What?

I am deaf....or maybe Oli mumbles....or maybe it's our differing accents and dialects. In whichever case, I frequently can't understand him and reply to to him with, "What?"

Two cases from the last 5 minutes:

[Refering to a previous conversation about videos]
Oli: Yeah, we'd need two versions.
Me: What? Two virgins?! Which one of your friends did that?

[Regarding the morning news]
Oli: Did you read the article on Al Gore?
Me: What? About Aragó?
Oli: You are DEAF!
(Note: Aragó is a street in Barcelona)

We'll have to stop speaking to one another or this marriage won't last long.

Stephen "Giant Balls" Colbert

WOW. Stephen Colbert is my new hero.

Read this.

~ Angela

She's a big kid now

Amazing how they grow. Twelve weeks ago Lily was in my belly and soon thereafter she was a new wrinkly little pink thing. Today she is a social independent-minded creature that can smile and say "a-goo". *Sigh* A few more weeks and she'll be president.

Wedding photos!

To view our wedding photos visit http://www.fredfox.com/scripts/albums/index.php . Click on 'online ordering', username: FAROS and password SEELEY. Enjoy.

By the way, thank you everyone who attended the wedding and thank you kindly for your gifts (particularly to Mike and his stripey thing). We had a fucking great time and we owe it all to you. It was heart-warming to know that you were so touched by our union and moved by our beautiful little girl.

If you are all genuinly feeling more disposed to marriage and babies then please have them in exciting and exotic locations so we can all enjoy more adventures abroad.

Huzzaahh!

Do you have Mr T on YOUR wedding video?

We do.

My friends were downtown about to board a boat for an architectural tour of the city when they saw Mr T and Conan O'Brien canoing down the river. British people don't know who Conan is so they only had eyes for Mr T.

When he came ashore my friends persuaded him to do a short tribute to Angela and I on Ben's wedding video.

Links to the wedding video will be posted when it is completed. Follow the 'fotos de boda...' link on the right to see photos of the wedding taken by friends and family.

baby adventure

Lliy had her first adventure last weekend. She sat comfortably in her baby carrier and held her trusty staff as her father transported her along the paths and canyons of starved rock state park. On one occasion she demanded to be taken off the beaten trail into the unknown wilderness. Unafraid of what may have lurked there and unperturbed by the mangled corpse of a half-eaten skunk she continued wide-eyed until her diaper exploded onto her mother whilst resting on a fallen tree.

We are expecting big things from Lily and a trip to starved rock is but the first in a series of adventures that'll no doubt prove increasingly more audacious.

sucking me dry

The title says it all. Note the contrast in our expressions, one of contentment, the other of exhaustion, and our appearances, one fat and well-fed, the other scrawny and mal-nourished.

These are the lives of baby and mother.

Relax! Don't do it!

Here's our life in a MasterCard commercial:

9-week-old baby
10 stress dollars
Oliver's torn ligament (see blog entry that is to follow)
10 stress dollars +
10 stress dollars more for the baby/house work this adds to my load
Final wedding-day touches
5 stress dollars
Pending arrival of 27 out-of-town guests
20 stress dollars
One rental apartment meant for our guests turning out to be uninhabitable
10 stress dollars
Extreme lane closures on Dan Ryan expressway
5 stress dollars
Lily's first vaccinations
5 stress dollars
Getting telemarket scammed and having to open a new bank account
5 stress dollars
The bank messing up the opening of the new account giving me $2000 that don't exist...which sounds good but yields many phone calls
5 stress dollars

A beautiful inoculated baby and sweet crippled fiancé with whom to share a sunny spring wedding day
Priceless

***

By the way, thinking up that title made me look up the lyrics to Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I had NO idea that the song was like that. I never listened too closely.

It smiles

Dude, my parents' house got hit by lightning.

Dude, my parents' house got hit by lightning.

Initial reports indicate that the event was the loudest the Ruiters have ever heard and that a burn mark remains on the ceiling of the guest bathroom.

This strike occured within an hour of Oli, Lily and me leaving their house. Man am I glad we got out of there because it would have been horribly unamusing for one of us to die on the toilet and worse still for the survivor to have to explain to an older Lily what happened to her absent parent. It's the stuff that playground ridicule is made of.

~ Angela

Don't call me an American!

Lily is tired of being referred to as an American.

"Nationality is passed down through the father's line, thank goodness, and that means I'm English", Lily said earlier this afternoon. "Although I live here, and I may well grow up here, I'm not really that keen on playing baseball, eating freedom fries, watching insufferable network news or finding more culture in my yoghurt than in the society around me".

In an effort to assuage any doubts about her true identity Lily was seen earlier today playing football, not 'soccer', with her father. “American football is a joke; what’s the deal with all those advert breaks, and why do they wear all that body-armour? They’re pussies, that’s why!”

Lily's first utterances have found resonance with some, particularly her father, but they have also met with disappointment among many of her flag-waving peers, who have accused here of being un-patriotic and in league with Islamic terrorists.

Lily continued, “I like to call a Z a zed, not a zee, and I certainly don’t agree with the ridiculous month/day/year notation used here in the US. It’s nonsensical.”

Lily’s comments have rallied the support of a number of liberal groups, but have also galvanized conservatives in support of the embattled Ruiter administration.

Spring break

The toe nail didn't fall off but it's still purple. I thought I'd continue with spring league anyway since half our team couldn't attend this week. With no subs we were losing about 6-1 in our first game of the day. I'd just made a nice cut into the end zone and just as I prepared to launch myself into the path of the oncoming disc, a catch that would have surely been a turning point in the game, my marker struck me down with a well-placed foot, turning my ankle over, crunching it, then throwing me helpless on to the cold cold and unforgiving earth. Out of the game, without health insurance and unable to walk down the aisle Angela now has an invalid and infant to care for. I just hope the ankle gets better fastly.

I know my foot looks long and strange anyway, but observe the two englarged areas at the back, above the heel. They'll be purple soon too.

Spring League

Last weekend I played in the Chicago Ultimate Frisbee's Spring League. The league comprises 8 weeks' of weekend games in which each team plays two new opponents each week. One enters the league as an individual and based on a self-assessment of your skill you are assigned to a team of mixed ability. I was assigned to Team 13 and a photo of us is shown above. Unfortunately, we lost both our first games and I arrived home with a purple big left toe. I've had a purple big left toe before once when I was ski-ing and the nail fell off after a few days. I'm afraid that the same thing is going to happen again. Despite losing our first two games we had a lot of fun and all my team mates are really sound. I just hope that my big left toe stops being purple and that the nail grows back quick.

Mile markers

According to the book What to Expect the First Year, by the second month of life Lily should be able to:
*Smile in response to our smile
*Follow objects with her eyes
*Respond to a bell in some way such as startling, crying or quieting *Vocalize in a way other than crying (e.g. cooing)

And weirdly enough “may even be able to pay attention to a raisin or other very small object” (?).

We are on our way to full smiling, eliciting some partial smiles thus far, but that big happy grin still eludes us.

Meanwhile, she certainly can follow objects with her eyes and exercises this ability often with her trendy color-changing rubber duckies while splashing in the bath.

Better still, today we heard our first definite coos. For a few days we’ve been wondering if she were cooing or just making little cries before and after big cries. Today while we talked with Lily and helped her play with her baby gym, she was most definitely having fun, strongly kicking her legs and letting out little happy shouts in response to our voices and the squeak of the swinging birdy (see above photo).

As for the bell, we haven’t tried freaking Lily out by ringing a loud bell and don’t plan to. She responds to the birdy squeak and that works for us. And regarding the raisin, we aren’t in the habit of keeping any in the house, so we’ll have to get some and let you know later. I’m sure you’ll be waiting in suspense until then.

~

* See the webshots pages for new photos; links to the right.

Nipple Confusion claims another victim

We laughed when we read the breastfeeding articles that warned against Nipple Confusion. But alas, Nipple Confusion has had the last laugh:

Our baby is nipple confused.

She has realized that it is easier to suck on a bottle nipple (although this bottle brand is supposed to mimic the natural nipple!) and gets fussy when it comes time to feed from Mommy's all-natural breast. As she has suddenly hit a growth spurt, demanding almost twice as much food daily, she is ravenous most of the day. This, coupled with her confusion, has led to an angry baby.

Add in an immature digestive system that causes sleep-interupting tummy aches for Lily and a rough diaper rash last week and we have one big cry fest.

I am pumping my breasts day and night now to produce enough milk to feed this kid (from bottles only now) and am feeling much the cow.

Pray for your friends on Sawyer Avenue!

PS - We still really like Lily...especially when she is not crying.

Adorable

I promise that one day we'll recover from our obsession that is Lily and at that point our blog will no longer simply be a forum for displaying the wonder that is her.

Until that point, enjoy the adorableness.

~ Angela

Obligatory photo update

New baby + hip attractive digital-age parents = online photo album.

See links to the right or use these:

Angela's Webshots
http://community.webshots.com/user/ajruiter

Oliver's Webshots
http://community.webshots.com/user/oliverseeley

How it all fell down

So what exactly did happen last Thursday?

Lily happened.

Despite each of our little nightly talks about the pros of staying in utero until after the 15th of February, each night last week saw me falling asleep with my hands on the belly, quite certain that something felt different inside and that Baby Seeley would soon be making an exit/entrance.

On Wednesday I began showing my replacement around the workplace. As she is my friend Kate who has previously worked for the College of Urban Planning and Pubic Affairs in her own right, I wasn’t too worried about her ability to pick up the subtle skills of being Assistant to the Associate Dean. We were to have two weeks of training time before my leave began but all day I kept feeling the need to show her more and more things, just in case this was our only day of training.

I went home to my parents’ that night. I was staying with them just in case anything baby happened while Oli was away. Mom and I stopped by Babies ‘R’ Us to pick up the last of the things our apartment lacked: the car seat, the stroller/pram, crib sheets, etc. Oli had told me I shouldn’t stress myself and should wait to do this shopping until he got back. Subtle signals from my belly told me to disregard this kind suggestion.

Mom, Dad and I ate dinner at 7:30 p.m. After dinner I went to the bathroom and noticed that my mucous plug (gunk that plugs up the cervix) had apparently begun to come out. Hm, no worries. Doc had said this could happen up to two weeks before baby’s arrival. I was two weeks from my due date. All the same, I emailed Oli saying he should not stick around England too long after Thursday’s visa interview. I took a bath. In the following couple hours before bed I felt the need to poop about four times. Strange.

I passed out at about 10:00 p.m. and remember nothing until some sensation (probably a mild contraction) woke me at 11:30 p.m. and I noticed I was wetting myself in gushes. Agh! I jumped up, noticed happily that none had gotten on the bed despite my soaked knickers and ran to the bathroom. OK. I am peeing myself again. Damn. But why is it still trickling out? And why is it coming out in pulsing gushes? Perhaps my bladder is just being humorous? This can’t be labor, don’t be labor, Oli’s not here.

I was out of pads and had nothing but tissue to stuff in the clean underwear I had put on. I lay in bed trying to believe that no more wetness would occur, I would go to sleep and tomorrow go to work. But more gushing happened. Oh Oli!

I tiptoed downstairs to where my Mom sleeps, still unsure if this was labor. I knocked on the door and entered. “Mom, I think something’s happened.”

We sent my poor Dad to the store for pads and lay in my bed waiting for something to confirm or deny labor. “Are you having contractions?” Mom asked. “Not yet….Oh wait,” I said as a funny little ripple spread over my belly. Felt like painful gas, only all over. Five minutes later it happened again, but stronger, and this pattern continued for an hour and a half, the length of time Doc suggested to wait before calling him.

We called Oli first. Just as he was about to pop out the door of Buckleigh House to catch his train to London for the accursed Fiance Visa Interview I informed him that I was having contractions. His response: “Oh No.”

Fast forward to the hospital where a quick peek at my undercarriage in an exam room confirmed I was totally in labor and dilated to between one and two centimeters. They poked me with loads of needles and wisked me off to a delivery suite.

Mom was good throughout; she had brought her chimey yoga CDs, which she played on the stereo in the suite. I used the sounds of India to transport myself to monsoon season when particularly nasty contractions hit. Some seven hours after the contractions had begun I was wasted; I hadn’t slept but an hour or so before coming to the hospital and though exhausted couldn’t sleep through the contractions that were coming every two minutes and stronger than ever….and I was now only at two or three centimeters!!!! They offered the epidural and I took it. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t talk to anyone, I was a lifeless shallow-breathed sickly being and if there was seemingly ten more hours of this ahead, I wasn’t going to enjoy a moment of it. I had to wait another hour for the anesthesiologist, though, who was currently in surgery. (Side note: I don’t feel guilty for taking the epidural but pay the deepest homage to all women who have done it without whether by choice or lack of the option. It’s true that contractions are manageable but to breathe through them for hour upon hour….I can’t imagine.)

The doctor called and told them to put me on Petosin, a hormone that speeds up labor and makes your contractions intensify. Thank God they had given me the epidural beforehand. I was now happy, smiling, talking, laughing. A little later my sister showed up and joined Mother and I in waiting. It was now around 10:00 a.m.

Fast forward again to 2:00 p.m. Time to push, mates. By this time even though I couldn’t feel my legs due to the epidural, I could feel the tightening and pressure of each giant contraction, which was great because it didn’t hurt but allowed me to push with each one and get Baby Seeley out! The doctor arrived, said to start pushing with the nurses, that he’d be back in a few minutes after he got into scrubs.

Mom and Sis held my legs back and we pushed for about twenty minutes and got that head right down into the opening. Then the nurses said to stop. Doc had to be there when the head came out in case anything strange happened. So they paged the doctor and there I was sitting through major contractions with a head wedged in my hoo-ha. Imagine someone catching you mid poop and saying, “Stop. Hold it right there.” It wasn’t so much painful as odd.

Doc popped in, the head popped out, my sister and mom squealed, I felt excited and happy that they were excited and happy. “Oh my God, it looks like Oli!” my sister said. I looked down and indeed, I laughed, an Oli head was coming out of me. That was weird. A couple more pushes, shoulder out, baby out. 2:44 p.m. It’s a girl! Sis cuts the umbilical cord….

Wisked off to the side, cleaned up. She was a bit bitey when the nurses bathed her and let out giant impressive cries. Doc informed me that my delivery had given a little boy thirty more minutes with his foreskin, which he had been just about to remove when he had been paged. Within a few minutes the girl was in my arms clamped onto my left nipple sucking voraciously. Just then, Oli called and I asked him to guess what I was doing at that moment……

Job done.

GET BORN!

Liliana "Lily" Seeley

Born on Thursday 2/2/06 at 2:44 p.m. Central Standard Time.

6 lbs. 0 oz.
19.5 inches
Porcelain white with blonde fringe on top

More photos to come when the parents recover! Until then, the hospital photo (which doesn't do her justice!) will suffice.

Take a gamble

So, we do NOT have a trisomy baby. In fact, our baby is awesome. Although, I should probably rephrase that because if we did have a trisomy baby, I would still think it was awesome because it would be MY trisomy baby.

Either way, our baby IS certifiably great. The echocardiogram doctor and technician both agreed that the health is excellent and they were a bit mystified regarding why we were sent to them in the first place. I could have told them that the doctor who did the last ultrasound was a big douche, but they seemed to come to that conclusion on their own.

The child is not only in good physical condition, but also clearly in high spirits as throughout the scan s/he waged a cute little war, pushing back at the tech’s probe whenever she pushed it firmly into my belly. I was helpless during this funny little struggle which was honestly none-too-comfortable for me.

Currently my belly is so weirdly bulbous and is generally rocking and rolling with baby’s giant movements. This kid wants out.

BUT NOT YET! Daddy’s on another continent, or will be as of early tomorrow morning!

That’s right. Oliver’s visa interview takes place this Thursday in London, so he leaves at 6:00 tonight for the UK. With luck, by the end of the day Thursday he will have a fiancé visa stamped in his passport and can proceed to purchase a ticket to get the hell back here before I pop!!!!!

Meanwhile, I have nightly talks with baby about how excited I am to meet him/her but reiterate that it will be best for everyone if s/he stays in for a couple more weeks. Oliver would, you know, like to witness the birth of his first born child. Not until February 15 – my due date and coincidentally the 6-month mark of my employment - am I eligible to receive two extra weeks of paid maternity leave and if I can stay at the office until that date, I will not have to pay for my benefits during any of my off time. Plus, isn’t it best to stay in the womb and cook all the way until that due date???

Root for us, people. Or at least start some kind of wager on this thing.

Will Oli make it back in time?
Will I be able to work until my due date?
Will the child come before or after the 15th?

Tune in next week. Same baby channel. Same baby time.