Another long night full of little sleep and many contractions that refused to either fit a pattern or become consistent at five minutes per contraction.
We are heading into the Dr.'s office for a scheduled appointment. We are hoping to be able to return home so Allison can enter active labor at home rather than at the hospital.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Middle Finger
This past Monday Allison had to go the hospital again to make sure the amniotic fluid in her belly could support the baby, and fortunately for us, we got to take a another peak of baby Aniya through ultrasound. It was pretty cool, we saw her hands, her heart beat, a little leg, and then her middle finger. It was streched firm, already defiant, as if to say, "I'll come out when I'm good and ready, now f**k off and leave me be".
I will scan and post Aniya flipping off the world when I have a chance.
A lot of progress
A lot of progress was made last night. At around 9 pm, I took Gabru for a walk in the park. Forty-five minutes later, Allison called me and told me to get home ASAP so we could start timing contractions.
I rushed home as fast as Gabru would allow me, pulled out my copy of The Birth Partner and turned to a page that had a chart for timing contractions. The contractions were lasting about a minute and the first couple I timed occurred with intervals of 10, 14, and 8 minutes. For the next hour, Allison had contractions every 6-8 minutes that lasted 40-65 seconds. During this time, I began rubbing Allison's lower back to help her through the contractions, which seemed rather painful. We continued to note the length and intervals for some more time and tried to catch some sleep in between contractions. I definitely did a better job at the sleeping part than Allison. The contractions started to slow down in frequency around 4 am... she is now asleep upstairs and still having a few strong contractions each hour.
What does all this mean? It means the baby is on it's way, and inducing the baby is probably no longer necessary. It also means Allison is going to have a long painful labor (full respect that labor is painful). My mom delivered me in under five hours while Allison has been having contractions for the past 36 hours. While the contractions have slowed for the moment, we anticipate they will pick up with more energy sometime later today.
I rushed home as fast as Gabru would allow me, pulled out my copy of The Birth Partner and turned to a page that had a chart for timing contractions. The contractions were lasting about a minute and the first couple I timed occurred with intervals of 10, 14, and 8 minutes. For the next hour, Allison had contractions every 6-8 minutes that lasted 40-65 seconds. During this time, I began rubbing Allison's lower back to help her through the contractions, which seemed rather painful. We continued to note the length and intervals for some more time and tried to catch some sleep in between contractions. I definitely did a better job at the sleeping part than Allison. The contractions started to slow down in frequency around 4 am... she is now asleep upstairs and still having a few strong contractions each hour.
What does all this mean? It means the baby is on it's way, and inducing the baby is probably no longer necessary. It also means Allison is going to have a long painful labor (full respect that labor is painful). My mom delivered me in under five hours while Allison has been having contractions for the past 36 hours. While the contractions have slowed for the moment, we anticipate they will pick up with more energy sometime later today.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
10 days late
The baby is now 10 days late. Allison is still doing great, though she is ready to deliver this baby girl! We have until Monday for the baby to come naturally, and then the Dr. will schedule an appointment to induce the baby, but hopefully it does not come to that. Allison has been having strong contractions over the past 18 hours. They were fairly consistent last night every 20-30 minutes or so, but then subsided this morning,
Essentially, the first sign of real labor is when the contractions continue to get stronger and more frequent, and generally, labor for many mothers begins in the evening, and on full moons. The next full moon is May 2nd, but we are hoping either this evening or tomorrow evening our baby girl enters the world.
Essentially, the first sign of real labor is when the contractions continue to get stronger and more frequent, and generally, labor for many mothers begins in the evening, and on full moons. The next full moon is May 2nd, but we are hoping either this evening or tomorrow evening our baby girl enters the world.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
I'm Still here
I've gotten a bunch of emails from people wondering if everything is okay.. I would like to thank everyone for their concern, and yes, everything is great. This past week we moved, have had the in-laws in town to help with the move, spent a day in the hospital with Allison for tests, and I also do not have access to a computer on the late-night at home. Allison is doing well, so is baby, but she does not want to come out. Today is the due date, but baby Aniya likes her womb!
I think I will have more time in the next few days to resume my blog activities.
I think I will have more time in the next few days to resume my blog activities.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Baby Thoughts
After riding the subway with Allison and realizing how stressful the commute to work is each day, I have become over zealous in my desire to make sure that she is okay and in minimal discomfort. We were walking in Lowes this evening and had to pass by a stopped forklift type machine parked in an aisle. I of course was vocal about caution, and after we passed the unruly obstacle, Allison said that pretty soon we'll tell each other to go forward and make sure the route was safe while the other protected the baby.
There is a lot of truth to that joke, interpret it how you wish. We are both very nurturing people and are not the type to let the baby cry all night without our intervention. We are more the type to hold the baby constantly.. probably at every possible moment. But I really don't know... what I do know, after talking with many people, is that my life will change forever and the only way to describe it is to experience it. If any of it is true, my life is making a dramatic change as we speak... I am now 33... assuming that I live to be 100 years old, the first act, third, or 33 years of my life are now complete. The next phase will begin the day Aniya Karin Sen is born. She will begin the second act of my life story, a story that just begun to take shape, a story where the first and second acts begin with the act of birth.
There is a lot of truth to that joke, interpret it how you wish. We are both very nurturing people and are not the type to let the baby cry all night without our intervention. We are more the type to hold the baby constantly.. probably at every possible moment. But I really don't know... what I do know, after talking with many people, is that my life will change forever and the only way to describe it is to experience it. If any of it is true, my life is making a dramatic change as we speak... I am now 33... assuming that I live to be 100 years old, the first act, third, or 33 years of my life are now complete. The next phase will begin the day Aniya Karin Sen is born. She will begin the second act of my life story, a story that just begun to take shape, a story where the first and second acts begin with the act of birth.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Times are Hectic
I have been unbelievably hectic the past week, and the baby is still in Allison's belly. She is doing well, but has been having some weird sensations in her belly and cramps as well. The baby is moving down into her pelvic area and we are hoping she is getting ready for her first breaths. It is really hard to believe that in less than two weeks, we should be proud parents of a newborn baby girl. There are, of course, many things that still need to fall into place.
We are moving into a bigger place this Saturday. Our current home is a maze of boxes full of either kitchenware or baby necessities, but everything is slowly working itself out. We have already arranged for all the utilities to be transferred over and the movers and extra help in the form of the in-laws are ready and waiting. I need to take a serious look at my office and perform the moving ritual, but I feel like I haven't had a chance to breathe. I'm still working six days a week, but I am scheduled for some off time this weekend to move, which is very nice. As excited as we are for the baby, we are secretly hoping she will make her due date sometime next week, which will let us move and establish a sliver of stability before baby Aniya takes center stage.
We are moving into a bigger place this Saturday. Our current home is a maze of boxes full of either kitchenware or baby necessities, but everything is slowly working itself out. We have already arranged for all the utilities to be transferred over and the movers and extra help in the form of the in-laws are ready and waiting. I need to take a serious look at my office and perform the moving ritual, but I feel like I haven't had a chance to breathe. I'm still working six days a week, but I am scheduled for some off time this weekend to move, which is very nice. As excited as we are for the baby, we are secretly hoping she will make her due date sometime next week, which will let us move and establish a sliver of stability before baby Aniya takes center stage.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Jake Editing Woes Continue
I went to Ed's this evening to do some tests loading the HD footage into the computer. We didn't get really far. The computer never recognized the camera. I tried the few possibilities I could think of and we gave up when we saw Ed's version of FCP was just a little dated. There wasn't a whole lot more for either of us to do, so we called it a night and deal with the problem tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Initial Thoughts about the Blog
This is month three in the world of my blog and the blog archive. I've written 57 posts, I think this is the 58th, and it's time to think about some things.
Overall, I have found the blog to be a very rewarding experience. While making Happy Sauce, I found the blog a very good way to organize my thoughts and also order/plan my life and the things that needed to occur to make the film happen. The blog also helps me write down my thoughts and commit to making decisions. My brain thinks many things, but I am lazy and just think the thoughts, and then I lose because I never follow through with my initial ideas. Writing the blog was an invaluable asset while making Happy Sauce.
One thing that I feel I need to work on are posts when I am not making a film. I have been tired lately, but I also think I have not known what exactly to write, even though my life is a crazy mess. We will be moving soon and we are now only two weeks from the April 18th due date. A letter to my daughter has been on it's way, but obviously I have not been ready to write it.
So that's it for now. I have other thoughts but they can wait.
Overall, I have found the blog to be a very rewarding experience. While making Happy Sauce, I found the blog a very good way to organize my thoughts and also order/plan my life and the things that needed to occur to make the film happen. The blog also helps me write down my thoughts and commit to making decisions. My brain thinks many things, but I am lazy and just think the thoughts, and then I lose because I never follow through with my initial ideas. Writing the blog was an invaluable asset while making Happy Sauce.
One thing that I feel I need to work on are posts when I am not making a film. I have been tired lately, but I also think I have not known what exactly to write, even though my life is a crazy mess. We will be moving soon and we are now only two weeks from the April 18th due date. A letter to my daughter has been on it's way, but obviously I have not been ready to write it.
So that's it for now. I have other thoughts but they can wait.
Editing Setback for Jake Gets Paid
Sometime between my last post and Saturday morning, I had decided that I was going to really take the initiative and churn out a rough cut each weekend of the footage by the following Friday. There still is no baby and it would be nice if Ed had a chance to see the film and get some additional shots if needed.
I showed up on set Sunday, checked things out, grabbed the tapes, and went straight home to try and load some scenes into FCP. Of course, I got a tape format area. The film is being shot on a JVC camera using 24 AP technology. My deck, unfortunately, is a SONY and can not play tapes that are recorded at 24 frames per second. The solution is relatively easy but makes editing the film quickly diificult.
There are two solutions, and both involve using the camera as a deck. First, we can load the footage in Manhattan at Ed's house every week and then I would take the drives to my place in Brooklyn and begin editing. Theoretically, this scenario works fine as long as we are running the same version of the editing software, but you can generally expect some delays. The second scenario entails me taking the camera to Brooklyn every Monday, loading the footage, and then returning the camera every Friday so it is available on the weekends. Both possibilities are viable... which solution is best is yet to be determined.
I showed up on set Sunday, checked things out, grabbed the tapes, and went straight home to try and load some scenes into FCP. Of course, I got a tape format area. The film is being shot on a JVC camera using 24 AP technology. My deck, unfortunately, is a SONY and can not play tapes that are recorded at 24 frames per second. The solution is relatively easy but makes editing the film quickly diificult.
There are two solutions, and both involve using the camera as a deck. First, we can load the footage in Manhattan at Ed's house every week and then I would take the drives to my place in Brooklyn and begin editing. Theoretically, this scenario works fine as long as we are running the same version of the editing software, but you can generally expect some delays. The second scenario entails me taking the camera to Brooklyn every Monday, loading the footage, and then returning the camera every Friday so it is available on the weekends. Both possibilities are viable... which solution is best is yet to be determined.
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