Kathy and Kris Site

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes! Little Renee came home from the hospital today. She’s been good, today was a very fussy day for her but my milk isn’t yet in and she’s just drinking up that colostrum. Hopefully tomorrow things will change. She is really precious though. The cats are a little freaked out but their kind of just in awe of her.

It was a very long labor–contractions started Sunday at 1: 30 a.m. and they were intense. They never were timed regularly apart. I went in to the hospital twice on Sunday and they said I was only 1 cm dilated, my water hadn’t broken yet. They tried to give me something for the pain but it didn’t work at all. I was basically on my knees in agony all Sun. night. Mon morning I went back and the ob-gyn broke my water, she thought I’d probably deliver the baby Mon. early evening at the latest. Well the labor went on forever and it was just terrible. Chris was a total trooper and an excellent coach. We managed pretty well the first few hours with hypnobirthing, but I was not progressing at all. I really wanted to do it without drugs, but at 11:30 that evening, I had been in over 40 hours of labor and I just could not go on. The midwife, who usually doesn’t suggest drugs, really thought in my case and epidural would help me rest a little and relax enough to let things progress. So I finally got one, and things progressed fairly well. Renee was FINALLY delivered at 5:13 the next morning (I had been in labor 53 hours)! They had to do an episiotomy but it’s healing pretty well.

The hospital staff and nurses were AWESOME. So supportive, so helpful, so family oriented! And the midwife who deilvered Renee was exactly the one we wanted. I wish my labor had been easier, but things all fell into place and this little girl is totally worth it.

Will try to update more later, gotta go cause she’s waking up!

Renee June Arnini was born, today October 28, at 513am, 7lbs 19in, after a marathon labor session

We are all doing very well

Kathy has been having contractions the last few hours, it looks like renee may be joining us soon!!!!

-Very exciting

We had another ultrasound this afternoon. This time she measured a little bigger, a bit over 6 lbs which is more average. They’re not really concerned that she’s unhealthy and there is always a margin of error on those things anyway, esp. the bigger the baby gets.
She was squirming around a lot so it was hard for the Ob-gyn to take measurements!
But overall things look good. Technically I could go any day now, although I’m hoping she at least waits until the weekend is over! But she’ll come when she’s meant to, whether we think we’re “ready” or not.

Most of the house projects have been completed, our house no longer looks like a construction zone which is great. The other few little things will just have to go on the back burner for now. I feel lucky that we’ll both have a good amount of time off to just enjoy her when she comes.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm!

What a lovely Columbus Day weekend it was! We got quite a bit done and were able to take some time out to enjoy the CT Renaissance Faire in Hebron, CT –our third year of attending.

The Ren. Faire is a complete blast, and seems to get better every year. The weather was flawless which always helps. We got quite a few medieval heckling jokes from the actors at the faire about my pregnant belly which was fun. A guy dressed as a dragon gave me some beads for good luck, with this advice:
“1. Never do anything for beads. 2. Shiny things are always good”. Wise advice indeed.
Some of the most entertaining acts of the day were:

The Pope and Cardinal–by no means free of “cardinal” sin, these 2 had most of us rolling in the aisles with their oh-so-naughy, oh-so-bawdy irreverent humor. They chose people in the audience to act out a rendition of David and Goliath, and some of the things they said might make Paris Hilton turn as red as the Cardinal’s hat!

The Duelists–again by no means a “G” rated act, these guys are the experts in crowd heckling. Their motto “if you take your kids to this and they get what we’re saying, it’s not our fault, you’re just bad parents!”. They even told one kid who was harassing them, “next time mommy gets pregnant tell her not to drink so much”.

Smee and Blog: apparently these two have been performing for over 30 years and they are just fun. They are 2 “executioners” who like to revise old showtunes to have gruesome, execution-related themes. (example: “If I were a Hatchet Man”, instead of “If I were a Wealthy Man”)

Zoltan the Adequate (his motto, “Am I amazing? no, just adequate!): a comedian/magician who endangers himself in many ways (eating fire and sitting on nails), does card tricks and flirts with the crowd. Best joke of the day, “If Dick Cheney and George Bush were on a sinking life boat, who would be saved first?–the rest of the world!”.

Sweet Amaryllis: a really cute group of women who sing medieval songs and play the harp, flute and cello. Just nice relaxing stuff to listen to.

The finale of the day was a live jousting tournament which was great fun to watch. Chris and I rooted on the “black” side for the evil Dame Fiona, who won by cheating (But she won all the same!).

It’s great fun to go to the faire; we hope little Renee will enjoy the tradition too. You can check out the faire at this website : http://www.ctfaire.com/connecticut_renaissance_festival/index.php

The baby’s room is 90% set up. It would be 100% if, for our very last step of assembling the crib, the crib company failed to send us the bolts to attach the very last item. They apologized and are mailing them, but jeez! Talk about irony. Those damn crib people making it hard to assemble stuff! But the room is really cute. I spent some time Friday putting her little clothes into the dresser. It is sweet to see all the little socks, pj’s and dresses.

We stopped by Babies R’ Us this weekend to get a few last minute baby things, including a car seat stroller, which was our last major item. we also stopped by a children’s consignment shop near Chris’ parents and found a like-new baby bouncer for cheap. Score!

Still surreal that this little girl is coming so soon.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Columbus Day weekend.

Well, we are literally counting down the DAYS until the little one arrives. We got the crib and dresser today! The dresser looks great–unfortunately the crib is going to have to be assembled–poor Chris. We’ll have to post pictures as soon as it’s done.
Lately the baby has been sticking out her little foot all the way on my right side. It’s really cute because I can feel a heel and even some toes (I think).
Yesterday we took a tour of the birthing center at the hospital. It’s nice that we have a community hospital just up the road, it’s nice and intimate.

Seriously, the man is just awesome. He certainly deserves SOME sort of award for bearing with me through this whole rollercoaster ride of recent. Here’s the top 5 LATEST reason why hub’s the best:

1. He has stoicly, without complaint, put up with me during my hormonal highs and lows which have mostly dealt with freaking out and crying over ridiculous things. Although I’m sure he’s ready to pull his hair out, he hasn’t given me one bit of a hard time when I, for the fiftieth time, sob about how much of a “fat whale” I’ve become or worry that the kid will despise me. (usual response, even though it’s B.S. to “fat whale” comment–”i still can’t even see your ass you are so skinny!!”)

2. In this past week alone, he’s done dozens of handyman projects, many of them a debut attempt, with the skill of an experienced crafstman. After a hard week’s work, he has, this week alone–installed and painted a pantry door (including making the holes for AND installing the lock for it), mudded an uneven wall in the bathroom, primed and painted said bathroom, installed a toilet, and replaced the front of our couch which was wobbly and falling apart. All of this was done without anyone else’s help and without a complaint! This summer alone, he installed a new bathtub and tiled the entire bathroom (a project that turned out to be monumentally involving), put in a new windowsill downstairs, assembled a boatload of IKEA furniture (and READ the directions), repaired water stains on the downstairs ceiling, and clearing out his beloved office space (poor guy!) to make room for the nursery.

3. He has been putting up with some pretty stressful situations at work in a courageous and mature manner, even though the temptation is to just leave it all! Not only has he been working his arse off at the school, but he has been putting in freelance work in the evenings (in addition to completing the above handyman tasks!) to save up a little extra money for when we take time off around the baby’s arrival.

4. He bought me a laptop (though we’ve both been enjoying it) because he knew it would be easier for me to keep in touch with people after the baby if we had something portable and functional.

5. He actually read, from cover to cover “What to Expect when you’re expecting”, and if you quiz him on certain chapters, he will usually know the answer. I’m not even that good!! He has also attended all of my prenatal appoinments without flinching.

I know he’ll probably be embarrassed that I posted it, but I can’t help it. I’m just amazed that I’m so lucky. Everyone, give this guy a round of applause! Is he gonna be an awesome Daddy or what?

We had another ultrasound today to check on the baby’s size–there was some concern that she was measuring on the smaller side for her due date. I was hoping to see what looked like a real little person in there, but with all the fluid and squirming around it was pretty much a blur. They are 100% CERTAIN it is a girl (after the baby showers we can breathe a sigh of relief!), and everything appears to be healthy and in working order–there is plenty of fluid for her which is very good. The conclusion is she may just be a bit of a half pint. Both Chris and I were small when we were born (I was 6 pounds 8 oz, Chris was a little over 7), so it may just be genetic. They didn’t seem too concerned, so I will try not to be either.

Hard to believe that this crazy, wild ride called pregnancy will be coming to an imminent end. Not looking forward too much to the labor part, but that can’t be avoided. It will be STRANGE, SO STRANGE to identify myself as a parent, and to actually have a little breathing, kicking human being in my hands!! But I’m sure it will be wonderful too.

In other news we are frantically finishing house projects, not too many more to go. Just hoping little Renee doesn’t decide to visit us TOO early.

This is my favorite time of year, when the leaves just start to turn and you can smell all the rich smells of leaves, wild grapes and cold soil-rich air. As good a time as ever to have a baby.

It seems like this concert writeup will be our last (sigh!) for a while around the baby’s arrival. Our next concert writeup might have to do with seeing the Wiggles live, or something god awful like that . (no! We won’t let that happen). Anyhoo, it probably will be our last late night concert outing for a while.

Stars hail from Montreal, CA and they are not only talented, but one of the nicest bands around. Not only did they come on stage with a few dozen roses and throw them out to people every once in a while, but they thanked us profusely for being fans and were humble about themselves. (Thurston Moore was playing downstairs at Pearl Street, they were playing upstairs at the same time and kept saying ” I can’t believe you guys would miss thurston moore to see us!”).

Opening for them was Bell x1, a Damien Rice hybrid group from Ireland. They had a good sound but were nothing to write home about. We did however like a little disco ditty they sang that had to do with roasting marshmallows (don’t ask me why!).

It was fun to go out and enjoy one of our last few dates as a young, “free” couple. Life’s sure gonna change in just a couple weeks, but hopefully it will all be for the better.

I think we will call this the official weekend of finishing projects. At least it is my hope to finish a bunch of stuff this weekend. For once we don’t really have much to do plan wise this weekend. So it will be very nice to get some of the stuff done. Hoping to install a new toliet, paint the kitchen finish the downstairs painting touchups, rewire a couple outlets. ok a lot of things.

here’s crossing my fingers.