Who is this girl?

Wait ... did he just say a GIRL??

Yes. Yes, I did.

Lavinia Thalia Watson, coming late June.
(la-VIN-ee-ah TAY-lee-ah)
(Joy calls her Evie, I call her Thaly ... we'll see what she chooses)

We are ecstatic.


And may I say I am quite pleased with the picture quality on my old cellphone now that we are camera-less?

And it is ... GONE

"I never would have believed I could lose weight so fast!"

That testimonial from Joy reflects our delight with the South Beach Diet. Today, very officially, Joy is below the weight she was the first time she went in to her OBGYN pregnant. She is at her pre-pregnancy weight!

"I was starting to feel that I was never going to lose the weight, like it was a permanent part of who I am."

This is a thought I know all too well. My ambition in life was to hold the line and be happy remaining there. I was thrilled to finally get below 10 pounds for every year I was old because I got older (I've been tracking that more or less since I was 5 years and 50 pounds).

"Wow. That's crazy, Derrill. Glad we broke the cycle."

Since early June, Joy has lost almost 15 pounds. That was after a largely ineffectual and very painful first two weeks when her metabolism, taste buds, and carb cravings really did reset as the book claimed. "But it took almost two whole weeks to do it." She's been dropping about 2 pounds a week on average.

Since early May, Derrill has lost 25 pounds, after a gloriously successful first two weeks of 10 pounds. So I've also been dropping almost 2 pounds a week since the diet phase.

We've been asked a number of times if we're still "on a diet." We're on a lifestyle, yes. We can't eat everything we might like indiscriminately. We have a theory you don't either. "But we have taken a couple of days off the diet," which is even approved and encouraged to keep your sanity up. The guy just encouraged people to know what constitutes breaking and how to get back on your lifestyle.

"We've enjoyed finding desserts that work with the diet" - pound cake, cheesecake, sweetened riccotta cheese (which is the filling for cannolies), pudding, peanut M&Ms, Snickers. It's been easier to get our fruits and vegetables in every day and we're actually fairly glad to eat less meat than we were doing for our nutritionist the last two years.

The real change is carbs. We have a little whole wheat bread, pita pizza, or pasta each day and really enjoy it. "My OBGYN suggested I go down to 1 grain a day when I was pregnant with Hy and I thought he was insane. But because of his suggestion, I figured that this diet would be healthy even some day when I get pregnant again." We've discovered that we don't really need a bunch of grains to fill up, while before the mashed potatoes and rice were a large part of what made the meal feel filling. "We find ways to work in our favorite foods so that it can be a lifestyle. We found your taste buds really change when you go to only one grain a day. Our fruits taste sweeter, our breads taste sweeter, and Joy - have a cow - likes dark chocolate!"

While in DC, I went off the lifestyle for a couple days since it would have been very difficult to follow and enjoyed a small pizza as well as the sandwiches they were giving me. Then I got back on track, and I've lost what I gained as a result. "I think your family is going to notice a real difference when they get here in two weeks. 25 pounds."

"When we read people's success stories in the book, we were like, 'yeah, right, whatever. No craving for carbs??' But I had misunderstood the word 'craving.' It means painfully in need of, like being addicted." Joy and I had very different experiences in those first two weeks, which is why I didn't think it made much difference. I just wasn't as addicted, probably thanks to earlier summers with Mr. Atkins. "I still like my breads. I often still think of them first. But I don't feel like I'm going to die because I don't eat them for every meal. I feel I can eat as much of the good food I want - guilt free - and not have to go hungry, and the breads are just a nice addition."

There is a third phase to the diet where we get to add a bit more grain to something closer resembling normal, but we'll get there once we've reached our ideal weights.

So we are rapidly becoming South Beach converts. It's been kind of fun as we were doing it to discover who else in the branch is converted. Who would've imagined this was even possible?? "Now is the day of our weight loss. We shall rejoice and be glad therein."

(PS - Derrill would encourage all the silent ladies who read this blog for Hyrum to pretend this is a woman's blog and actually make comments congratulating Joy. I have this theory I get fewer comments than my fellow blogging spouses because I'm a guy.)

The Short Version

Hyrum was born by C-section at 3:56 am on March 11.


He is 7 pounds 3 and 21 inches. (It's easy to remember: 7x3=21)

Mother and baby are doing fine, but are very tired since not a one of us got any sleep last night.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD,
HYRUM SPENCER WATSON.

The Long Version

On March 10, Hyrum's due date, we drove up to our regular doctor's appointment in Montour Falls. He was a touch concerned that Joy's blood pressure was slightly high, so sent her over for a non-stress test at the hospital. Contrary to its name, it was a very stressful test. They were more concerned because Hyrum's heartbeat showed more decelerations (from the 140-150 range down to the 100-120 range) than accelerations, so the doc said he didn't want us to go home. The plan was that they would give Joy some cervidal to thin out her cervix and prepare her to be induced on Tuesday, March 11.

Hyrum did not like the cervidal. His heart rate dropped to 86. So they yanked the medicinal string out without warning -- freaking Joy immensely -- and called the doc. Dr. Saks said this meant that he wouldn't be able to stand labor, so they couldn't induce her and would have to bring him out themselves.

This was decided at 3am. At 3:56, Hyrum's head was brought out of her stomach. He coughed and immediately began to cry with the breath of life. Then he thrust his hand upward into the light. It was quite dramatic. They got him all cleaned off and awarded him first an 8 and then a 9 on the APGAR scale. He weighs in at 7 pounds 3, and is 21 inches long, so he's a tall, slender thing of delicate beauty.

He has brownish hair and the universal blue eyes nearly all babies start with. We think he looks a lot like Joy's brothers, DeWayne and Doug. The nurses agree that he is a very well-behaved baby, and he really doesn't cry very much at all yet. He likes laying down on Mommy and Daddy, who are thrilled and happy as can be.

Joy is recovering nicely, up and walking about today. Neither of us got a wink of sleep last night, and Hyrum appears obliging, so hopefully there will be some z's in our near future. We expect to be in the hospital Wednesday and Thursday, and we'll see if we get our "get-out-of-Schuyler-expensively" card Thur afternoon or Friday morning. Guests are welcome, but we do recognize the distance is a bit off-putting.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD,
HYRUM SPENCER WATSON

Contractions!

There's no baby yet, but Joy felt her first contractions last night! WOOHOO! All the books say she could have been feeling them since month 3, and since we hadn't, we wondered if anything were wrong or if she would even feel them until it was time for him to come. But she felt the first, irregular contractions last night before falling asleep. WOOHOO! And now, on to the real, female reaction:

"I'm exhausted. But I'm alright."

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. What a trooper! But wait, there's more!

"It made me totally be freezing and shake violently when I got out of bed ... but I guess that all passed because I got to sleep. The funny part is Derrill had really wanted to know about it, so I told him. I said, 'I'm sorry I have to turn over Derrill, but I started having some labor contractions,' and he just said, 'That's okay.' And now he tells me he was asleep"

Three-quarters asleep. I honestly didn't hear the last part, just apologizing for turning over. I didn't mind - she apologizes for a lot of things - and I just tell her it's okay. I fell asleep within seconds after. We had even talked about it LAST NIGHT BEFORE BED. I wanted to know, I wanted to be there. I feel like I missed Santa Claus.

"Well, the baby didn't come yet, so there's a lot of Santa to see."

Speaking of which, here's Joy being excited about a pair of tennis shoes we got him at Babies R Us on Monday:

Hyrumisms

So, it's a little too early yet to post the cute things Hyrum says ... since he hasn't been BORN yet and doesn't talk. But he does communicate ... with his elbow or maybe his feet. or knee. who knows? So here are some things that get Hyrum bopping:

Thomas Spencer Monson -- whenever Hyrum hears him speak, he gets very excited. That's where his middle name comes from: Hyrum Spencer.

Orange juice and chocolate (preferably not together). Especially if Joy has a whole bowl of chocolate ice cream. It's cold AND it's sugary.

Hunger -- "Sometimes when I haven't eaten in a while, he'll start moving around more than usual, like he's asking for some food."

Daddy jiggles -- If I come knocking around the bellybutton area or jiggling the tummy to wake him up, he responds quite readily and starts punching me out again.

Time's up -- He's started tapping on Joy's pelvis again, so we think he knows which way is out and is thinking about it. "He's been in to that for most of the pregnancy, since I could feel him move."

He's spent most of the pregnancy on Joy's left side, but recently she reports it feels like he's everywhere. While we were in California, though, he switched over to the right side one Sunday. When we went miniature golfing the next day, Joy was completely off-balance and we figured that was why. "I was tripping. I couldn't hit the ball straight. I'd lose my balance going downhill."

"One thing I would like Hyrum to know someday is how it makes me chuckle and smile whenever he bounces around. I'll just chuckle out of nowhere, and Derrill knows the baby's moved."

Countdown: one week to go for the due date and no one is wrong yet in our poll because NO ONE thought he would already have come. Good for you!

A Pilgrimage to the Land Up North

J: ... It was our first visit to Babies R Us yesterday. ...
[Derrill notes that his wife is having difficulty forming sentences for laughing about things she isn't going to say.]
J: So what I will tell you is that it was a little like getting to the temple: kind of tough to get there, but it was a good time once we were there.
J: We had a strategy. We decided that I would do a complete scope of the place while Derrill did some things he needed to do, and then we'd look through it again and I could show him the things I liked.
D: Iiiiiiii been workin' on the dissertation all the live long day. Iiiii was over at the Wendy's where it was warm and I could think.
J: He did come in with me at first, though, for a smidge.
D: I found the diaper bag! *proud look of a 3 yr old who 'helped' with dinner*
J: Yeah, it has a couple jungle characters on front. It's fun.
D: I decided they only came in three flavors: drab, overkill, and over-marketed. So I found the one exception to the rule, and that's ours.
J: After we did some looking on our own I found some jingle toys to show him and a stool to sit on when you feed the baby ... ... ....
[D notes that Joy is having a case of Parkinsons as she plays charades to help me give her the name of whatever it is]
J: I showed him a bouncer with jungle animals
D: A circular Johnny Jump-Up
J: So there were the cute little spoons that change color when the food's too hot, some baby diaper changing tables (we're thinking about getting one)
D: I'm trying to convince Joy it's worth it to spend a little more to get one that we could use as a display table in the living room several years down the road.
J: We won't have to give it away cause we won't like it anymore?
J: Found some interesting toys, like things you can put your kid into in the grocery cart
D: Joy is big into finding a mirror for the backseat to look at baby while driving.
J: Derrill's a little nervous about this.
D: We tattle on each other. :)
J: It's true.
D: They look so BIG I worry about seeing out my rear window again. I'd rather go for one of the shaving-glass sized mirrors.
J: Speaking of which, I have a question if any of you mother's know that have had your baby in the middle seat instead of one of the side seats: I've been thinking about a shade, but do I need one on both sides because my baby's on the middle? Any comments?
D: Or none, since the baby's in the middle....
J: Anyway, we're going to kinda wait for our larger purchases until the baby shower this Saturday. We're looking forward to the party, even if Derrill wouldn't go even if he were invited. He's excited with me.
D: *Jamaican voice* It's no place for a man. Not dat I'm not interested, but I got no place der, ma'm.
J: It's kind of interesting. I haven't done very much shopping, but looking at what's out there kind of makes me feel a little more like I'm starting to get what I need gathered. It's nice. We didn't really plan on buying much. Our strategy was to look around first, do a little pricing.

D: ONLY THREE WEEKS TO GO (theoretically)

J: We're not holding our breath. By the way, I want to mention here, I'm feeling really good. Still the best time of my pregnancy as long as I get sleep and food, I am a happy pregnant lady.


Some shots of our further nursery preparation: organizing the toys and the clothes are washed and put away.

FULL TERM!

If Hyrum decided to come out tonight, he would officially be a full-term baby. 36 weeks later, she's going strong and loves being pregnant ... and wonders what attacked her hip over the weekend that makes it so difficult and painful to walk and to climb into our oversized bed. Here are the monthly comparison shots, but tonight we'll compare week 36 and week 9, just so you can see the real difference 7 months makes.

And the last ones are the funny ones. That's all, folks!

One month and counting

There are two things I refer to in the title. The first is that Hyrum is due sometime in the next month. The second is that a month has passed since my interviews in New Orleans.

Hyrum's official due date is March 10. But we all know that doctors lie to us. First children are regularly "late" which means they tell us the wrong expected due date! But Mar 10 is the official expectation, a mere 39 days away now. So, if you care to, please vote when you think he will come. (The reference in the poll to being his father's son means two things: one is that he'd be an April Fool, and that fits me well enough; the other is that I was born after a 10 month pregnancy, and by that point we're gettin pretty late.)

I had 6-7 interviews in New Orleans, depending on how you count them, and so far I've heard back from half of the employers ... in the negative. So I'm still waiting on the University of Denver at Colorado, Oklahoma State University (my advisor's alma mater), and the Miami University ... at Oxford ... in Ohio. I would be really happy at any of these, I believe, and each has particular attractions.

In general, I'm doing pretty well at the waiting game. But at night, right as I'm preparing for bed, the worry monster does creep up and hit my stomach because no one has called today yet. So I might as well have some fun with it and ask everyone's opinion of where we'll end up. For fun too, I've been singing "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" with slightly amended lyrics:

I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,
Over mountain (UCD) or plain (OSU) or Miami.

Being risk averse, we've also started applying to some additional places for the second econ job market, so we could still end up pretty much anywhere. Cast your votes!

Roses, Thorns, and Buds

Whenever I sit down to write one of these blogs I seem to loose my train of thought. I will have carefully planned out what I want to write, sign in and my mind goes completely blank. But I think that I am starting to remember.

I want to start out by saying, I have not had my baby yet. Someone made a comment that made me think we had been confusing in a past blog. I still have 6 weeks until the baby is due to come and I don't even know what a contraction feels like so far, so I am sure I have a ways to go.

Today in church we talked about Elder Eyering's talk on Remembering. We had a great discussion about what we can do to remember God more in our lives and what we do that keeps us from him. A sister missionary that recently transfered to our Branch gave an example of what one family she met here in Up-State New York does daily around dinner time.

The family takes turns one at a time sharing around the table what they call Roses, Thorns, and Buds. Their Roses are the best thing that happened to them that day, the Thorns are the worst thing that happened to them that day and the Buds are something that they are looking forward to tomorrow. So I was thinking about my Roses, Thorns, and Buds for this week.

Derrill really has been my Rose this week. I have had several emotional days this week, and Derrill has tried so hard to be possitive. He really is a light in my life and helps me remember, just as my doctor says that I am normal and my pregnancy is normal. He always helps me feel that we can overcome anything that comes our way together. Thanks sweet heart!

My Thorn this week has been getting down on myself for my hormonal days, today I did better so far. I did not feel well, but I just tried to go with the flow and not give up. It was a much better day ;)

My Bud for next week is I am looking forward to getting our baby's crib and clothes ready for him to come. I plan to do baby laundry for the first time make up his bed and put his clothes in his drawers. I am just about packed for the hospital too. I just need to gather a few more things and choose the bag to put them in. One thing that I have realized when my allergies were really bad earlier in my pregnancy and I was not able to stop coughing or throwing up.... if I would start to read, watch a movie, or listen to a story, I could take my mind off of it. So our plan is to either get a couple books on CD that I can listen too while I am in labor or if Derrill has time he is going to record himself reading some children's stories on CD that I can listen to. I chose Alice in Wonderland to start with. I want at least 12 hours of stuff, since a first labor can be pretty long.

I hope that a that all of you have a wonderful Sunday, and just as Jacob was taught by his dieing father that there must be opposition in all things that we may learn to enjoy the Roses, Thorns, and Buds in our lives. I love you all!

Push em out! Shove em out! Waaaaay out! ...

J: Not yet. But we finally got to go to a childbirth class. There were three other couples besides ourselves: two really quiet ones
D: And one that reacted about as much as Joy. As a performer, I'm very thankful for the woman I married, who is willing to react and respond as an audience. It's very gratifying and several people we have seen perform or present have felt so.
J: We didn't realize they were going to feed us, but we like the food we brought for ourselves too.
D: We actually woke up for this one. Thanks to Joy's allergies and weird schedule, we've been going to bed around 2 most nights and sleeping until 10 or noon, so waking up at 6:30 was a real stretch. But we made it, AND stayed awake in a very warm room for several hours. Clearly, my graduate school training has served me well. ;)
J: I wasn't even grouchy, which was a bonus. I was surprised that there were so many sweets there because when we first met with our doctor, he recommended I eat no more than 2 servings of starches a day!
D: A mild Atkins diet for 9 months. I told our nutritionist about his plan and her reaction was classic. When she ordered Joy back on a sensible diet, I told my darling that if we want to follow the baby doctor's diet that we should stop paying the nutritionist. That argument seemed to eventually win her over.
J: That, and my love of starches and recent dread of meat, which has been getting better.
D: She's been enjoying the meats I've been cooking for dinner, and didn't even gag at the smell of cooking chicken tonight.

J: We have a very talkative nurse. She happened to be the one teaching the class. Despite her semi-laryngitis, she was able to talk all day.
D: In addition to learning about the process of giving birth and her own experiences with it, we also learned about her struggles in raising her children
J: two boys and a girl.

J: I felt like I learned some good things, and we were given a book that we can read together and discuss it some more later, which I think will be valuable. I very much hope that our baby waits to come until 36 weeks, because if it comes sooner then we have to go to a specialist. We just finished 33 weeks of pregnancy.
D: Our nurse's praise for our doctor seemed legendary. According to her account he must have the gift of prophesy, ordering a C-section when other people saw no cause only to discover the just when they opened mommy up.

D: Our favorite moment was near the end when she brought us in to the OB section of the hospital. She had been praising the head OB nurse, Judy, as we walked in (and before that too). Judy, hearing the tail end of this, told us "don't believe a word she said." So my darling Joy, ever the literalist, asked: "So your name isn't really Judy?" The nurses were practically doubled over as Judy declared that she would have to keep an eye on my wife.
J: It was a well spent day. When we got home we had a couple of hours before it was time for Derrill to leave again for a stake priesthood meeting. He really spent all of his day out of doors. Since our rental car this week is a minivan, Derrill volunteered to help carpool to the meeting.
D: No reason anyone elses' mileage should suffer for it.

J: I spent most of the rest of Saturday night resting then did a little getting ready for the Sabath day before Derrill got home.

Third Trimester - Take Two

Our blog thus far has been bereft of pictures, so today we are repenting. For your viewing pleasure: Joy, the Amazing Pregnant Lady! We try to take a picture each month, but missed the last month since we were apart. Here we will be comparing Joy at 17 weeks and now at 28:

We went to visit an elderly lady at the hospital this week. There was also a young mother there, a sweet little, tiny lady with a three-month old. Because she herself was so small and her baby was commensurately small, she asked if Joy was having twins.

Nope. It's just one baby Hyrum. He does a pretty good job of kicking Daddy when I come listen in to see if he wants to talk to me. He tries to get out. He likes to stay pretty low in the womb. Joy thinks he knows the way out and is looking forward to it. He's always pounding down there, trying to get out. This means Joy needs to be extra strong. This is a picture of my strong woman:

"Tough as nails ... except when I'm pregnant." Joy's symptoms have been pretty killer this week. It has not been an easy week for her. But there are only about 12 more of them to go, and then her allergies can calm down again.