Today my boss comes into my office with a bottle of Glenmorangie Scotch Whiskey letting me know that the ad framework I have been working on and integrating with my team into our applications and an eventual SDK has been fantastic. As I sip it smoking a fine cigar I am quite pleased that I have been blessed so much since embarking on my software engineering ride. It has not always been smooth. There have been hard times, late hours, on and on. It feels good to know that what I trade my precious time with my children and wife for to earn a living is worthwhile and appreciated. This makes an excellent opportunity to take an expand my horizons both professionally and privately.

For example, I have enrolled my family at the local YMCA. Henry is in a tumbling class getting to play with other children around his age. He is learning to move and listen to instruction from people other than his parents. He, no they all are, growing at a phenomenal rate. Crystal bought him some sneakers recently and boy, has he inherited his father’s massive feet! He is a kind boy and I hope to instill in him my own fascination with critical thinking appreciation of liberty and freedom. His current likes are things like Legos. He loves trucks and trains. His drawing are increasingly complex and intricate. We have taken steps to limit movie and game times to encourage imaginative play always taking the time to explain things and answer any questions he has with honest answers. This last Christmas we explained that there is no Santa Claus but he refused to hear it. We decided to play along and told him that the idea of Santa Claus was a reward for our good deeds of the year. That Christ is the ultimate arbitrator of these things and that gifts were merely a superficial nicety to enjoy our short stay on this globe. It is fascinating to hear him because he truly grasps these topics. He likes to help me and I have changed the oil with him in our cars.

I try to always find ways to include all of the children trying to spread what little time I have with them so they get a chance to learn and see life around them. Helen is without question my princess. She is also kind and loving giving me kisses and hugs when I come home from work. She wants to learn at Henry’s level but becomes frustrated. She definitely spells and sounds out letters which Henry has difficulty with but for Henry it is no matter. She loves her doll house and will often play alone but will not shy from an oppurtunity to run with the boys. She loves animals. We adopted two kittens over the holidays: Charlotte and Watson. She will carry them gently petting and talking to them. That kind, nurturing spirit within this precious little girl is already developing.

Harrison is our current little monster. I insist that he is the most destructive of the three. Whether it is his desire to garner more attention or that he has two siblings teaching him much faster than if he had been alone he is always observing and imitating. He walks and says words. I admit that Crystal understands him much more than I but he is a wonderful little boy. He, I think, looks like me which makes him amazingly special in my heart. I often wondered after Henry how could I love any more children. It is possible to increase my love with each child to love them equally. I had no idea I had this capacity to love.

I have been taking the time to take care of myself a little better. Pay a little more attention to how I present myself. Relax by reading a book and learning. Expanding my horizons doing things that I felt exceeded my comfort zone. Recently I acquired a motorcycle license after taking a weekend class. It was wonderful to step out and accomplish something like this which I probably would have been putting off indefinitely. My mother-in-law dropped off an antique kerosene heater for which I replaced the wick and purchased fuel and got it working again. I finally bought a shot gun which I have always wanted but waited on for one reason or another. I have made mozzarella cheese and plan on making more of it before I graduate myself to cheddar or other delicious dairy derivatives.

It is all these little things that add up to who I am, I suppose. I have been effective in removing seemingly negative or non attentive influences and acquaintanceship and attempted to strengthen the opposite. Crystal and I surround ourselves with folks who push us to be better. To be more. To accomplish more. My beautiful wife has been inspiration to me. She takes care of the family and the home creating an inviting place to weather the storms. She toils and creates things we eat and use. I see with the years that we grow closer together as we allow each other to be better at who we are.

I am not sure where things will be in the coming months. I have currently a couple projects that are interesting and we shall see how they progress. My music has taken a break as I experience a few month writer’s block. I was not sure if I would ever venture into the world of starting my own company again but here I am. A little wiser taking what I have learned, am learning, and will learn and applying it a little more gracefully. It is an exciting time for sure. Unfortunately, I cannot give out any details as it is under wraps but in six months time I can’t wait to share.

I have several books on my list of reading. I am currently engrossed in Slavomir Rawicz’s The Long Walk having taken a break from The Bastiat Collection. I have a couple books to read which a friend has lent me which I need to read as well. On my nightstand is Mises’s Human Action which calls to me. When I am not reading I am playing a game or two here. Crystal and I have been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic which has been a fascinating and fun way to spend time together as an alternative to watching movies. I will admit that it is hard to put much time into anything and the thought has crossed my mind that sometimes I (or we) stretch ourselves a little thin.

In the world the financial markets are tumultuous. From my interpretation of events it seems that massive deficit spending on a global scale has indebted most countries into a corner of artificially created boom and bust cycles which wreck havoc on one malinvested sector or another. I have searched far and wide to better understand these things and if it is not obvious, I feel that the Austrian understanding of these issues is the best. This, however, is unpopular because the solution of such an understanding is painful to undertake and will eliminate the illusion of bureaucratic supremacy. I have mentioned this here before: degrees and so-called experts supporting the status quo are not the solution nor is their opinion any more valid than an unacknowledged blogger, alternative news journalist, or a critically thinking you and I. I find it fascinating that the people who argue in its defense are complicit, lack understanding, and have much fear. It pains me for it seems that many will relinquish principle, freedom, and liberty to maintain the illusion of safety in all areas of life. I do not preach, but the facts simply do not support a world view which most people seem to idealize. The painful aspect of liberty, freedom, and self governance is personal responsibility and action without relenting to the false security brought by redistribution and protectionism. So many laws, deception, ommision, and tyranny run rampant; have they always?

I’d like to go on about the specifics. I may some day soon. However, when reason, history, evidence, fact, and critical thinking are so rare I do not know if it is even worthwhile.

On a more encouraging note, Crystal and I are excited to see where the next year and a half take us. We locked ourselves into a two year lease to stabilize ourselves. We are seriously discussing purchasing enough property to start a micro dairy some day in an effort to gain skills and have some semblance of self sufficiency. Perhaps a smaller plot with some sheep and chickens would suffice. I do not know. The more property the further I am from my current or potential employers and business in Seattle which means more time commuting. However, it would be wonderful to learn and do things that seem tangible and to pass that on to our children. A lot of personal satisfaction comes from that. We’ve also discussed taking a vacation here and there. If it weren’t for our familial commitments I know we’d be traveling a lot more than we are now. It will all come in good time.

Crystal has quite a green thumb which has inspired me to try my hand at a little project growing herbs in the kitchen. My meager pint sized pots numbering in six are surrounded by an army of 36 or so tomato plants, peppers, and flowers. We’ve started quite a growing operation upstairs. All our seedlings have started and soon we’ll be transplanting plants outside. With our short grow season, however, some things may stay inside like the tomatos.

Our 9 chickens, except for the runt, are all growing quickly. We’ve moved them outside onto the back patio. This weekend I will be visiting my mom and dad to pick up a chicken coop. They eat, drink, poop, and pee at a phenomenal rate.  All expected I suppose. Soon we shall be enjoying the fruits (ahem - vegetables and eggs) of our labor. We found some local farmers and a dairy we’re trying out for produce and milk. This has added to our enthusiasm to learn some artisan crafts and skills. I would like to share some of these exploits and adventures in more detail some other time.

This last weekend we had my mom and dad out for some visiting. They kindly remembered my birthday and brought me some Landbrot and Hungarian Salami. Nothing like remembering years gone by the reigns of the palette. I roast a nice lamb and it turned out delicious. I tend to shy away from “gamey” tasting meats with lamb being the exception. We used the rotisserie and it came out perfectly. A medium with a nice flaky and flavorful crust with some potatoes and a Italien styled salad.

The Kids

Harrison has become more rambunctious. He climbs on things, opens the oven door (!), throws PS3 controllers in the toilet. He has quite a sense of humor about him. He is precious in every sense except that he continues to keep us (mostly Crystal) up all night. He is teething which is most of why we’re going through the sleepless nights. He’ll toss and turn and sometimes cry. Usually by 18 months (if the experience with the other two children are any guide) things settle down and we finally get to sleep through the night. I admit that it frustrates me. I sometimes, though not often, resent him being so fussy.

Helen is quite a character. She’s careful but in her carefulness also sly. Testing her boundaries more than Henry ever did, you will tell her something and she will purposefully do the reverse. She’s recently started back talking. On a positive note, though, she often disappears in imaginative play taking her dolls or other toys and playing as the other two will let her. She will often sit and cuddle and is the first to go to bed. Sometimes she’ll even ask to go to bed an hour or so before bed time.

Henry is learning and observing Crystal and my nuances and reactions to things so for him how we handle frustration or difficult situations seems to be more important. He loves to remind us of the rules especially when we’re driving. We joke about him being our “hallway monitor”. He is kind to Harrison but he and Helen will often times compete for the same toys. To be expected I suppose. He is my buddy being excited to see me when I come home and sad to see people he loves leave.

They are all great kids. I often think about how I can be a better daddy for them. Crystal and I remind ourselves that even though teething babies, tantrum throwing 3 year olds, and 5 year olds with attitude will one day all move out and we’ll look back and yearn for these moments. It is true. It brings tears to my eyes. I love them all so very much. I didn’t understand how much I can love until I have had them to love.

MokaSocial

So what does this mean for MokaSocial? Hopefully yet another chapter as my partners and I continue to move forward with our projects and plans. Today we released Gadgetopia, a news, pic, and video aggregator for all things gadgets. It’s based on the model behind iHeartCelebs: free with ads support. Gadgetopia is our first project to use a package system I came up with that allows us to basically rapid deploy similar apps within a couple hours. Sure, they are similar in feel but our goal is content delivery of things people actually want.

The Kids and Stuff

Harrison’s been teething lately and it has made sleep a rare commodity. Last night, for example, he was really upset and wouldn’t sleep unless he was attached to Crystal. She’s had some more experience living with sleep deprivation than I but she suffers nonetheless.

I’ve been watching Henry and Helen playing together and it thrills me to see them using their imagination. I see some of the things they build, the games they create, or things they draw on paper and it impresses me. Their energy levels are hard to keep up with but Crystal and I keep up as best as we can. They are growing so fast. I think about how quickly time goes by and that I really would like to spend as much of my free time with them as I can. Henry is almost five. That little boy has been with me for five years. Helen for two. Just wow.

I feel like things have been frantic all around the last couple weeks. I suppose it was the job hunting and worrying. Now that it is over and we’ll see some money after the new year I would love to take the family on a trip to a forest or somewhere new. Maybe the zoo. A farm. Camping. Anything really. We all need to get out and do something! I’d like to set up my recording equipment and try and make some music. I feel like I need a way to release some creative energy that isn’t work. It’s all sitting here waiting for me to unpack I just need to find the will and time to do it.

We’re in the process of finding a rhythm in the new place which will probably take a month or two. The kids seem to be adapting to the increase in space. We’ve been unpacking and trying to gain back some sort of normalcy. Thanks to Crystal who is busy setting everything up. The kid’s bathroom, the kitchen, and our bedroom are probably the most unpacked. Things are beginning to look normal and we’re getting all the pieces put together. It looks like the office/bonus room will be the last to come together. For now we’ve got this massive “great room” that is empty except for the piano. It sounds great in the cavernous room but that’s just it. Eventually we’d like to get some couches and a rug. Not on a founder’s salary (for now)!

I drove around yesterday morning to drop off our cable box and modem and then picked up my new frames. They’re orange with blue front and sides.

There’s a lot of details spinning in my head right now. How to work out commuting, budgeting, garbage collection, mail service; stuff that we’ve gone over but we need to really hunker down and figure out. Until that happens I am going to feel overwhelmed.

In the mean time, we continue to work hard on Flicka and are getting close to releasing version 1.1.1 probably later this week. We want to move on to other things to start expanding our portfolio. There are some other things in the works that I can’t write about just yet but I will share as soon as I can!

Then about a couple weeks later he calls us and says that the potential buyers had flaked out on him and that we were next in line. Nate and I went out and looked at it and for the price it really seems like a great deal. Well, since looking at it we’ve decided to go for it. We’ve packed up most of our home into boxes. We’re lined up for October 1st as the move in day. More space (~3,300 square feet), four car garage, a view of the Sound, and a suitable yard. We’re very happy. I just need to make sure Comcast gets put in ASAP! So yeah, we’re moving. No more smokers, pot smoke, screaming matches, loud cars, busy roads, parking spot wars, and whatever.

We’ve finally launched Flicka. For those willing to spend the cost of a mocha to help support our efforts, go buy it! Rate it five stars! We need every bit of help to get people interested and excited about our product. Right now we’re focused on version 1.1 which will add some features and fix a couple bugs. It has been awesome to learn and release code. We’ve been using a lot of interesting tools to get things to a state where they are not crashing. For example, in addition to testing on different devices, programmed tests (Robotium like Selenium), and unit tests; we discovered Monkey which is literally like a monkey mashing buttons and doing all sorts of things to your application. Anyway, with MokaSocial now being legit and official we need to release new products and get ourselves to a place where we can work on mobile full time. There are several things “in the pipe” so stay tuned.

I got my haircut and chose a Mohawk. A little crazy for me. I feel like I am reaching out and trying new things. Another thing is that we’ve started up our “lifestyle” change again. I guess we took a few months off while we waited for Harrison to be born. It’s been tough. My cravings for simple, refined carbs is at times intense with times when nothing seems to curb my craving.

Henry, Helen, and Harrison are all well. Harrison has been a mellow baby with minutes of protesting before he begins to cry. It doesn’t happen often. Still he’s been a smiley, happy, and curious one doing most of everything before his siblings did when they were his age. Henry also got a Mohawk. He’s very talkative and has a particular affinity to following and creating rules. Oh, and shooting everything real or imaginary with real or imaginary guns. Not sure where he gets that. As far as Helen goes, she’s headstrong and determined. A little climber who will loudly whine, climb onto counters, and steal momma’s makeup and put it on.

Crystal and I have had a rocky few weeks. As we settle in to having three kids and starting over with an infant it has been hard to adjust. We’re making progress and talking things out. Still, there have been a few moments.

Everything else is coasting. I really want to work on my music. I feel so beat by the time I get home I don’t feel like doing much more than spending time with the family, watching a movie, or playing of Age of Conan (awesome game by the way). Recently I subscribed to Mother Earth News which isn’t as hippy as it sounds. It’s actually very friendly to folks that would like take more ownership over their food, housing, and sufficiency. It’s had us talking a lot lately about finding a way to living in a fashion where we control our dependency on “the systems” around us and the ability for us to carry on regardless if one, some, or all of them collapse. Also, being able to eat freshly and learn skills. Anyway, the reasons are my own. I don’t want to preach about it. Everyone has their own things they want but I wanted to share my perspective. But anyway, we’re not sure how that looks. As you know, I work technology and those sorts of jobs are in the city. Maybe we can’t live like that now but maybe one day?

Flicka has been progressing amazingly. We’re working on slide shows, making things crash resistant, and other updates to give us an application that finally works. I’ve finally gotten back in the swing of things. Work has been interesting at times. I love the job, the company, and the things I do especially since I get to lead a group of awesome developers. I think managing up is the biggest challenge or rather learning how to do it. The management structure isn’t as top down as some places yet there seem to be political spheres and things to work with. As a developer I like to be direct and to the point and I like to get that back from others. Our current project is something dubbed Project Relaunch which is a pretty big update to the main product site and the underlying mechanics of how we interact with various sub systems. I think we’re getting a good job done and when that September deadline rolls by we can let loose a little and take on more incrementally deploy-able tasks.

Our lease is up this September and although we’ve been fairly okay with living here, we are trying to decide between grinning and bearing apartment living for another lease term or finding a home to rent. My biggest complain is how people generally don’t think about what they do affects others. Driving through a parking lot fast, letting their dogs shit all over the lawns, smoking on their decks or outside my windows, talking loudly outside my window at two in the morning, playing bassy music loudly at two in the morning, letting your door slam, playing your surround sound system loudly at all hours, trying to find parking especially when guests come over; it goes on and on. We’re saving money I suppose. Renting a house tends to be more expensive. We managed to spend quite a bit on Harrison’s birth so now we’re in recovery mode. On one hand home ownership seems tempting but with the markets and how crazy things are locking into a house that may or may not sell is now scary to me. This time around we can definitely do our home work about the neighborhood and the house but still.

Renting shields us from some of that but it’s moving costs and dumping money into something that isn’t ours for another term. Back and forth we go.

On Saturday we started contractions. 4 to 5 minutes apart lasting from 45 to 60 seconds. They were regular and lasted most of the day. We called one of the midwives, Michelle, and let her know that things were getting started but not to come down just yet. After all, we were just getting started on dilating. The goal is 10cm and we were at most 2cm. There wasn’t many contractions before this point except the occasional crapinesss of pressure.

Things settled down for a couple hours here and there during the first two days. Enough for Crystal to get a break but not long enough for her to sleep. She was in a fairly good mood. She would place her hands on her belly and whisper to the precious payload inside: come on out little whoever you are. It’s time. Crystal was joking and would smile stopping only to ride out a contraction. They were mild and we actually were able to take Crystal for a walk to the mall Saturday. Friday Crystal was still not having contractions but taking a walk with Rae Anne did increase discomfort and triggered off and on contractions Friday just not long or frequent enough to start the labor timer.

We were fighting time. Crystal and I are overweight and so already we were up against the medical establishment regarding having a normal birth as it is. Secondly, we were attempting what is called a v-back. Henry was a normal birth. Helen was a Caesarean, and now we were back to doing a vaginal birth. All except one hospital in this area have policies against allowing v-backs because of a less than quarter percent chance something may go wrong and we’d have to have an emergency Caesarean. That left Tacoma General but rather than to meddle with a whole new set of OBs and doctors, stay home as long as possible, and then rush to the hospital; we figured that if we’re home for 90% of the birth process why not finish it there? Hence the decision to stay home to have our baby.

The due date is an estimate. Babies all grow at exactly the same rate up until a certain time period and then genetics and other factors start deviating due dates. Really, it should be 40 weeks +/- 3 weeks. But like I mentioned earlier, the stereotyping of fatter people has already begun with scaremongering about us having a massive baby. After all, until a couple months before this time we were still seeing the previous midwives who had helped with Henry and Helen. I think it’d be better to describe the Pearl Place Midwives has “medwives” because ultimately they are extremely entangled in the current “standard of care” medical establishment that resorts to interventions the minute things aren’t 100% easy. It is too bad that insurance, litigation, and pharmaceuticals have all taken the birth experience and turned it into what it is today.

So given those factors we were understandably a little worried but we knew that people have been having babies for thousands of years and God had designed our bodies to do this. We had a back-up plan for that tiny percent chance if something went wrong. We had two babies prior: we were going to be okay.

Contractions started up around 9 or 10 every night and lasted most of the night petering off around 5 in the morning. These night contractions were more intense with each night. When I said petering off, it wasn’t that they stopped. They just greatly reduced in frequency and intensity.

We actually went for a walk Saturday at a shopping mall to encourage labor to continue by putting pressure on the cervix. By this time I have become fairly familiar with checking the cervix and feeling how far Crystal was dilated. 2, 3, 4cm. We were now on day two of contractions and had grown one centimetre a day. If this was the case six more days of this sort of labor seemed… impossible. Over time the dilation increased but was slow nonetheless. It was hugely demoralizing.

Nana, Crystal’s mom, took our two kids out from the house Sunday allowing us to labor together. I tried to be as encouraging as possible. Crystal was understandably hormonal and irritated. I was trying to sound like I knew she was ok, her body would do this fine, and so on but it was extremely hard to reason with her. More so because she has a huge passion to be a childbirth educator and knows quite a bit about everything that’s going on.

By this point we’d been going on for two days. We filled the birthing tub and Crystal was starting to really moan through the contractions. It was getting really difficult to sit through them. The midwives came, checked on Crystal. And then in the middle of the day things stopped. Things picked up enough for us to called midwives Monday and they came only to have things stop or calm down a little in the middle of the day. We weren’t getting the rapid contractions and dilation that would require them there so they left.

By Monday afternoon Crystal was done dealing with the tiredness. It had been painful, exhausting and the poor girl hadn’t slept or eaten since Friday night. She had become extremely nauseous and couldn’t keep food down except water and the occasional nut.

Monday evening Crystal had become almost inconsolable. The hormones were everywhere, the contractions slowed again, and here we were looking at the prospect of yet another sleepless night in misery. She was dilating all along. One centimetre a day. By this point she was a solid six maybe even seven centimetres; fully effaced. I had become quite the doctor dad by this point.

We went for a walk hoping it’d rejuvenate Crystal like it had the previous day. She was a wreck. I felt horrible. Almost defeated. I felt like I had failed to help her through things and she was spinning down to just getting to a hospital for an epidural to help her sleep. She says it wasn’t the pain. I believe her. All this time the pain has yet to become massively intense. Unlike with Henry it wasn’t back labor so everything was different. Things were dragging on and on. The prospect of pushing on no sleep or energy was daunting.

I am not sure what sort of birth partner I turned out to be. Only Crystal can answer that. I tried my best until this point to answer every whim for Crystal. Drinks, snacks, massages, lighting, tubs, candles, music, cervical dilation/effacement checks; you name it – I was on it. But at this point after 3 days, I felt like maybe this wasn’t going to happen. After all, she is the expert. She knows the details.

We talked during the walk. Cried. Argued. It was difficult. We needed Crystal to relax and even sleep. Stress seemed to be stalling labor. Take some non-prescription sleeping aids and some calcium/magnesium to relax the muscles and go to bed. Crystal was furious. She just wanted sleep. She was not dilating. Now was the moment to go to the hospital if we had to.

The baby through all this was fine. The heart rate was in the normal range from 120 to 160 beats per minute. Fluid levels from that week’s ultrasound indicated normal. Momma’s blood pressure was great. We were two weeks past due. Everything seemed okay. We were confident they were. But so tired.

Crystal relented and tried to relax. Nana had come back and brought us something to eat. I ate but Crystal didn’t touch anything. She was miserable. I felt horrible for her. Henry and Helen played a little and went to bed. This night we’d gone to bed a party of four. Tomorrow, Tuesday the 27th of April, we’d awake (well, the kids would awake) a party of five.

At around the same time as the previous couple days Crystal began having intense contractions. Shivers. Really bad. I told her to wait until midnight and that we’d check and then go to the hospital if she didn’t get enough rest. She tried to change the time to 11:30. The pressure was intense on the cervix. She wanted the tub. It didn’t seem to ease the suffering as much.

Shivers. More consistent contractions. Could this be transition? It had all the signs except the rapid succession contractions. I call the midwives and we decide that they should come. We’re having the baby tonight.

Previously when Crystal had labored in the birthing tub we’d bail a few gallons and then fill it with hot water from the hot water line going into the clothes washer. The day before we lit candles, tuned Pandora to Nora Jones and she enjoyed it. Today, no way. She was trying to get comfortable or to let herself ease a little but things weren’t getting better. She got out of the tub and her momma blow dried her hair.

The midwives arrived and checked Crystal. She was at a solid seven centimetres but with what Crystal was going through decided that it was time. They sprung into action arranging their supplies, tools, oxygen; whatever was needed in case it was needed. We decided to break the water to encourage things to move along. With Henry we had broken the water and Crystal went from five centimetres to ten in less than 15 minutes.

Crystal was in her maternity night gown. She looked very pretty and I helped her. She hung off me, squeezed my hands, moved around, sat on the toilet, used the ball, and whatever to make things easier to cope with. We were all now waiting for the inevitable. The midwives sat and chit chatted in the office coming by once an hour to check the baby’s heart rate. Crystal needed some antibiotic administered because she’s a strep carrier so we needed to make sure the baby wasn’t taking on more risk of infection. It was significant.

We wanted to have a home birth. I’ve said this before. A trifecta of birth stories. Hospital birth, Caesarean, and home birth. A home birth with midwives being the most natural, non-invasive possible. If something went wrong and we did have to rush to the hospital we were prepared to do so. Had we not made sure charts and things like antibiotics were administered to this point th hospitals are required to call CPS on us! So we made sure that wasn’t going to be possible hence the 15 minutes of antibiotics. Once it was done though, no more.

Having broken the water at around 2 or so in the morning, the pushing phase came around 5. Crystal was fully effaced and at 9 or more centimetres. The baby had dropped to a +1 position and everything was looking excellent. So then the urge to push began. Through all the checking we discovered Crystal had a cervical lip. No big deal. A few more hours and the baby may have eventually pushed past it but the midwives and I urged Crystal to do a cervical reduction which in layman’s terms is the midwife takes her hands and stretches the cervix apart during a contraction while the mother pushes. It is as painful as it sounds. Crystal really wanted to do it without any help not just as an at home experience but without rushing things. This meant Crystal would have to not push during her now urge to push during her push contractions. Okay, also if not more painful than it sounds.

We tried the tub again. Nope that didn’t help. Crystal tried to labor in different positions with this new requirement. It was very difficult. At around 6 in the morning Crystal relented to our pleas to have the midwives try the reduction. In my opinion it is still natural. It worked! It was quite the feat but she had done it. Crystal was now on the bed because she had to be on her back for the midwives to do this. Nana and I were there letting her squeeze our hands. We put cold compresses on her forehead. Whatever she needed.

Once the head made it past the cervix things moved very quickly. The baby was born at 7:11 so I’ll try and summarize how things went up to that point. Basically, every contraction that came Crystal was now able to push. This was a great releif to her. We helped hold up her legs. We started to see the babies head!

Crystal was a bit… overwhelmed at this point. She was in the middle of unimaginable pain and what not. She was fairly convinced that the midwife, Mif, had her hand inside still even though it wasn’t the case. She was pleading with her to get it out. We could all see what looked like a little dark sock scrunched and making its way out. She needed to see it. My assurances weren’t enough. I ran to the hallway and grabbed the giant mirror and held it up for her to see herself. This worked. The discomfort and pain suddenly made sense and she started pushing. The baby’s head exited at 7:06 or so.

At this point no thanks to the “medwives” charts the midwives thought that the baby was “turtling” which is where the baby will pull its head back in to clear a way for the shoulders. It wasn’t the case. The baby was simply turning and everything was okay. Anyway, the younger midwife, Michelle, put her hand along the baby’s head to feel the shoulders and slurp; out shoots the baby.

It was that quick. Not even a chance for me to catch the baby. In her excitement Nana shouted that it was a boy which didn’t quite register with me or Crystal. Crystal just said “Thank you Jesus” and I was just crying my eyes out. Real men cry. I was fairly disappointed that I didn’t get to see and announce the sex but oh well.

I looked at him as they moved him up onto momma. I searched to verify the sex and caught a breif glimpse of the baby. I think I saw. Not sure. He lay there on momma’s chest breathing even opening his eyes. “Welcome my friend” I told him. It was hugely emotional for all of us.

He was beautiful. 8 pounds, 14 ounces ish. Not over weight. No large shoulders. No signs of gestational diabetes. Take that “medwives”. Take that system. Take that hospitals, lawyers, and doctors. God’s perfect design worked just fine. He had tonnes of vertex on his body, baby hair all over, minimal malconium, and his ears had cartilage. He appeared like a 36 week old baby but was calculated as two weeks late. Momma’s oven is a slow cooker. That is perfectly ok.

During all this I did my best to take video… check ins I guess. I’d record Crystal to see how she was feeling and get a little about the situation. During birth itself I tried to take some pictures while Nana took video but it was all over the place. Our memories will serve us best.

The cord eventually stopped pumping blood and Michelle clamped it handing me a pair of cord scissors to cut it. I did so with three snips as it was very large and thick. Probably the only unusual part of the baby which at this point didn’t even really matter. Thankfully these scissors actually worked unlike the dull crap ones I used at the hospital with Henry.

We then moved baby onto a breast to encourage nursing. He found and started chugging right away. The placenta came out a half hour or so later. Contractions continued followed by crampiness for a couple days. A complete success. Beautiful. Natural. Amazing. Bonding for Crystal, her mom, the midwives, and us.

Henry woke up from bed at 8:30 or so. Nana told him he had a new baby brother. He scrambled down the bunk bed and ran to the room. Naked, he climbed up onto the bed next to momma and checked out the new baby. He was excited and happy. He knew what this was all about. The kids, thankfully, had slept all night through all of it. Crystal, Nana, and I were all super tired but glad that it had gone well and that it was over. The baby was completely normal and healthy.

Michelle Hill and Miff Carlson are two very experienced and professional midwives about whom I can only have the highest of praises. Mif has over 30 years of experience as a midwife and Michelle has been actively delivering babies in third world countries and teaching at UW about child birth. They compliment one another and I am happy with both of them. I feel that with Mif’s more direct approach to the reduction we really helped Crystal a lot. Michelle has an organized approach and you can be confident she is ready for anything.

The whole birth is a waiting game. Our bodies are designed to have babies. We are extremely happy we had Harrison at home and that everything went well. He’s been happy and Crystal has recovered much more quickly than had she had a Caesarean. There weren’t any monitors, IVs, uncomfortable beds, or other things that seem to be the norm even with regular hospital births.

Michelle will come by a few more times to check on Crystal and the baby making sure that everything is healing up ok. She administered to Crystal a Rogain shot so that we can have more babies if we chose to.

Throughout all this starting Friday night I was horribly sick with an immense sore throat. Saturday through Monday were the worst days not only to be sick but the fatigue, pain, fever, and other symptoms were bad. I was self medicating with Advil, Tylenol, water, and frequent tea to manage the symptoms and to try and try to flush this horrible thing out as soon as possible. Surprisingly, two weeks after the baby was born I am just now stopping waking up with nasty, chunky phlegm in the back of my throat. I was almost useless Saturday and Sunday during the birth. I felt horrible and tried to sleep while Crystal took care of herself. What timing. I was incredibly upset with myself for getting that sick at one of the worst times imaginable. Helping deliver babies while being horribly sick is no fun! I didn’t want to mention it but it impacted us so much.

We test drove a Ford Flex recently. We really like them. Crystal likes something like the Buick Enclave more but its double the price. Unfortunately we aren’t a a place to buy a new car so we’re going to probably buy a used something 5+ seater for cash.

What is more important now is getting ready to move. We’re finding some really nice homes to rent in the Tacoma area for less than what we’re paying now in rent. Almost 1,000 more square feet, garages, 4 bedrooms, fenced yards; all wins. Most are through agencies so we’re hoping to avoid dud landlords.

Crystal and I have both lost our pregnancy weight or almost all of it. It feels good. Since all I do is sit at desks and walk to and from the train station I need to watch myself.

Today was Memorial Day. I made BBQ pork and beef ribs, brats, and French fries. Crystal’s step mom, half brother, and dad came over. It was a good time. The recipe I used was very good and I am super excited to make them again. The kids didn’t eat much of it. Things are a little crazy with Harrison in the house. Keeping everyone on a schedule has been a challenge.

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. Work, private life… I wish I could share but I really can’t. There have been challenges at work. Having Harrison up all hours of the night has been hard on Crystal and thus hard on all of us. I am trying to ride this waves out and tell myself this is life and I need to enjoy it. Meh, normal stuff I guess.

Recently a buddy of mine and his wife had their house flood. We were very happy to help them out with letting them borrow a laptop while their house was being repaired. It quickly reminded me of the chaos that revolved around my parents’ having the same happen to them.

The amazing thing was that I caught two fish. Two of them! Two 10 inchers. All trout. The first we kept because it had swallowed the hook and he had to basically kill it to get the hook out. The second we let go only to watch it sink to the bottom. It had a hook in its lip so it should have survived but I guess it had been out of the water too long. Israel caught three fish, one had gotten away as we tried to catch it into the net. They were a bit larger.

After we got back to their house he showed me how to gut and clean them. It was relatively easy and I was happy to do it. We all enjoyed a BBQ and sat around talking. It was all very refreshing to spend a sunny Saturday outdoors doing stuff. I have the fish in my refrigerator ready to cook up tomorrow for dinner. It was nice to go somewhere as a family and have everyone get a chance to do something they want.

Rae and Izz are expecting a son in a couple months. They’ve already picked the name Jacob. We’re excited for them.

Harrison Michael Josef Hrádek

Crystal and I, especially Crystal of course, had a very difficult experience but all in all everything turned out fine. We are now recuperating, the baby’s schedule is normalizing, and the other two kids are getting acquainted. It was quite a marathon. I think we figured it was between 60 and 72 hours of labor with a couple minor stalls in there. I cut the cord and we were surprised that it was a boy. Amazing. Just amazing. And we were all so sure it was a girl!

Crystal has said that this will be the last baby. I agree. The stresses of transporting us is already becoming apparent. We had a dry run this Friday and I followed her and the kids to a near by store. It was a challenge. We see Safeway.com in our future!

I’ll post more details soon as I digest what all has happened.