6.06.2009
Aunt Andrea took Pearl to the Zoo. Pearl had so much fun. She was talking for days about different animals, the animal playground, and anything she could remember.
Note to Andrea: Pearl wants to know when you're going to take her out again! 
5.05.2009
Ramona was born at 7:20 pm on Sunday, March 29th. According to Navajo legend, she revels in nudity and is bonny, blithe, happy and gay (If you've never been to Grandma Daines' house. don't expect that to make sense). She was 8 lbs and 19 inches long.
For now, she mostly goes by Mona. Also, Pearl is no longer "Baby Pearl." Sad but true, life goes on and now we have Baby Mona. The "baby" in front of their names helps people distinguish between them and all the grandma's with whom they share names. If you feel you need to youthanize Pearl's name still, call her "Pearly." That's what we do.
Pearl adores her sister! She was kind of in shock when she first got to the hospital, but it didn't take long for her to warm up. While I was being transferred to recovery, Mona was getting her bath and all that stuff. Pearl went to watch then came back to my room. The whole time she kept saying she wanted to go back and see her sister. She's pretty gentle with her and very helpful. I think having my parents here for the first two weeks was helpful not only to me, but for Pearl. She got loads of attention!
Pearl talks all the time about how much she doesn't like sharing (for example, she's good and asks for jelly beans and I give them to her and then she informs me "I not has to share my jelly beans! It my jelly beans" However, she often follows a statement like that with "I share my room with Mona. I share my toys (pronounced toes) with Mona." I wish I could write the way Pearl speaks. She has the greatest intonations and she annunciates every letter so well. We love listening to her.
Mona sleeps fantastic!!! The first night she did 8 hrs, the second night was pretty horrid, apparently that's when their digestive system kicks in and can cause some indigestion. Other than that though, she goes to bed around 10, sometime as late as 11. and rarely wakes up earlier than 4:30, but usually not until after 6 am. Kind of nice.
Before any moms get to jealous, let me tell you, she is just making up for how disgusting she is. I don't know how she's gained so much weight already (10 lbs at 5 weeks), because she doesn't seem to keep much down. I have nearly 30 burp cloths and still have to do a baby load at least twice a week or we're using dish towels and wash cloths with her. She always smells like sour milk, even though I am always wiping up her sticky face, neck and hands and changing her clothes (good thing we have lots). It's so bad some days I think I would rather have a baby who slept less than one who spit up this much. Not that I have a choice or would give up my Mona. I spent a fortune on some pills that may or may not help yesterday, so we'll see.
Labor and delivery were amazing! Greg and I took hypnobirthing classes, and they helped us to look forward to labor and delivery rather than view it as a necessary evil. Hypnobirthers believe in going into deep relaxation and having pain-free births. Those who get an epidural are probably the only ones who truly experience a pain-free birth, but it was pretty remarkable to come close to that through relaxation. One of the affirmations I was supposed to repeat to myself was: "I will turn my birthing over to my baby and my body." That gave me the giggles, but it really worked! While it was not exactly pain-free, I can honestly say it was not that bad. It was really different to not be so consumed by pain (Pearl was induced that it was just so intense and unlike anything that my body had ever done, that it was not that great an experience) that I could focus on nothing else.
I had been having braxton hicks for nearly 4 days at pretty regular intervals, but when I woke up Sunday morning I had my first real contraction. I knew it because it was all in my back, just like the with Pearl. The picture is of me at about 10 am, a few hours into labor. My body took lots of breaks while laboring, so I kept doubting I was actually in labor, which is why by the time I actually got to the hospital I was dialated to a 6.5 and having 60 sec contractions, 90 sec apart. It went pretty fast from there, and probably would've gone even faster had my water broke earlier. She was born about an hour and a half after I was admitted.
The whole process felt instinctive and natural. The most amazing part of all was delivery. I know it generally goes much faster the second time, but I really didn't think it would go from 45 min. of pushing with pearl, to just a few minutes of relaxed breathing for Ramona. Instead of "pushing" her out, I did these things called "J" breaths and she pretty much just slid out. I swear it's true. I had been skeptical of the hypnobirther's delivery method, but when I did my first "J" breath (hard to explain how that works), I got this huge silly grin, IN THE MIDDLE OF DELIVERY, because I knew Ramona would be here any second and that it was going to be easy! My body recovered quickly too! I had my doubts and reservations, but I LOVE the hypnobirthing method.
3.28.2009
3.22.2009
Well, I laid my scooter down the second day I had it. Great. Luckily I had my helmet, gloves, jacket, jeans, and everything. The ugly part was that I did a face plant into the road... 
So here is the story: I usually go a certain route to work. I altered it to take a few side roads with the scooter. It worked great going to work. I followed a friend home on his scooter (he just lives a couple of blocks away) and then I took a semi ghetto road home that crosses some rail road tracks and what not. Well, right after I cross the tracks and dodge some pot holes I start going into a pretty sharp turn. I slowed down to about 15 mph (a 25 road) and then once the car in front of me was on the turn I noticed that there was gravel half way into the road. I tried slowing even further and taking a wider turn. There were cars in the other lane so I couldn't cross into the oncoming traffic to get around it. So I started slowing down thinking I was on my front brakes... well checking after it was my back breaks! So, long story short my bike swung around and literally threw me into the ground. I had a helmet on with a face mask. My chin hit first, then my face shield, nose and mouth/tooth hit the ground. I broke the fall partially with my hand, but I also got road rash on my stomach, knee and ankle.
So I jumped up, looked at my bike, then got on and started riding. A police man had just pulled someone over and waved me over. He said he could check me out. He thought someone had hit me. I pulled over and thought he would just check me out after he finished with the speeder. About 2 min later a fire truck and ambulance come around the corner. They pull me in the truck and check me out. Nothing was really wrong, so they let me go.
When I got home Pearl came running to give me a hug and stopped right in the tracks. I was pretty late for dinner and so Lizzy was a bit upset. It didn't help when she found out I had actually laid my bike
down. She wasn't too excited about the bike in the first place.
The bike is ok (for the most part). Just a few scratches and the tail light broke off. I fixed the tail light, and the rest of the damage should only cost around $150 to fix. The thing I was most worried about was my tooth. It hit the gravel hard. If you take a close look you will see that it actually cracked my tooth a little and left some gravel in my tooth. My teeth were VERY sensitive for several days after. The dentist buffed the gravel out the next day and he said that I could loose the tooth, but it looked good and I should leave it to see what happens. He said it was unlikely that it would die.
This was all really great timing too... Three days before Ramona's birthday! Yea! Now I'll be ugly in the pictures.
3.18.2009
Well, I've been dying to get a moped. Mostly because:
1. We've only had 1 car for 5 years
2. It get's 90 miles to the gallon
3. It's only 1000 dollars!
I bought it from a friend for $1100 and it has under 1000 miles on it, it is in perfect condition. It also came with a helmet, leather gloves, an extra face mask, a cover, a net for carrying things, and some cleaning stuff for wiping it down. It is a milano, which has the BEST pickup. They usually go for about $1900 new. He just bought it like 4-5 months ago from a close friend or family so... I am pretty happy with the deal.
2.22.2009
The lone, side picture didn't quite give the full effect. With Pearl I still carried it all out front, but it was a little more evenly distributed around my midsection. I'm a month away and STILL it is ALL out front and center. It's not even really a basketball shape because I don't think it's wide enough on the sides. I don't really consider myself "lucky" or "cute" because:
- MY BACK KILLS!
- It's just making new and uglier stretch marks in the front
- Is anyone really cute in their last month of pregnancy? Irrelevant at this point, says me.
2.21.2009
If it has a hood, Pearl is wearing it...
If it has pockets, her hands are in them.
As you can see it sticks straight out. Great for my back. Though I do believe it is smaller than last time. My due date is the 24th. Pearl was 7 lbs 14 oz and, though I went into labor the day after my due date, it was slow and not progressing very well, so I was induced. Is that enough info to make a guess on Ramona's weight and date of arrival? Winner will receive blog recognition.
Mom's guess:
7 lbs 6 oz. and March 28th.
2.20.2009
She never wanted one as a baby, but now that we talk about Ramona Pearl wants to be treated like a baby. She came up to me and said "Feed me bottle like a baby, Daddy."