Health Update

You may have noticed that I barely published anything for the past two months. I regret not publishing but I have been busy, sick, and getting ready for the baby.


I've been to the doctor more times this year than in the past 10 years. Of course this includes getting ready for the baby.


Headaches:
If you recall on my "Coffee" post where I described quitting coffee, I indicated that the genesis of why I stopped drinking coffee was from headaches. My mystery headaches continued for over a year and I couldn't figure out why. I went to an ear/nose/throat doctor and we discovered that I had a sinus infection. I had surgery to fix my sinuses in March. You can see that is when the blog posts stop getting posted on a regular basis. That surgery put me down for a few weeks.


It was supposed to be a two week healing process but it took longer. I was back to work after a few days. Then on the weekends I was working on the house to get it ready for the baby. I also started working out when the doctor said I could. It was all too soon and after two weeks, instead of healing, I regressed and got very sick. It was caused by exhaustion because I was doing too much. I had to take another two weeks off of not doing anything and heal. I stopped working out and stopped working on the house for the rest of March.


Sprained Finger:
Well I also sprained my left index finger trying to grab something before it fell on the floor. I ended up hitting my hand on the table and spraining my finger instead of grabbing what fell. It has been sprained and swollen for months. In the past I have regularly sprained my fingers while wrestling, playing baseball, at jiu-jitzu, etc. Now I am not healing as fast as I normally would. After I took time off of working out, I noticed that it was healing better since I wasn't using my finger to lift weights. I also have trouble shooting guns with that finger. Fortunately it is my off-hand and I still have good enough aim to keep my score up, I just can't complete a timed shoot with that finger.


Dental Work:
Yes on top of everything else, I have problems with my teeth. We didn't like the dentist I had been going to so we more or less stopped going. I had a bad tooth ache and finally switched dentists. I thought that the old dentist just did a poor job on my tooth. It turned out I needed a root canal. Well I got it done the morning before we took Ethan home from the hospital. Then the temporary cap kept breaking and coming off. What a miserable two weeks. I now need to go back for some less severe maintenance. To be continued...


So I have all of these correctable problems that I complain about. One guy at work said that I am getting old because I have the "good kind of old man problems" meaning the kind that you can get fixed and recover from. He had the bad "old man problems" because he had just been diagnosed with cancer. Another co-worker just got diagnosed with diabetes.


I guess that I do have good problems when you put things in perspective.

It's a Boy!

It's a Boy!!


I'm a father now to a baby boy we named Ethan.


He was born on a rainy south Florida day in April. He is perfectly healthy and we are doing our best to keep him that way.

Here I am looking at him in the delivery room right after he was born. The nurses were running around so someone had to keep him company. He was wide awake and not crying. He is grabbing my finger in this shot.

Here he is at his first doctor's appointment a few days later. We had to wrap him in blankets since he couldn't be dressed for the check up.

There I am carrying Ethan wearing the diaper bag backpack. This was a rough week for him. A bunch of doctor's visits and a blood draw just to tell us that he was healthy.

Some people may expect more pictures of Ethan like typical blog posts concerning baby pictures. I can provide those offline to friends and family. The point of this blog was to share stories about me while respecting the privacy of others who choose not to be published on the internet. I don't want to post photos of Ethan for the world to see because when he is a teenager, he will inevitably tell me he didn't like his baby pictures.

Bedroom Renovation - Furnishing the Room

After I had finished renovating the room, it was time to furnish it. Now for the big reveal:  I was renovating the room to turn it into a nursery.

Opening the boxes to the crib. Yes, this was an Ikea crib so that means it comes unassembled in multiple boxes. You can see that Hunter wants to help (or he's wondering if there is food inside).

So many pieces to take out and sort through.

 

I'm smiling but I was having a terrible migraine. I wasn't fully recovered from surgery to fix my headaches so I was struggling while bending over.

Here I am putting pieces of the crib together.

And here is the crib. All set up by night time. You may not notice but it is convertible so that it can be used when the baby gets a little old for a crib. Now we have to move in the rest of the furniture.

Yet another Ikea piece. It's a Hemnes dresser that we will also use as a diaper changing station.

Once the baby outgrows diapers, it will be used for clothes, etc.

AND NOW, THE FURNISHED ROOM:

Here is the Hemnes dresser that we are using as a changing station. We also got a nice lamp to use for soft light at night. We already had the end table the lamp is on but it was originally green. That was the last piece that we finished. We repainted it with chalk paint and put a clear finishing coat on. Between the door and the dresser is a special diaper pale that traps odor inside and uses any kind of bags. We didn't want a diaper pale that only took specialty bags.

Here is the opposite side of the room where we have the crib. Also, we moved a chair and foot stool into the room from other parts of the house so that this can be used as a feeding chair or reading chair. The dog house was also moved in here so the dogs will lay in the dog house rather than where the baby will be. I also bought a baby camera with audio because I am a first time parent and am worried that I will not have enough stuff.

Finally here is the back wall shot. You will notice the twin bed. Yes, it is another Ikea piece of furniture. This is for one of us to sleep in while the baby is in the crib and eventually for the baby when it is time.

As you may have noticed, the color scheme was very neutral:  soft grays with clean whites. This is actually our go-to color scheme. While this may look depressing, it will tone down all of the little kid toys that are about to envelop the room. Now any time there is a toy laying around, the color will pop out and complement the neutrals. There is about to be a lot of color going on here soon, I'm just not sure how much. We may also choose to put in curtains over the blinds, but that decision is for another day and would be almost exclusively for decoration.