The Nixnerd

Zaiden’s Grandma B (Nikki’s mom) came to town last Wednesday. Over the weekend we took a couple of nice drives and had picnics. On Saturday, we went to Sedalia in the hopes of seeing what “all the buzz” was about. Belinda (aka Grandma B) is in the market for some real estate and was told to check out Sedalia instead of Estes Park. There wasn’t much in Sedalia so we took off for a drive up into the mountains. We ended up having a picnic along Rampart Range Road. We snapped a few photos to commemmorate the event. AJ and Rachelle came with us and it was quite a fun little outing. (more…)

Nikki took Zaiden to our last Kaiser group meeting on July 18th (2007). All the other mothers showed up with their babies (and for a change all the fathers showed up, too — and THIS is the meeting I missed! DOH!). They took some great photos and Zaiden was quite the little mac-daddy. He was holding hands with this little girl, Kailey. Nikki said they just stared and stared at each other. How cute. As usual, click on the photo to the right to get to the other photos.

Well, Nikki and I have finally selected a few photographs that Tony took the day before Father’s Day. Click on the one at the right to view all of the ones we selected for your viewing pleasure!

We just got back from our trip to Oklahoma. We took Zaiden to meet his Aunt Dawn, Uncle LaMont, and cousins Alexander and Sedona. It was great to see them. Alexander was so cute with Zaiden — he always wanted to give him kisses. Doh! Read on for more!

As usual, click on the photo to the right for more photos!

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We met up with Chris ‘n Sherry, Brad ‘n Sharon, and a bunch of their friends in Buena Vista, CO on Friday. We then drove up above Cottonwood Lake and found a nice big camping space for several tents. One couple had a little tent trailer. Zaiden was awesome! I figure if we get him started early he’ll “be a happy camper.”

And … I finally got to go 4 wheeling with the FJ! Woot woot! Chris and his friends are “the jeep guys” and we took a little trail across Cottonwood Creek and up … and up … and up. The trail goes above timberline but we didn’t go that far. Nikki stayed behind because Zaiden’s neck isn’t ready for the bumpy rough and tumble of 4 wheeling. I felt (feel?) bad about leaving them behind but Nikki didn’t even blink. She encouraged me to go. She’s so awesome.

As usual, the photo on the right will take you to some photos of the trip!

Today is my birthday and I just thought I’d take a moment to upload some photos of Zaiden, Zaiden and Moose, Zaiden, Zaiden and mama, Zaiden and papa, and, of course, Zaiden. As usual, click on the photo on the right to view more photos of this adorable little boy!

Late Saturday night (May 19, 2007), Nikki woke me up and said, “Honey, I think I’m having contractions.” Any thoughts of sleeping in on Sunday flew out of my mind as I scrambled to finish packing our hospital bag. We timed the contractions, called the hospital, and ended up heading on in at 3am. About 3:45 they gave Nikki an exam and found out she was 1cm dialated and they don’t admit mamas unless they are at least 2cm. They told us to go for a walk and come back to the room in an hour. After that, it turned out she was 3cm dialated. Woot woot! Time to have a baby!

We were admitted and after a few hours, she was 4cm dialated. The rest of the birth wasn’t such a great experience. She got an epidural which ended up being WAY too much. Her legs went completely numb and it was terribly uncomfortable. In addition, she stopped dialating at 5cm. After many hours of frustration and such, the doctor suggested we get a c-section. Nikki and I were dissapointed at first, but then we realized that we’d get to see him sooner!

Into surgery we went. There was a small comical moment or two when they tried to find gowns big enough for me (I wish I had a photo!). It took about 45 minutes or so. After he was out, they had to clean him off (there was miconium all over him) and then I got to hold him while they sewed Nikki back up.

He was born at 8:19 pm, May 20, 2007. At birth, he was 6 lbs. 8.5 oz and 18.5″ long.

I’m so proud of Nikki. She was a trooper through the entire thing and she’s been (and will be! a great mom for Zaiden, our son. We love him.

(Click on his photo on the right to view more photos of him!)

Nikki and I went to our first “Parents over 30″ class. Basically a welcome and a few little things about birthing and contractions and such. They use ice to simulate pain to give you a feel of how to handle contractions. Hold the ice in your hand and squeeze it for the duration of a contraction. Obviously, it isn’t at all what a contraction feels like but it allows you to feel pain and start coming up with techniques to deal with it. Nikki and I came up with a few things that we think are going to help out with the birthing process:

• Music — We’re going to set up some playlists on her iPod to bring to the hospital
• Focusing on the pain — Nikki feels that she is going to handle the pain if she kinda focuses on it until the contraction is complete.
• Squeezing my hand

Just some stuff that we should keep in mind when the big day arrives.