babycast2 from cayetano Valenzuela on Vimeo.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
oh these long years that drift silently after us
Ok so it has been a long time. I have a video podcast thing that I made but the new fire wire input on my mac is not the same as the firewire I have soooooo... I am going to redo it very soon perhaps later tonight.
Things are going well. Our little baby girl is swimming all around in Melissa's uterus. Not only can I feel her move and KICK, we can both see her move and kick. We went to the doctors again and heard her heart beating. as always it was awesome. We are at 28 weeks and we are now to the point where we start going to the doc every two weeks instead of every month. We will go back this friday which will mark week 29.
WOW. shit is getting REAL. Number one, 11 weeks till GO TIME! and number two Melissa has been having braxton hicks. Now if yall don't know what that means here is a brief description:
~Braxton Hick contractions are painless tightenings of the uterus. They are named after the doctor who discovered them in 1872. You’ll notice them as your belly gets harder. Often, only a part of your belly will get hard--the top or bottom or one of the sides. These contractions are usually not painful, though they can be uncomfortable.
Braxton Hick contractions are sometimes called ‘false labor’ or ‘pre-labor’ contractions. They are a normal part of pregnancy and nothing to be concerned about.
Anyway, Melissa walks up to me and I do my normal kiss her belly and I noticed it was kind of hard. She said she noticed it earlier and my mind raced. What does this mean? Is something wrong? Is it a contraction?
I also vaguely recalled the term braxton hick. Melissa guessed that that is what is was. I did some internet searches and found a few source that seemed to describe it perfectly as braxton hicks. I was still a little worried so I urged Meilssa to call the doc.
She called them and had to have them call her back and they confirmed that the tightening was very likely Braxton hicks contrations. I was relieved and reassured. There is so much worry tied into having a child. I have never worried so much about anything. I can sort of feel the change in the middle distance where my life splits in half. One of the bisections is my life and the other is that of our baby. If I where a younger version of myself I might take issue with it this new double life but I am pushing 30 and I feel good. My wife is beautiful and my best friend, our baby is growing and healthy, it will be summer soon enough and I have a good group of friends. Also some other big news Melissa just got tenure at the school she has been teaching at!! It went to the school board last night and will be effective September first.
I am going to keep this one short and try to make a video later tonight and perhaps we can get into some other fun plans for the future.
Good luck and be safe.
Things are going well. Our little baby girl is swimming all around in Melissa's uterus. Not only can I feel her move and KICK, we can both see her move and kick. We went to the doctors again and heard her heart beating. as always it was awesome. We are at 28 weeks and we are now to the point where we start going to the doc every two weeks instead of every month. We will go back this friday which will mark week 29.
WOW. shit is getting REAL. Number one, 11 weeks till GO TIME! and number two Melissa has been having braxton hicks. Now if yall don't know what that means here is a brief description:
~Braxton Hick contractions are painless tightenings of the uterus. They are named after the doctor who discovered them in 1872. You’ll notice them as your belly gets harder. Often, only a part of your belly will get hard--the top or bottom or one of the sides. These contractions are usually not painful, though they can be uncomfortable.
Braxton Hick contractions are sometimes called ‘false labor’ or ‘pre-labor’ contractions. They are a normal part of pregnancy and nothing to be concerned about.
Anyway, Melissa walks up to me and I do my normal kiss her belly and I noticed it was kind of hard. She said she noticed it earlier and my mind raced. What does this mean? Is something wrong? Is it a contraction?
I also vaguely recalled the term braxton hick. Melissa guessed that that is what is was. I did some internet searches and found a few source that seemed to describe it perfectly as braxton hicks. I was still a little worried so I urged Meilssa to call the doc.
She called them and had to have them call her back and they confirmed that the tightening was very likely Braxton hicks contrations. I was relieved and reassured. There is so much worry tied into having a child. I have never worried so much about anything. I can sort of feel the change in the middle distance where my life splits in half. One of the bisections is my life and the other is that of our baby. If I where a younger version of myself I might take issue with it this new double life but I am pushing 30 and I feel good. My wife is beautiful and my best friend, our baby is growing and healthy, it will be summer soon enough and I have a good group of friends. Also some other big news Melissa just got tenure at the school she has been teaching at!! It went to the school board last night and will be effective September first.
I am going to keep this one short and try to make a video later tonight and perhaps we can get into some other fun plans for the future.
Good luck and be safe.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Houses and the distant twilight
This is what we have been reading:
This is what we have been listening to:
Melissa and I got a soft ice cream maker and it is wonderful!!
So as of right now things are going well. Melissa is doing very well. She is so fucking AWESOME! Everyone told me to WATCH OUT! cause she was going to be all hormonal and other that really wanting peanut butter one night she has pretty much stayed the same. Well of course we are both changing our outlook and everything but she is as cuddly, sweet and strong as ever.
The big news is that I have been able to feel our little baby moving around inside Melissa's belly. A week or so ago I am pretty sure she responded to my voice as I spoke to the belly. A few nights ago She was squirming all around and doing flips as my hand rested there. How fucking amazing!!
We have been sort of getting anxious about having enough space in our apartment. I mean our apartment is great, really great. we only pay $400 a month and we have basically all upstairs of an old victorian house. There is one bedroom in the back that is our landlords guest room. they let us use it when we have guests like my folks visiting from Texas and that is super awesome of them. Our landlords kick total ass. last fall we had a complete rager till like four in the morning where all our friends where pouring out of the house and smoking up on the porch and chopping stuff up with a machete. it got totally out of control. people where puking and drinking so hard all night long. It ended up with Missy getting a bloody lip, puke on the street and down the block, an inexplicable head of cabbage all over the neighbors car, everyone loud and drunk singing Against Me! songs at the top of our lungs. My landlords said they didn't hear a thing and slept right through it. Amazing. Anyway we asked them if we could perhaps rent the back room and use it as our bedroom. In the end they seemed sort of ify about it. They where super nice about it but we really need more space. As of right now we don't have a nursery to put our baby in. For the first few months she will be in our room but later we want to be able to set up a place that will become her bedroom.
So-------We are looking for a house. WOW. Shit just got real right? Well shit got real about 22 weeks back. So now we are getting set to buy a house. Its crazy I know but look at the houseing market and look at the push for more liquidity in the banking system. Now is the time to buy. Prices of house are at an all time low. Around here you can get a decent house with a little yard for around $60,000! Now you tell me! Yes I am a little worried about our finances and even as I type this I feel a bit like a geezer but Melissa is getting recommended for tenure and we have a pretty good bundle saved up. I think we can just about cover earnest money and closing costs. Not to mention there is a $8,000 federal grant for first time home buyers for New Yorkers in 2009. There are also other NY programs for home buyers that can perhaps get us some additional tax credits.
Pretty soon I will be in escrow and getting a house ready for our little family of lions and that is a pretty good feeling.
I am sure we can do this. We both are really looking forward to having our own yard where we can garden. We are going to learn how to can and later we will put in some solar panels and maybe a windmill. That would be so rad.
Personally I like the idea of living with a bunch of our friends yet I know Melissa could never be happy doing that and that is more important. At the same time I would like out home to be a sort of community friendly place to hang and learn stuff. I am thinking of like sort of regular teach-ins. I think a good sense of community is a great thing to teach our little baby.
There are some good friends of ours that do this sort of "Family Dinner" potluck thing on Thursday nights and it is a pretty beautiful thing. Last time I went I had this super warm feeling as I walked in the door and was greeted by all of our friends that where there to share a meal and talk. I had been really wanting a good conversation and I got exactly that. we talked about human-computer interaction and asked the question "what defines understanding" we also talked about social jamming and self sufficiency. I guess I have missed hearing a lot of other peoples opinions.
What does this have to do with preparing to raise a child you ask? Everything. I think one of the things we are missing as a society is actual human contact and the healthy respectful exchange of ideas. Perhaps understanding others more clearly is something that can allow us to grow together and learn together and by passing this ideology on we can come closer to being better versions of ourselves. I think learning is the best thing we can do for future generations. I guess learning and teaching. People who are learning and people who are teaching have my ultimate respect. I hope that I can inspire our kid to learn because she is already inspiring me to teach and vice versa.
Melissa's belly has gotten grander!! It is so beautiful. She is positively aglow. It has been my great pleasure to come home and find her there and hug here and her belly. She has to tip so far to kiss me. sleeping has become a little bit more challenging. She got a big long body pillow that she places right in the center of the bed and she climbs on it every night so she doesn't lay on her back. So now when I go to put my arm around her I get a strange sense that I am actually hugging her pillow. The pillow itself must feel like the luckiest pillow in the northeast as we both snuggle up to it from two sides nightly. Anyway this is what the belly looks like now:
This is what we have been listening to:
Melissa and I got a soft ice cream maker and it is wonderful!!
So as of right now things are going well. Melissa is doing very well. She is so fucking AWESOME! Everyone told me to WATCH OUT! cause she was going to be all hormonal and other that really wanting peanut butter one night she has pretty much stayed the same. Well of course we are both changing our outlook and everything but she is as cuddly, sweet and strong as ever.
The big news is that I have been able to feel our little baby moving around inside Melissa's belly. A week or so ago I am pretty sure she responded to my voice as I spoke to the belly. A few nights ago She was squirming all around and doing flips as my hand rested there. How fucking amazing!!
We have been sort of getting anxious about having enough space in our apartment. I mean our apartment is great, really great. we only pay $400 a month and we have basically all upstairs of an old victorian house. There is one bedroom in the back that is our landlords guest room. they let us use it when we have guests like my folks visiting from Texas and that is super awesome of them. Our landlords kick total ass. last fall we had a complete rager till like four in the morning where all our friends where pouring out of the house and smoking up on the porch and chopping stuff up with a machete. it got totally out of control. people where puking and drinking so hard all night long. It ended up with Missy getting a bloody lip, puke on the street and down the block, an inexplicable head of cabbage all over the neighbors car, everyone loud and drunk singing Against Me! songs at the top of our lungs. My landlords said they didn't hear a thing and slept right through it. Amazing. Anyway we asked them if we could perhaps rent the back room and use it as our bedroom. In the end they seemed sort of ify about it. They where super nice about it but we really need more space. As of right now we don't have a nursery to put our baby in. For the first few months she will be in our room but later we want to be able to set up a place that will become her bedroom.
So-------We are looking for a house. WOW. Shit just got real right? Well shit got real about 22 weeks back. So now we are getting set to buy a house. Its crazy I know but look at the houseing market and look at the push for more liquidity in the banking system. Now is the time to buy. Prices of house are at an all time low. Around here you can get a decent house with a little yard for around $60,000! Now you tell me! Yes I am a little worried about our finances and even as I type this I feel a bit like a geezer but Melissa is getting recommended for tenure and we have a pretty good bundle saved up. I think we can just about cover earnest money and closing costs. Not to mention there is a $8,000 federal grant for first time home buyers for New Yorkers in 2009. There are also other NY programs for home buyers that can perhaps get us some additional tax credits.
Pretty soon I will be in escrow and getting a house ready for our little family of lions and that is a pretty good feeling.
I am sure we can do this. We both are really looking forward to having our own yard where we can garden. We are going to learn how to can and later we will put in some solar panels and maybe a windmill. That would be so rad.
Personally I like the idea of living with a bunch of our friends yet I know Melissa could never be happy doing that and that is more important. At the same time I would like out home to be a sort of community friendly place to hang and learn stuff. I am thinking of like sort of regular teach-ins. I think a good sense of community is a great thing to teach our little baby.
There are some good friends of ours that do this sort of "Family Dinner" potluck thing on Thursday nights and it is a pretty beautiful thing. Last time I went I had this super warm feeling as I walked in the door and was greeted by all of our friends that where there to share a meal and talk. I had been really wanting a good conversation and I got exactly that. we talked about human-computer interaction and asked the question "what defines understanding" we also talked about social jamming and self sufficiency. I guess I have missed hearing a lot of other peoples opinions.
What does this have to do with preparing to raise a child you ask? Everything. I think one of the things we are missing as a society is actual human contact and the healthy respectful exchange of ideas. Perhaps understanding others more clearly is something that can allow us to grow together and learn together and by passing this ideology on we can come closer to being better versions of ourselves. I think learning is the best thing we can do for future generations. I guess learning and teaching. People who are learning and people who are teaching have my ultimate respect. I hope that I can inspire our kid to learn because she is already inspiring me to teach and vice versa.
Melissa's belly has gotten grander!! It is so beautiful. She is positively aglow. It has been my great pleasure to come home and find her there and hug here and her belly. She has to tip so far to kiss me. sleeping has become a little bit more challenging. She got a big long body pillow that she places right in the center of the bed and she climbs on it every night so she doesn't lay on her back. So now when I go to put my arm around her I get a strange sense that I am actually hugging her pillow. The pillow itself must feel like the luckiest pillow in the northeast as we both snuggle up to it from two sides nightly. Anyway this is what the belly looks like now:
Monday, March 16, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Templar's Kaleidoscope
So It has been a little while and everything is going great! Melissa and I have gone out and bought a few things and that was really great. I mean it is a bit uncomfortable to admit this but I got a little misty when we were looking at tiny clothes.
So here is the run down. We have been reading all the literature and making a birth plan IE figuring out who will be in the room when, talking about C-section or how we would like to avoid it as best we can however an emergency obviously we would do, breast feeding, Baby proofing the apartment(togetherment), Melissa would like to avoid drugs during labor, what stuff we will bring with us to the hospital and all sorts of other stuff. Also we are thinking about cord blood! I never knew about this but the cord blood is rich with stem cells that can be used for science and treating leukemia and shit. What!? So apparently you can donate this blood to a cord blood bank or have a personal cash of this stuff for whenever you may need it. It seems sort of weird like it could be used for cloning and what-not. I not really into the idea of some mad scientist making an army of Valenzuelas that could be used for world domination but I am into helping out leukemia patients so that is still sort of up in the air.
We went to the doc on Friday which happens to be FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!! We were told that every thing is right on target for where we should be at 19weeks!! The half way mark is just around the bend!! Holy Crap! We had another sonogram as you can see when you scroll down. We could see our little flying fish wiggling and moving. We could see her mouth moving. We could tell she was telling stories. most likely she will be a storyteller just like her old man. Of course you may have figured it out.... turns out we are having a LITTLE BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We could pretty much tell for sure. So yeah I am going to have to get a GUN. I will now have to worry about every nasty boy in the world. FUCK! She will be tuff. She will probably be able to take care of her self. I think I am beginning to understand the magnitude of worry that plagues most parents. Holy shit I am going to be A PARENT! AHHH! That word seems so foreign. I feel like every day I get a little deeper understanding of what is about to transpire and change my very world. It will and already has rattled my core and shook my foundations. What awaits on the other side of birth is like a different dimension or like a parallel universe. Like all the same pieces and people of my life are shaken like a kaleidoscope to form a whole new pattern. Everything is familiar but has new meaning and new consequences.
Missy and I have been talking a lot about our hopes and dreams for our child. I would like it if she was a scientist. That is just me though. Perhaps an athlete or a teacher, a artist or an engineer. What ever she will be I hope for her to be smarter and more creative that we are. I am sure we will have much to be proud of whatever she becomes as long as she is happy and healthy.
Thats all for now. Thanks for reading!
So here is the run down. We have been reading all the literature and making a birth plan IE figuring out who will be in the room when, talking about C-section or how we would like to avoid it as best we can however an emergency obviously we would do, breast feeding, Baby proofing the apartment(togetherment), Melissa would like to avoid drugs during labor, what stuff we will bring with us to the hospital and all sorts of other stuff. Also we are thinking about cord blood! I never knew about this but the cord blood is rich with stem cells that can be used for science and treating leukemia and shit. What!? So apparently you can donate this blood to a cord blood bank or have a personal cash of this stuff for whenever you may need it. It seems sort of weird like it could be used for cloning and what-not. I not really into the idea of some mad scientist making an army of Valenzuelas that could be used for world domination but I am into helping out leukemia patients so that is still sort of up in the air.
We went to the doc on Friday which happens to be FRIDAY THE 13TH!!!! We were told that every thing is right on target for where we should be at 19weeks!! The half way mark is just around the bend!! Holy Crap! We had another sonogram as you can see when you scroll down. We could see our little flying fish wiggling and moving. We could see her mouth moving. We could tell she was telling stories. most likely she will be a storyteller just like her old man. Of course you may have figured it out.... turns out we are having a LITTLE BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We could pretty much tell for sure. So yeah I am going to have to get a GUN. I will now have to worry about every nasty boy in the world. FUCK! She will be tuff. She will probably be able to take care of her self. I think I am beginning to understand the magnitude of worry that plagues most parents. Holy shit I am going to be A PARENT! AHHH! That word seems so foreign. I feel like every day I get a little deeper understanding of what is about to transpire and change my very world. It will and already has rattled my core and shook my foundations. What awaits on the other side of birth is like a different dimension or like a parallel universe. Like all the same pieces and people of my life are shaken like a kaleidoscope to form a whole new pattern. Everything is familiar but has new meaning and new consequences.
Missy and I have been talking a lot about our hopes and dreams for our child. I would like it if she was a scientist. That is just me though. Perhaps an athlete or a teacher, a artist or an engineer. What ever she will be I hope for her to be smarter and more creative that we are. I am sure we will have much to be proud of whatever she becomes as long as she is happy and healthy.
Thats all for now. Thanks for reading!
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