Month: August 2004

LOOK OUT! Brand new Dad With a Camera!

Name: Justin Douglas Belknap
Born: 3:32 am August 29, 2004
Weight: 7 lbs 9 oz
Length: 20″

I don’t have much time to post. Mom and baby are still at the hospital, and I’ll be heading back down there after I get a few things taken care of at the house. We’re staying one more night, and bringing Justin home tomorrow.

I’ll try to write a longer entry in a few days. But as promised, here are some pictures:

More to come as I sort through the rest of the shots on the digital camera, and get the shots from the film camera developed and scanned in (or put on cd by the photo place, more likely)

You can see the rest of the album here

Edited on Oct 2nd 2004, 21:32 by Hooloovoo

It might be our turn.

Not to steal anyone’s thunder, but it looks like Justin might be saying hello to the world very soon. And on his due-date, no less. (Already taking after his dad, *dopeygrin*)

Jenny passed her mucous plug about 8:30am yesterday. She began having contractions around 1:00am this morning. Jenny called the birthing center, and we started timing them about 3:45 (as they began to get closer together.) It is now about 5:00am, and her contractions are currrently 15-20 minutes apart.

The hospital doesn’t want us to come in untill her contractions have been 5-6 minutes apart for an hour, or her water breaks, or if the baby appears to be distressed. None of those things has happened yet, so there isn’t much for me to do but push the button on the stopwatch when she says “I’m having another one” (which just happened – 11:12 need a few more data points to see if they’re really getting closer together or not.)

I don’t know whether or not I’ll have a chance to update this before we go to the hospital, but I’ll try to keep everyone informed.

I’m going to quit typing now and go give my wife some support and encouragement, (and a backrub.)

really wants to put this in announcements – but knows that’s category is for site/server related news.

Gmail Invites

I just got my first block of Gmail invitations. 3 of them are already earmarked for people, so I have 2 to give away.

I’m not giving them away right now, so don’t ask. I’m going to come up with a contest that will (hopefully) be more interesting than “first two replys get the invites.” I’ll post some more details later. (After I figure out just what it is I want to do.)

Aren’t I a stinker?

Edited on Aug 27th 2004, 04:54 by Hooloovoo

Taking back my inbox

I’ve finally gotten fed up with the bounceback spam to my domain email account. I took steps that I should have taken a long time ago, namely setting up my mail server to only allow messages sent to specific addresses to reach my inbox.

The reason I waited so long is that I tend to use a unique address whenever I sign up for somthing online. (It’s actually helped me ID a site that resold thier mailing list – naughty naughty.) I just went through my old mail and came up with 75 different addresses that I would potentially want to receive messages to. Not as bad as I thought. So I’ve set those up on my mail server and I’m currently sending everything else (*@) to my gmail account. I’ll spend a couple of weeks monitoring that box to see if there are any addresses that I missed before I set *@ up to bounce.

Now I’ll finally know how little email I actually get. :p

Excited? Me?

So I’m sitting at work trying to get a petulent machine to cooperate when my cell phone rings.

I think to myself: “Is that Jenny? Is it time? Do I need to leave so I can take her to the Hospital?”

No, just some friends of ours making sure that I can still check on thier cats while they’re camping next week.

Edited on Aug 14th 2004, 06:33 by Hooloovoo

Infant CPR and other ramblings

I had an infant and child CPR class today. 4hrs – non certification. I think it went rather well, once I figured out when and where the class was being held. (Heck I even got there *almost* on time. All I missed was the instructor introducing herself.)

I only had about 4hrs of sleep last night, (this morning if you want to pick nits,) and an 1.5 hr nap between getting home from the class and leaving for work. I’m really starting to feel it now. Caffinated beverages (and a quiet lab full of machines behaving themselves) are my friends.

Tomorrow has been decreed a day of cleansing. The house will be ready for a baby to be brought home. So it was written, so it shall come to be.

And lest I forget, the Wierd Al concert is tomorrow evening, yay! All work and no play (and no sleep) makes Hool a grumpy father-to-be.

Ok, enough rambling.

Edited on Aug 8th 2004, 05:34 by Hooloovoo

The Home Stretch

At our most recent appointment, (I’ve only missed one so far) the OBGYN informed us that while she’d prefer at least one more week, she’s comfortable with delivering the baby should Jenny go into labor at any point moving forward. She’s also comforable inducing at this point if there are signs of fetal distress.

“The only reason you’re still pregnant at this point is becuase both you and the baby are doing fine.” I believe was what she said. (The “You” in this case obviously being Jenny. My health, while important, has no direct affect on the course of the pregnancy.)

So the doctor is ready. Jenny’s almost ready (I think she’s tired of being pregnant, but still feels like there are things we need to do.) I think I’m good to go (mostly.) We have a car seat, we have a crib, we have baby clothes, and blankets, and diaper wipes, (but we need diapers,) and what seems like a million other baby-type accessories. We finished lamaz, I’m taking an infant CPR class next Saturday, and the hospital bag is (almost) packed.

There is still a lot to do around the house. We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that the crib is going to be in our room at first. The computer/craft/storage room is nowhere near ready to be called “nursery” but it’s (slowly) starting to get there.

The due date is still August 28th. (Actual delivery date subject to change with no notice. Most first babies are late.)
Jenny and I are hoping for at LEAST one more week (I’ve got CPR Sautrday, we have tickets to the Wierd Al concert next Sunday, and we still have stuff to do around the house before we’ll really feel ready.)
My mother is hoping Justin is born on, or before, the 23rd (She wants a Leo in order to complete her Fire-Sign Trinity. My Father was an Aries, and I’m a Sagittarius.)
I think it would be cool if Justin was born on his due date (as I was) since it’s not that common.
There have been several people (including our new upstairs neighbor) say that it doesn’t look like Justin’s going to wait for his due date. (Hey, the fire sign thing is pretty cool, too.)

I’m just rambling at this point. Excited and nervous and and a bit overwhelmed by how much we still need to get done.

AAK!