epidural, she felt pressure but no pain. She was totally ready and had all the things she needed. It was a really calm wait. When she finally came out, I have to say it was a strange experience. It was like watching a little purplish white ghost fly out of there. She was quiet because she still had fluid in her respiratory tract which the doctor suctioned out. Pretty soon she was giving out cute little cries. Truly amazing. She was on Megan’s chest for a few minutes until the baby nurse took her to clean her at the incubator in the room. Then she gave her to me and I was floored. I don’t know how to describe it. She was instantly our baby. The nurses remarked that she was really calm – not crying. Looking around the room right away.

Mom was a little dizzy when she got to the maternity ward but is doing great now. Everyone has noticed her big feet & hands. I think we have a tall one on the way. We just got a brainwave hearing test where they put soft sounds into her ear through an earphone. The brain stem responds and sends out brain waves and a device reads these Otoacoustic Emissions on a screen. A good response is a score of 160 and tests can last about 20min. to see higher scores. Juliet (look at me, I’m already bragging) reached 300 in just 35 seconds.The nurse said she was the fastest baby she had ever tested. Basically she’s a genius.

We’ll be out of the hospital tomorrow with Juliet. We are falling more in love with her the more time we spend with her. We took a new family moment in front of the Mac cam below. More photos coming soon. . .

our new addition, Juliet

Megan was due to deliver on Labor Day – hah, Labor Day – but the day came and went with nary a contraction. The most she ever felt was a slight twinge in her hip when she tried hefting a 40lb. lawn chair at Lowe’s. A friend called that day and asked if we were in the hospital parking lot driving doughnuts. “Are you kidding?” I replied. “We’re not going to let the looming possibility of a baby delivery in the hardware store run our lives.  We’re shopping patio furniture and eatin’ Chevy’s near-Mex tacos. It’s Labor Day!”

Being overdue has made us both anxious but I keep telling her any day she delivers is Labor Day (double hah!). We’ve got an appt. to induce on Friday should she not pop out by then. Every day before  I leave work I place sub plans on my desk should the little one decide tonight is her time. BTW – we still don’t have a name but we do have a list. I would say it’s top secret, but it’s already been cracked more than once. Based on the negative reactions of others, we’ve been forced to cross some names off. My hope for Lafawnda is dashed.

Being overdue has also allowed us to experiment upon the wealth of labor triggers people have offered up this past week. Yesterday I put my hand on the belly and gave her a good talking to as her father to quit hiding and face the world. Megan just hiked the steepest street in La Crescenta from bottom to top – a good 3/4 mile with about 720ft.of climbing. The woman’s a trooper. We have yet to try the most bizarre labor trigger:  supposedly some restaurant in Hollywood guarantees their eggplant parmesan will send a woman into labor within 24hrs or you can return and get refund of your bill. I’m thinking I’ll get the most expensive item on the menu, then even if it does work I’ll fix the hospital records to show it took 36hrs. If you have any other labor-inducing magic tricks, let us know. We’re willing.

Despite our efforts, no signs of labor yet. As I write this, Megan is upstairs bolting together the frame of a guest bed we just bought off Craigslist. We may not have pioneer blood but we’ve certainly got their mentality – we’re gonna work this baby out.

We will, of course, update all of our faithful bmharvey.com readers when in fact we metamorphose into parents. In the meantime, please feed my egotistical need for an internet audience and leave a comment. Under Obama’s new plan, every word you leave is tax-deductible.

For those of you who don’t know or weren’t sure, we live in La Crescenta. We just bought a house here this summer. La Crescenta is in the middle of the biggest wildfire in California right now. It started out as a ranger station fire in La Canada (our neighbors but no real physical boundary). It has spread to Tujunga to the west and now caught us in the middle.

We are OK. We bought next to the freeway, which didn’t seem like a perfect place as it has noise, but luckily the freeway is at the bottom of the small valley, so we’re far down from the fires up the hill. My dad’s house however, where I grew up and where my brother lives with his wife and four kids, is in serious danger. Yesterday my sister-in-law Becki brought carloads of valuables over to store in our garage (which was surprisingly close to being emptied out) and later brought the four kids down. My brother and father stayed to weather it out. At about 3:30am, Ryan called to tell me he was in my driveway – the police had just evacuated them. They used the loudspeaker from the patrol car as well as the reverse 911 phone system. My dad, decided to camp it out somewhere in in his shag-carpeted pickup truck – don’t worry, he loves that kind of stuff. We were just fortunate with the timing of our house (& size) to be able to fit everyone in.

So far the fire has not been contained much and tonight is creeping closer to the top of the house-line where my dad’s house is. We’re holding all the kids pets as well. School was supposed to start tomorrow but the whole district has cancelled school tomorrow. Yeah – another day to get ready. Actually we’re heading to my mom’s at the beach in Oxnard where Ryan and family went for the night. Here’s a few photos I took last night of what’s going on:

Megan is doing fine and we are looking forward to the birth of our daughter in another week. No signs of labor yet. She’s been a trooper.We’ve got our hospital plan in place and ready for it whenever it happens.

We’ll keep you updated. In the meantime I’ve posted a few of the photos I took last night and today. You can see more in my Facebook album at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033336&id=1402600995&l=43396719a4

Brett

• washed, primed, & painted entire upstairs including doorjams & trim
• installed a new master bath vanity cabinet & top along with plumbing
• installed shower door (via Lowe’s)
• installed new carpet (via Lowe’s)
• killed a bee’s nest living under garden shed
• cleaned out kitchen cupboards
• moved half our stuff into the house from garage
• installed 3 new windows (via California Deluxe Windows)
• Megan fashioned new curtains for all upstairs windows
• made 16 trips to Lowe’s & Home Depot
• bought hundreds of dollars in tools

Are we done yet? Will we ever be done?

After racing like rats every time a house went on the market to beat out all the other rats who scurried to the same house the day it listed, we finally got into one that worked out for us. Sorry for the animal references but my AP Bio students are dissecting tomorrow – got rats on the brain. It is truly a buyer’s market right now and the LA market is hot. We couldn’t even squeeze into some houses there were so many people looking. Thanks to our great agent who was on top of the inventory and ready to take us the day homes with our details listed.

We are really happy to provide a home for our upcoming (or is it outcoming?) baby. This was a big thing I really wanted – to have a house before the baby came. I don’t know why people are sometimes afraid to share details about the house they purchased – maybe they worry it’s boasting, perhaps in the act of describing it they might realize they got a raw deal, or maybe I shouldn’t be describing where I live for all those predators of biology teachers scouring the internet for their next prey. I’m not sure why it’s taboo in some circles, but all our friends seem to want to know the details and we’re happy to share them so here they are:

It’s a 3bdr. 2.5 bath, two-story that looks like a New England cottage. It was a short sale but pre-approved so all we had to do was put in a bid over the pre-approved price. The selling realtor has proven to be less-than-competent which has caused us some frustrations (like the owner getting pissed off when he came home find 5 people in his house for the inspection/appraisal because his realtor didn’t tell him the date & time of the inspection).

The front looks little plain but it’s got color and with Megan’s touch will be look quite cozy this summer. One drawback: our neighbors are all the commuters on the 210 freeway. Yes, our backyard is a hillside leading up to the freeway. Luckily, previous owners sound-proofed the house with double and sometimes triple pane windows. This kills me – the master bathroom has not 1, not 2, but 3 small windows you have to slide open to get air! It’s got a large side-yard with an above ground pool. Megan wasn’t keen on a pool when we were hunting but it’s above ground so we can sell it off if we decide it’s too much maintenance for us. For now, Megan is warming up to the idea of relaxing in the water in August at 8 months pregnant when it will be truly warm. Lastly there’s a great little playhouse built in the back we’re going to fix up as a sleepover place for our nieces and nephews.

Of course, there’s always work to be done and we’ve been making a list for over a month now. Most of it is work the inspector recommended. The house was built in 1988 which for La Crescenta is like brand new. Most places built in the 40’s require a bit of rennovation. We’ll post updates on work we do with pics. For now, check out our new digs: http://www.3720mayfield.com/ Note: by the time we saw it, the sellers had switched to a different realtor than this site, and we paid way less than that!

brett

Ever since we’ve been married, Megan has been on the hunt – for a house. Visiting Zillow & Realtor.com is not a daily hobby for Megan, it’s an addiction. She’s always scheming some way for us to get into an area with good housing and good jobs. The search has taken us physically to a dozen places here in CA as well as virtually to just about every state in the West.

Recently, we stepped things up a notch by going out to look at places with realtors. We feel we’re getting to know the market and the game pretty well. We’re on the MLS list serve which sends us houses in our price range and geographic area. These emails come daily and most have pictures. The pictures are usually taken by the selling agent who wants to show off the attractive features of the house. They’re supposed to be good advertising, which is why it always surprises me to find something like this:

Yes, these are actual photos from the real estate listing for a house here in SoCal. What does this say to the potential buyers? “Yardwork and ladder to fix consistently leaky roof included. Creative storage opportunities for ladder & tools.” It was accompanied by the text, “Classic house, high on hill, montrous lot”. Apparently spelling and focusing the camera are not qualifications for a real estate license. How about this:

“Our decoration approach is best described as chaos theory.” And finally . . .

Oh . . . This one is pure sabotage.

It’s so cool to see these pics live while the fetus is squirming. Hey, I’m a biology dweeb. And of course, we also found out the gender – we’re having a GIRL!

It’s a little hard to tell but the thing that looks like a horseshoe pointing to the right is a view from underneath the fetus’ bottom and legs. Dr. Teng (who seems super proficient with the ultrasound tools) typed the word ‘girl’ right where a boy’s pee-pee would be. You can barely make out two small white buds that are the labia. Then it a rare moment, she turned her head to show off a pink bow on her head (see lower photo). That pretty much made it a slam dunk.

We both took the day off to go to the morning appointment. Afterwards we ate at Marston’s – a fantastic little restaurant in Pasadena where all the students from a nearby culinary school get jobs because it’s known for it’s fantastic food.  After some huevos rancheros and macadamia nut pancakes for brunch we sat and digested in a bookstore while looking through baby name books. We’ve got some in mind – but we’re going to keep them a closely-guarded secret until she’s born.

We’re totally excited and can’t wait to meet this next little Harvey girl!