Sara Belle Christensen

Going into surgery

We're doing the c-section after all. Not enough progress. Will update post op.

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24 Hours and Counting

It just occured to me that we have now been at the hospital for more than 24 hours. Rosey is doing well and things seem to be progressing again. She struggled with a little bit of nausea, and managed to vacate her already food deprived stomach (she hasn't eaten since 6am). They say this is a good sign. We are just waiting for full dilation now and the next stage of labor to begin.

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An Almost Caesarian

For a moment there we thought that we might end up with a c-section. The contractions seemed to go into a holding pattern for a while and the doc was concerned that labor was no longer progressing. But when the nurse checked, Rosey had dilated some more and so we were given the OK to continue with natural labor. But the threat of c-section continues to loom if the labor does not consistenly progress.

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4cm and Still Dilating

We have been making slow progress since my last update. Rosey's cervix has thinned out considerably but is still only dilated four centimeters. We are all speculating that it will be a 9pm delivery.

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We Got Drugs

The epidural has now been administered and it came not a moment too soon. It's providing Rosey with some much needed relief. Contractions are now about three minutes apart.

After the epidural the nurse had some trouble hooking up the scalp electrode to the baby's head and noted that may be an indication of a full head of hair. I guess we will know shortly.

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Let the Pitocin Begin

Rosey started having contractions overnight. As of about seven this morning they were coming about every ten minutes. We just started the pitocin drip and now things should really get interesting.

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Induction

We go into the hospital tonight to start inducing. So we should have little Sara by late afternoon tomorrow. Hooray!

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The Office View

Here is another pic that I took from my new office.



P.S. - This post was mainly to test whether or not I could send picture directly from my iPhone to my blog... And I guess the answer is NO. The picture associated with this post did not show until I manually uploaded the photo. The original photo had an img src with a cid: url type. Looks like blogger didn't pull the photo from the MIME like I expected. I wonder if it's blogger bug, blogger on published to a non-blogger server bug or if it's an iPhone bug.

Mobile Office

This is the entire contents of my office packed onto a cart. Yes, I do have a lot of computers. I was also surprised to discover how much junk I've accumulated over the 7 years that I've been here at Novell. Like, where the hell did that Nerf bow and arrow come from?

Novell is consolidating office space and our group got moved from the second floor to the third. I guess I'm lucky. This is the first time that I've ever had to move since starting at Novell. I know of other people who have had to move offices practically once a year.  

My new office, other than being on the third floor, is pretty similar to my old one. Actually, if you were to dissect the building diagonally, my new office would be the mirror image of my old office. It's evil twin so to speak :)

The best part of the new office is that I now have a view of the mountains instead of a view of I-15. I'll miss the sunsets but the mountains more than make up for it. Check this out:

The only downside of my new location is my new neighbors. I'm now two doors down from my boss's boss's boss's boss, the vice president and general manager of the workgroup business unit.

My First Yoga Experience

I tried yoga for the very first time today and I think that I like it. Lately I've been working out at the Novell gym during my lunch break. I usually split my time between a stairmaster and lifting free weights. But five days a week of the same indoor activity can get kind of boring... not to mention my legs are often low energy by mid-week from very lower-body centric cardio.

Novell offers a yoga class several times a week in one of the studios in the gym. Several of the guys that I cycle with have been taking them forever and swear by them. So, today I decided to give it a try. It's a perfect solution to my stairmaster boredom and I'm excited about what it can do for my flexibility and core strength... two areas that are particularly weak right now.

I was called out as a newb within seconds of entering the room. Apparently I grabbed the wrong kind of mat and was the only one in the room wearing shoes. I guess I stuck out like a sore thumb. But the teacher was nice and slowed the pace down a little for me as well as gave me a little extra instruction. It was humbling to discover just how inflexible I am and how little core strentgh I have. I have a new hero though... one of the guys that I ride with was able to twist and balance his body in all manner of poses that I would have otherwise thought humanly impossible.

9 Days To Go and All Is Well

This is it. The final stretch. We had an appointment this morning and everything looks fine. Rosey's blood pressure is holding steady and they are predicting a very normal healthy birth.

Chicken Butternut Stew with Couscous

Usually I have meals planned out in advance, but last night I found myself in a situation where I didn't have a plan and didn't really feel like going grocery shopping. So, I decided to get creative with some stuff that I had laying around and invented this recipe. Surprisingly, it turned out pretty good, so I thought that I would share.

1 Medium Butternut Squash peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
3 Large Boneless Chicken Breasts cut into 1 inch cubes
4 slices Bacon
3 Small Pink Lady Apples cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 Small Yellow Onions (or 1 large) cut into 1/2 inch squares
1 1/2 cups Raisins
2 Bay Leaves
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp red/black pepper blend.
4 whole cloves
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup uncooked couscous

Cook the four slices of bacon in a deep skillet. Remove bacon but retain bacon grease in pan. Cook the cubed chicken in the bacon grease until just starting to brown. Add squash, apples and onions. Cut up or crumble bacon and add to skillet with chicken and vegetables. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes on medium high heat. Add raisins, celery seed, thyme, cloves and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, cover and simmer on low for approximately 30 minutes until squash is cooked through. Add couscous and let stand 5 minutes before serving for the couscous to absorb the liquid from the stew.

I was originally going to cook the couscous separately and then serve the stew over the couscous, but then I figured that it would taste even better if the couscous were to absorb the liquid from the stew rather than just plain water. Unfortunately I used twice as much as I indicated in the recipe here and ended up with a chicken butternut couscous paste :) It was still tasty but not so presentable. So, I halved the amount that I actually used for the recipe.

The cloves were kind of a last minute addition. I wanted something to compliment the sweet flavors of the apples and raisins. I considered using nutmeg or cinnamon but decided the cloves would work better in the end.

Serves about 6. Enjoy!

Surviving Arabesque

Well, after practicing incessantly all week, I survived my recital on Saturday afternoon. It wasn't my best performance of the piece, but at least I feel like I didn't totally embarass myself. There were three spots where I kind of "screwed up":

• I had a dramatic pause in the beginning where I overshot a jump and had to recorrect my hand position.
• My ending was really weak because I was afraid to try and execute the big jump at the end very fast while I was so nervous.
• There was a spot in the middle where I started to play the wrong note and then backed up and corrected. But I did it without even pausing so might not recognize it as a mistake unless you are familiar with the piece and listening closely.

Without further ado, here is the recording (made possible by a generous gift of an awesome camcorder from Rosey's Mom... Thanks Mom!):

21 Days and Counting

Only 21 more days until little Sara is ready to pop out. We are back at the original doctor after a short stint with a doctor and office in Payson that we were even less happy about. Rosey's blood pressure has stabilized now (in fact it was almost normal at her last visit) and we suspect that she is going to carry full term without any complications.

Our biggest dilemma now is what to call her. We can't decide (agree) between:
Sarabelle Christensen
Sara Belle Christensen
Sara [non-Belle middle name] Christensen
or maybe even a latecomer,
Emma Christensen

Hmm...

Biffing the Practice Recital

Tonight was the practice recital for my performance next weekend and I totally biffed it. Even though I have had the song memorized for nearly two months and have literally played it hundreds of times, I couldn't get through it in front a small gathering of fellow pupils. I stopped half-way through, almost lost my place, and then continued on slurring all of the notes together. I totally embarrassed myself.

After everyone else had gone, I was tempted to ask for another chance to play to redeem myself. But then it occurred to me... that's the whole point of performance. You only get one shot, one opportunity. You're either prepared for it or you aren't. I doubt that there was anyone there who thought I wasn't capable of playing that song given enough time. Nor did anyone care whether or not I could play if perfectly in the privacy of my own home.

The difference between being able to play a song and being able to perform a song is a whole lot of practice. Unfortunately, I hadn't really been practicing this song. See, I got the song to where I could play it pretty good and from that point on I PLAYED the song instead of PRACTICING it. I left the rehearsal recital committed to practice the hell out of this song for the next 9 days and hope that it's enough to not embarrass myself on the real performance.

Thanksgiving 2007: The Lost Photos

Oops, I forgot to post these photos from Thanksgiving.

An Early Delivery?

Rosey and I finally got fed up with her doctors constantly sending her to the hospital despite getting positive test results over and over again. So, we decided to switch to a new doctor based out of the hospital in Payson. We figured that the new doctor may not be much better, but at least:

• there would be only one doctor to deal with instead of getting a different doctor at every appointment.
• the new doctor was a female OB-GYN and came highly recommended by everyone that had heard of her.
• the clinic is Payson is much closer and therefore means less travel time even if Rosey did end up going to the hospital as frequently.

Rosey saw the doctor for the first time on New Year's Eve. The jury is still out on whether or not we are going to have a better experience with this doctor.

Although Rosey's blood pressure continues to be only slightly elevated, and neither she nor the baby is showing any other signs of distress or pre-eclampsia, the doctor was concerned. Enough so, that she said that she will monitor Rosey over the coming weeks and decide week by week whether or not she wants to induce labor and get the baby out early. She said that she could do this as soon as the baby reaches 34 weeks and has mature lungs. That would be next week :)

Even if everything goes well over the coming weeks, she said that she will probably want to get the baby out one way or the other when she reaches full-term at 37 weeks. As you can imagine, neither Rosey nor I are very happy about this. Neither of us want there to be any danger for little Sarabelle, but unless there is an imminent risk we would prefer that she get to cook for as long as possible. And so far, every test, other than the blood pressure reading itself has come back showing that there is no imminent risk.

It's very frustrating to feel like you are at odds with your doctor. I understand that doctor's are concerned about taking risk's that could lead to lawsuits if something goes wrong, but on the other hand, I feel like they put their own interests (of covering their own asses) ahead of the best interests of the baby.

In any case, if the doctor gets her way, we may be parents a little sooner than expected. So much for having a valentines baby :)

A Mighty Wind

For most of the year we love that we live so close to Spanish Fork canyon and across from a farmer's field. The mountains and canyon are so beautiful and we get unobstructed views.

Unfortunately, this benefit comes with a price. Over the winter, the brutal Spanish Fork canyon wind blows across those empty farmer's fields and dumps small mountains of windblown snow right onto our driveway :(


It's a good thing that I got a sturdy new snow-shovel from my (Rosey's) Grandma Lightcap for my birthday. That poor shovel has seen it's share of snow this year.

Baby Stuff

Rosey and I finally went and did our shopping for Sarabelle's nursery yesterday. Between some money that I had set aside and a generous gift from Dad, we were able to get pretty much everything we needed in one shot. Let me tell you... Babies 'R Us made a killing yesterday :) It's amazing how quickly you can blow through money buying stuff for baby.

We got:

• Stroller System (Graco Tour Deluxe)
• Dresser/Changing Table Combo
• Nursing Glider
• Baby Swing
• Baby Carrier
• All manner of bottles, sheets, cloths, rags, diapers, ointments and miscellaneous "stuff" that you just need to have :)

We were afraid that it might not all fit in the car, but we just barely made it.

The dresser was the only thing that we weren't able to take home with us. They didn't have the one we wanted in stock and had to order it in. I suppose that was a good thing as we wouldn't have been able to fit it anyway.

We spent the afternoon assembling. I was actually surprised how easily most of the stuff went together. The most difficult piece was the swing. Other than that, the bulk of the work was mostly unpacking, unwrapping and shuffling stuff around.