Dana vs. the CPAP

One of the few real concerns we've had during this otherwise text book pregnancy is Dana's obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Sleep apnea is a condition where the sufferer has difficulty breathing during sleep. Specifically, they experience episodes of not breathing, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. The severity of sleep apnea is usually measured by how low the blood oxygen saturation level goes during one of these apneaic episodes. In our Mom-to-be's case, her apnea is a result of the skeletal and ligamental structure of her jaw and throat. When she sleeps and her jaw relaxes, it tends to close off her airway just enough to cause mild sleep apnea.

None of this is normally much of a problem for Dana. But in the last two months or so of pregnancy, she has been terribly congested most of the time, with some swelling in her throat and sinuses and whatnot. As a result, her apnea has really gone "pro". So we've decided to start using her Constant Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine at night.
This is a lovely little invention that basically constitutes a fan attached to a mask with some fancy circuitry built in. The idea is to keep a constant pressure going into her airway so that when her breathing stalls, the pressure helps keep the airway open and she can continue breathing unhindered. It's a great idea in theory, but in practice the machine is very hard to tolerate. Imagine somebody giving you mouth-to-mouth all night long. Now imagine that that person is made of plastic.

We started out Monday night with the contraption, and neither of us got more than about 30 minutes of sleep at a time -- Dana, because of the uncomfortable apparatus, and me, because I volunteered to make any necessary adjustments as needed, which were many and frequent.

Last night was much better, probably because we'd worked out many of the kinks on Monday, and also because we were both completely exhausted by then, so sleep came fairly easily, CPAP or not.

It occurred to both of us that this is probably excellent practice for when the little guy shows up, since we'll be up most of the night then too! But at least by then Dana will have some time off work. And everyone else around us will actually be expecting us to be exhausted. As it is now, people keep asking, "You look tired, did Dana go into labor already??" Not quite... [Side note -- everyone we work with has been extraordinarily kind and forgiving as we've gotten closer to the 'guess date', for this we are both so grateful!]

The good news is that as soon as the little baby shows up, the apnea should lessen dramatically as Dana's congestion clears out. So it's just one more little miracle to look forward to.

Dad at Work

For fun today I snapped a photo of me at work in my new office. As part of a workplace restructuring effort last month, most of our cubicles have been shrunk by about 12 square feet. Several people I work with have complained about it, but for my money it's actually better. I now have a window, more natural light, and am sitting near most of the people on my immediate team. So all in all it has been a huge improvement from when I used to sit over by the men's locker room.


On my way into DU this evening I also took a photo of the Sturm College of Law in the pre-dusk. It really is a beautiful new building, inside and out. This is where Dana has all of her law classes.

Hot Mama

By popular demand, here is a picture of a very pregnant Dana from today, 2-25-07.

Rocking Chair

Today we made much progress. A stroke of genius led us to the La-Z-Boy store for a rocking chair. They had a GREAT chair that was half off so we scooped it up. This cost us less, and is far more comfortable, than the chairs they had for sale at Babies 'R'Us. We are happy. Grandpa would be proud.

THANK YOU SUSAN (Dana's Mom) for getting us this chair. It will be well used.

Paint and Projects

Last night before bed I put the second and last coat of yellow paint on the living room wall. That should complete the painting in the living room except for a little bit of blue (ceiling) touch up around the edges. That dark blue ceiling looks nice but it is sure a lot of work to get it uniform. And I don't even want to think about having to re-paint it something lighter.

I'm writing from the posh Sturm College of Law at DU tonight. Unfortunately my work network is still not working, so I'm stuck just playing around with blogs and Wikipedia. Oh darn.

I went over to get signed up at the DU fitness center so I can work out at night while Dana's in class. Of course, tonight I don't have my gym clothes with me, or else I'd be peddling or elipticalling my way to better health.

At my dentist appointment yesterday afternoon I found out that one of my rear molars needs a crown. UGH.. and I have been doing so good! That particular tooth had a rather large filling from my irresponsible childhood when I had braces and did not floss regularly. Over time the filling began to crack and shift around, and apparently there's just not enough upper tooth structure left to do a new filling. So it's cap it now or root canal it later. I think I'll take the crown. And I'm going to brush TWICE tonight with my SonicCare. (For the record I had no other problems this time around; I've mended my bad habits)

I forgot to ask the dentist about pediatric dental care. If I remember right, all of the baby's little teeth will fall out after a few years and he'll grow new ones anyway, so he pretty much doesn't need to worry about cavities and stuff until he's older. That's great, because we're going to stuff him full of candy. Ha ha ha

For a laugh, here is what the living room ceiling looked like BEFORE my Dad and I patched the hole, after I dropped a 10 foot 2x8 through the upstairs floor...

DU Here We Come

Starting this evening I am going to begin driving Dana to and from class at the University of Denver Law School. We decided that at T minus 2 weeks, it would be a good idea to hedge our bets against an early arrival. Not that the early stages of labor, or birthing, are all that difficult, but if nothing else it's a good excuse to spend more time together and let Dana have a rest on the hour long commute to school.

If I can get DU's computer networks to cooperate with my corporate intranet's VPN thingy, I might actually be able to do some work while Dana is learning about Property and Torts.

Dana got a questionable speeding ticket yesterday. I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about this. She was heading west out of town past the grocery store, where the speed limit jumps from 30 MPH to 45 MPH. The police officer pulled her over well after the start of the 45 zone, and said he'd clocked her at 44 MPH within the 30 zone. But the line of demarcation between the two limits is immediately past the grocery store, and it is darn near impossible to go over about 35 before you hit the transition because the street has too many potholes! I think we have a case here, and besides, my wife is a lawyer. (Or will be one). This has nothing to do with the baby.

We are coming dangerously close to a name for the baby. It is almost certainly going to be some combination of Alex, James, Chris, William, Daniel, or Mortimer. Probably not Mortimer...

Progress

Today I finished painting the ceiling of the living room. The original paint job I did in 2004 had two coats, first a blueberry blue base, and then a darker blue top coat. The result is a really neat deep looking blue color. I had to repeat this to patch the areas I messed with in the project. I ran out of the darker blue, so I had to get a new batch from Home Depot. Night Watch is the color name. Good thing they still make it.

Also I've continued to play with my new toy. I mean the baby's new toy...

iPod

I bought an iPod on Friday night. I've been putting off the inevitable for some time now, resisting the urge to move into the 21st century. But the time has come. I was able to justify the need for it -- yes, the need -- because we're going to be stuck in the hospital for at least 24 hours straight. Dana is going to need all of her favorite tunes at hand and easily accessible, and we're going to need to be able to program in playlists of relaxing music, peppy music, quiet music, etc...

So I bought an 80GB iPod Video... because, well, in for a dime, in for a dollar. And since we absolutely refuse to get cable or satellite or anything, it's a nice way to download the occasional TV show episode that we want to watch.

Also, I knew that it would come in really handy in exercising at the gym. The gym at work always plays music from the radio, and inevitably it's not what I want to listen to. I've decided that anything (within reason) that helps lower the barrier to working out is a good thing and gets "automatic budget approval".

I like the iPod. I took it to the car wash twice this weekend to wash the snow melt and sand off the Hyundai and the Honda in turn. I didn't mind so much waiting in line for 15 minutes.

Every time I turn it on and listen to music, I hear a song I like and think, "Gosh, I LOVE this song! That's amazing!" As if I was listening to the radio, where it's uncommon to hear a song I really like. But all the music on the iPod is stuff I already own, so it's only logical I'd like it. But it's still a pleasant surprise.

The baby will benefit too, of course, because we can load up all of his favorite children's songs on it for road trips, etc.

I'm in the middle of painting the living room, so this is just a nice little break from that chore. Pictures to follow...

Moms and Dads

I'm excited, but it's very strange to consider that Dana and I will soon be Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad were always just "there", forever and always, and they seemed to know what they were doing the whole while, from the get-go.

I certainly don't have that confidence yet. But people have told me that it's a cinch.

I have a business trip to Beijing, China coming up at the end of March or beginning of April. I am totally jazzed about the prospect of going to China, but the timing could have been better, to say the least. In the past couple of years I have made a point of bringing Dana along on all of my major business trips where she was able to get the time off work. We went to New Zealand and France together, and they were great trips. In both cases we were able to take almost an extra week to see the sights and travel around a bit outside of work, and while I was working Dana was able to have some fun on her own.

So this trip to China will be without Dana, since baby boy will be too little to travel, and it will be too soon after the birth. Fortunately, we should be able to import some company for Dana in the form of friends or parents for the week I'll be away.

I just don't know what I'm going to do on my own in China. I have come to depend on Dana for direction, literally and figuratively.

Pre Baby

I've decided to start a blog to keep track of my thoughts before and after my son is born. I was inspired by my friend Bob Densmore and his blog, which covers his less joyful experiences with cancer, but I'm happy to say he's doing well.

According to the tally on my whiteboard at work, we are 18 days away from Dana's "Guess Date". Our birthing class leader likes to use this term rather than "Due Date" since it sounds less demanding and set-in-stone. I tend to agree, but of course nobody else understands what this means. The same is true for "Birthing Waves" vs. "Contractions", "Birthing" vs. "Labor", etc. It's obvious that the traditional vocabulary of child birth is not very sensitive, but I'm not a huge fan of redefining perfectly functional language.

We are both reluctant to commit to much of anything. We will almost certainly go to Longmont United Hospital for the birth, we will probably call him Alex, we will probably have him sleep in our bedroom for now... But we haven't made final decisions. I think this is pretty normal for us, and parenthood won't change things that much.

Meanwhile my big remodelling project at home is careening towards completion. A little under 2 years ago I decided that the uptairs east bedroom of our house was too cold and needed to be insulated. Being a 100-year old home, this was perhaps not surprising. What was surprising was how long it has taken me to get things finished! I am definately under budget, but waaaaay over on schedule.

As of last weekend, I had all the drywall installed, mudded, and taped. The new windows were installed. The patches to the plaster walls in the living room downstairs were done, except for texture & paint. Remaining to be done was:

• Wall Texture
• Paint
• Heat
• Carpet
• Trim
• Stain

Last night I invited my friend Sterling over to take a look. Sterling is a drywall master. He has done drywall professionally for 25 years. I should have known better. Sterling is a super nice guy, but he held no punches in analyzing the finish work we'd done. He pointed out a number of problems, including bubbling tape, uneven joints, and the need for more feathering of the seams.

I always have to fight the urge for perfection, to quell my obsessive nature. But in this case I'm afraid Sterling is right, on at least a few counts.

Lucky for me this is a 3-day weekend (Thank you George Washington). I will spend a day or so going over the joints with more mud. But I'm only going to spend a day or two on it!

Oh wait, I just remembered this is supposed to be about my son, who is on his way. Right. Well, most of my energy so far has gone into finishing this remodelling project, so I think that counts for now. I'll try to share more about the little guy as I go.

I'm definately excited, and maybe when he gets older he and I can work on this kind of stuff together.