Home at last

Wow, what an experience. And finally, we are home. What a great feeling to be able to get home with our baby and relax. Our stuff, our space, our home. Also, props to Penny for cleaning our house so well! You rock! Thanks so much!
Its so nice to be at home where we are more comfortable and able to veg out and relax. It's also really nice to not have to worry about someone coming in every 5 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we had the nurses to help out, but it kinda sucks to try to sleep when people are coming in to help, but their timing always seemed to be as I was falling asleep. It was uncanny.

Next, I want to thank our nurses at the hospital. We had some GREAT nurses (and a couple to remain nameless who left something to be desired.) By name, we wanted to thank Kathleen, Kristi, and Isabel fir their great work and for making our experience a good one. There were several other nurses that did a great job, but those 3 went above and beyond.

We also wanted to thank everyone for their support, love and prayers. For those that visited, thanks for the company. For those who couldn't come because of illness, thanks for being thoughtful about our baby's (and our) health. For those who couldn't come, but wanted to, thanks for the support and everything. We understand that it's tough to get out, especially with kids and on such a short notice. For those who weren't able to come and didn't want to, screw you, clown! ;)

thanks again! Come visit if you want! Love you all! Now we are off for baby's second tubby and some much needed sleep!

My "fun" diaper changing experience.

So there I was, thinking I was a pro, changing my 6th or 7th diaper. Ryan had a wet one and as I checked it out, he started to poop. So I set the diaper down over him and waited for him to finish his business. 10 seconds or so later he spit up pretty bad so I got out the bulb sucker thing. I started to try to use it, but he was choking a bit. So what do I do? I try to turn him over a bit to get it all clear and he starts flailing about and choking. So I promptly panic. I pick him up to clear his airway. Oops!! There goes the diaper! I pull him up to my chest and put my hand underneath him for support. I use the sucker and get things all clear.
Well, he was pretty upset about not breathing well for a few seconds and starts crying. All the tension from his cry tightens his stomach.
Out comes the poo!
Right into my hand!
At this point, I'm kinda out of available hands, so we call in the nurse to help me out.
I'm proud of myself for not freaking out and getting him breathing again, and even more proud for not puking with a handful of poo!

He's here!!!

Wow. What a day this has been. What a week this has been. What a pregnancy this has been. And here we are enjoying the company of this beautiful new boy! What an experience. Lots of waiting. A little frusterating at times at the lack of progress. But with the support of family and friends and our AMAZING nurse Kathleen, we made it through. What a miracle!

In the coming days and weeks, you may notice the "Sears Nick" (come see the softer side of Nick. ). I'll probably be all cheesy and sugary over my baby boy. But, you can't blame me! He's so damn cute!!

I'll be posting some high quality pics soon for all to see. For now, Trisha and I are waiting for his first tubby and then off to bed.

2 months off is plenty!

I have been shirking my duties. No more! Back by popular demand! Nix Blog!

I have been using Facebook a bit to keep everyone notified of Trisha and my state of being, but I figure that I should use my blog for that! Well, here I am. Of course, I thought of this 6 weeks ago, but I procrastinated until now.

So, the current status of things:

Trisha = Pregnant and ready to pop
Ryan = Stubborn and unwilling to come out to play
Nick = Nervous
Work = Going really well. Alianza is an exciting place to be these days. I'm SO blessed to have a good job (and one that I love!)
House = Messier than we would like, but overall, in good condition. Still need to get our tile floor fixed. The grout is all out again, and a couple more tiles have cracked because they shifted on the uneven subfloor. Boo!
Life = Good.

Mosquitoes Suck

I went up to my friends brother's house up in Kaysville again to make wands a full week ago. When we were there, there were a couple of mosquitoes flying around, but I decided that they were tolerable, especially since they weren't everywhere. My friend offered me some Off! so I could keep them from bugging me. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt, shorts and flip flops and thought that they would leave me alone, and if I noticed more of them, I would put it on.
These mosquitoes had to have been in ninja mode, because I didn't see or feel a single one bite me, I only saw a couple flying around my face, and trust me, I was constantly checking my legs because I didn't want to be getting bites.
Boy, am I an idiot for not using the off. I have lost HOURS of sleep over this, so I'm tired. They got me on my toes, on my Achilles tendon, all over my feet and calves.

See the pictures below. These pictures are from a FULL WEEK after the bites took place.
I am miserable.

It's a BOY!

That's right... We're having a little baby boy! We picked out a name, although it's not set in stone. We're going with Ryan Nicholas Fielding. I know, vein, right? ;)

We're so excited. I'll scan the ultrasound as soon as I get a minute.

Ugh..

So, Trisha and I have worked our butts off to get out house ready to show. And it was a resounding success thanks to the help of some friends and family to help us out while we were both in bad shape. I feel as though I have been beat up with a baseball bat. I want to lay down and take a nap.
Hopefully all of this work will pay off and the couple that looked at our condo last night will make us a huge offer!

Well, crap...

So, Trisha and I have been trying to do some spring cleaning and de-junking. We never really got our 2nd bedroom set up how we want and stuff kept piling up in there. It's really been a struggle trying to organize that room, especially since Trisha has been sick a lot, and pregnant. Not to mention that I've been lazy.. ;) Well, lazy and really exhausted lately. Hrmm.. We'll get to that...
I decided to take some initiative and clean where I could. I feel as though I'm finally getting into some good habits of cleaning. As a part of this spring cleaning, we decided to move our bedroom furniture around. I was getting ready to move the bed after I vacuumed part of the bedroom floor where we wanted to move the bed. I walked around the edge of the bed and started to lean over. I felt a twinge in my lower back, and I collapsed onto the bed. I felt as though I had been stabbed in my lower back. A few minutes later I worked my way back to my feet, but I knew that something was wrong. I had tweaked my back pretty bad. I continued to move the bed by pushing it into place with my legs.
After I was done with that, I had to lay down for most of the rest of the day because my back hurt so much. I was laid out all day Sunday and Monday as well. Sitting up, standing, walking, or rolling over while laying down was killer. No fun. Trisha, thankfully, has a prescription for Lortab. I took a couple of those to tide me over until I got to the doctor. I was unable to sleep well any of those nights because I move a lot in my sleep and whenever I move, my back screamed at me, and it woke me up. On Monday night, I had a bowl of low carb ice cream shortly after taking my sleeping medicine and another dose of Lortab. I was so tired and drained from the lack of sleep and the narcotics that I fell asleep sitting up on the couch with my hand laying in my unfinished bowl of ice cream. Lovely.
On Tuesday (after another missed day of work), I went to the Doctor to see what could be done about my back. He thinks that I just strained my back, which is not uncommon. I told him that the past few weeks I've been pretty drained before my back problem even came up. I told him that I had a bit of a sore throat as well and was concerned that I had mono. They took a blood test which just came back today (Thursday).
That's right. I have effing mono.
Boo!

That is all for now.

School

I just passed 2 classes last month for school. I finished a writing/presentation class and a JavaScript class. This semester I'm starting off with a class for Leadership and Professionalism. It's worth 12 credit hours. It aught to be fun. or not.

Wish me luck!

Baby Update

Trisha and I went in for our 2nd Dr.'s appointment yesterday for the baby. Things are looking good so far. Trisha has lost over 10 pounds during the month due to the nausea and such. She was glad to hear that at least there was SOME benefit to the nausea...
We also heard the baby's heartbeat with the sonagraph. The heartbeat was around 156 bpm. The doctor guesses that it will be a little girl, but it's pretty much a guess anyway. Apparently girl's heartbeats are faster than boys. He guessed wrong for a couple of my nephews though, so we'll have to see.
We get the next ultrasound at the end of the month! Exciting!

Aww crap...

So, during the period of time that the toilet had become unhinged and my handy-man fix-it, there was some leakage going on. My neighbors below me have had some water damage in their bathroom walls because of it. Aww crap...

Handyman

I'm not a very handy guy, but I just finished my first "mid-major" fix-it. Thanks to my brother and the internet. I have now successfully replaces a wax ring for my toilet. It really wasn't that hard, it was just a matter of getting it done. I'm glad I'm done.

Milestone

Well, last night I decided to break out the scale. I've kind of been worried since I was not dieting from 12/16-1/04, but I picked back up, and I wanted to know how I was doing. I found that I had hit a bit of a milestone. I just surpassed 75 pounds lost. I couldn't believe it. 75 pounds is as much as an 10 year old kid. Maybe even more.
That means that I have another 83 before I'm at my "I can be comfortable" goal. Anything after that is gravy, and I may not stop there. My real target goal would be an additional 50 after that, but I just don't know how realistic that really is.
Either way, I've come a long way, and I'm proud of myself.

Changes

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. I've been CRAZY busy. My work just laid off 3 more people last week. My job was eliminated, but luckily (for whatever reason), the management team here went to bat for me and had me put into another position. In fact, I was put in the position of someone that was laid off.
Layoffs are really difficult to stomach, especially in a smaller company when you become friends with most of your co-workers. I really liked the guys that were let go, and it's too bad that it had to be done. I am grateful, however, that I was thought enough of to "save."
Since this change, I've been busy. I've had a lot of old issues to resolve, as well as my fair share of new issues to work out. One night I was up until 2 AM with an issue, then I had to make a phone call at 5 AM on the same issue, then I got a call at 6 AM and had to make another call at 8, then I got up at 9. It was crazy. But also fun and rewarding.
I'll do my best to keep up on my posts. I have plenty of fun stuff to write about.
:D

SeaWorld

So, I'm a bit behind on my blog of my vacation to Florida, so I'll do my best to get everything added.
On Monday (the 29th), we drove up to Orlando with plans to go to a dinner show and SeaWorld the next morning, but Arabian Knights was sold out and Medival Knights was too expensive, so we ended up going to Macaroni Grill (where Amie gets a good discount).
We bought our tickets at a discount ticketing place. We had done a little research and found a place online that had good prices, and while we were driving, saw some advertisements for another place. We made some phone calls and decided to stop at the first place (which was on the way). We got there, and the guy was a jerk, and they wouldn't honor what they said on the phone. On the phone they said that if we brought in a quote from another discount ticketer, they would beat that price. He (the owner) wouldn't do that, so their prices were higher. He also said that he was partners with the other place (that we had the quote for), so they had the same prices, when bringing up specific prices (like to Medival times), their prices were different, and he was a jerk about it, so we bought a t-shirt and left. The T-shirts were Disney World 2008 T-shirts, so they were discounted (3 for 10). We drove to the other place, and got our tickets to SeaWorld. They had the same dang shirts at the 2nd place we went for 1.99 each! I couldn't believe it! It made me even more mad about the other place.
We spent the night at a Motel 6. The beds were full size, and it was rediculously uncomforatable for Trisha and me, so I ended up sleeping on the floor. We slept in a little bit and went to McDonalds for breakfast.
SeaWorld was rediculously busy. It took 30 minutes to drive the 5 miles from the motel to SeaWorld (on the freeway) because it was so backed up. Then it took another 30 minutes to get from the exit to the parking. We finally got there at a little after 11. Later we found out that there was over 38,000 people that went to the park that day. Crazy.
We basically did everything we wanted to do at SeaWorld. We saw the shark exhibit (and fed the sharks), we saw the dolphin show, the acrobat show, we saw the seal show, we saw a Shamu show, we pet the sting rays, we went to an all-you-can-eat picnic thing, we saw the penguins, and we fed the dolphins. It was awesome.
The low-lights were:
The long lines - self explanitory
The Shamu show - boring, lots of singing, church chiors, and not much of the whales.
The Dolphin show - more about acrobatics than about dolphins. The dolphins were out for a total of MAYBE 3 minutes out of the 23 minute show. They came out towards the beginning, did a couple jumps, and then went back while the people did a bunch of diving and other stuff, then came back out for a couple minutes towards the end. I would rather see the dolphins and their abilities and learn about them rather than see a "show" about a little girl who escaped to a world of imagination.

The mid-lights were:
The Penguins - You stood on an escalator for 30 yards in front of the penguin display. It was cool to see the penguins, but really short.
The Shark exhibit (and feeding the sharks) - Of course, you can't really get close to the sharks when feeding them, but the experience is nothing like the sting rays or dolphins. You throw in the food and the sharks kind of just swim by and eat it. The shark exhibit was ok, the coolest part was the underwater tunnel, but I didn't really see many sharks.
The acrobat show - It was pretty amazing what they could do, and the special effects were pretty cool (lots of bubbles), but I found myself asking what it had to do with Seaworld.

The high-lights were:
The all-you-can-eat picnic - the food wasn't really amazing or anything, but at an amusement park the food is generally really expensive and not good at all and you don't get much. For 15 bucks for an adult, I ate some good food, and got to sit and relax (and drink several $3.50 bottles of soda). We took some soda and water with us when we left too, so we didn't have to buy any.
Pet the Sting Rays - I love that they allow you to interact with the animals. That was my favorite part when I went to SeaWorld in San Diego a couple years ago. It was pretty cool, and the kids got a kick out of it.
The seal show - Not only was this the best show of the ones we saw, it was ESPECIALLY good because the actors kept screwing up. They were so distracted by things that kept happening, they'd forget their lines, but they were good sports about it, and made it really funny. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. On top of it, at the beginning (while you're waiting for the show to start), they had a mime come out and screw around with the audience. He was hilarious.
Feeding the dolphins - This had to be the best thing about our day. We stood in line forever to be able to do it, but barely made it in (the last group of the day). It was kind of expensive, but it was a good experience for the boys, and it was really awesome to see the animals that close up and to be able to interact with them.

We got done with SeaWorld around 11 and made the long journey home. We finally got home at a little after 1. It was a long day, but it was worth it!

Fun in Florida

Here we are in Florida at sea world waiting for shamu to splash the crowd. We've had a great time so far including one of the (if not the best) beach trip I've had. We went to the beach on either Thursday or Friday of last week. Trisha and I ended up with a bit of a sunburn but nothing too out of control.
Adam was REALLY tired on the way to the beach and complained a lot about wanting to stay home. He was ornery until about 45 minutes after we got there. Damon and I rode the 4 foot waves for a while before I went and laid out for a bit. It was a comfy 80 degrees. Perfect. The water was 74 (also perfect). We built a pretty good sandcastle and then went swimming again before heading home. We would have stayed later but Amie had to work that night so we had to be back pretty early.
Well. Shamu is going to make his entrance soon so I'd better wrap it up. Stay tuned to hear about our dinner cruise and our day at seaworld!

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (or whatever you choose to celebrate). I hope everyone has/is having/had a wonderful holiday and got everything that they wanted/deserved.

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had a GREAT DAY! Because of the weather, I worked from home, but unfortunately missed a lunch appointment at the best Thai restaurant in Utah. For my birthday, I decided to take a day or 2 off of my diet, so it would have been the perfect time to get the Thai food.
Work was light yesterday, since a good chunk of the stuff I am working on requires me to be in the office, but I still got some work done.
Trisha went to do Roz's hair in the late afternoon, and so I went and tagged along.
After the hair stuff was done, we went to dinner with my parents at Texas Roadhouse. I had a yummy prime rib. I then went home and played Call of Duty with some of my friends online.
All in all, it was a great day. :D