Ok I suck

Ok so heres a quick update because I don't want to subject you all to the pain and agony of a complete update that would normally go right here. So heres another down and dirty. Surgery went well...Better than they hoped. They were gonna let me go at day seven but I wanted to stay an extra day. So eight days in the hospital and then home. Healed well and at home.....Chemotherapy has started again. If I could have three wishes I would use each one of them on each round of chemo I have left. I hate Chemotherapy. I could go on about how much but really if you can imagine how much one could hate something you'll just be grasping how much. Preggers is doing well, very well. We couldn't have asked for a less eventful pregnancy. Now I might add that for preggers it really has been uneventful for the pregnancy but she has had to deal with me....and for that she deserves Sainthood. She has had to deal with all the pregnancy stuff and me...and I am no easy patient sometimes. I love that woman very much. 71 days from today is Sedona's scheduled birthday. Hopefully things go as planned, although the way things advance with the baby she'll be born the day she's supposed to. I'm not making any predictions though I'll leave that to everyone else. So thats kinda the update for now...I'm trying to figure out how to add video so that we can post video when its time...still working on it. You'll know when I figure it out. Thanks for being patient all.....

My Update

Ok so here's a quick update with me...a down and dirty and the low down…its not pretty…not ugly either but here it is. I am going for surgery on Wednesday. I am going to meet with the anesthesiologist tomorrow for presurgery workup. I am expected to be in the hospital for 8-9 days and in ICU for the first 2 days. Feeding tube for a month. Expected to eat after day 5 or 6 but small small meals. I am going to maintain the feeding tube to make sure that I can maintain nutrition during chemotherapy. Um they are going to take just above the tumor and just below…so that equates to some esophagus and some stomach and everything in between. They are going in my stomach and in by my clavicle…not sure how that all works out but he’s done it quite a few times and wasn’t going to question it. He’s done well over a hundred of these surgeries and I am the youngest he’s ever done it on. 5 out of every 100 die due to complication s of one type or another. I intend to be one of the 95. So that pretty much covers it, quick and clean. I'll be at Yale Hospital and the surgeon has been doing his job longer than I've been alive. He is the Chief of Surgery for Yale New Haven and as far as I'm concerned there is nobody in the world I want to do it more than him. Well I would do it but sees as I'm going under the knife I'm not much of a candidate. Well again thats the long and the short of it.

Its a Girl!!!!!

Ok so here it is. I am sitting here in front of the computer 5 beers down, at least one to go. I haven't blogged in at least an eon and I have so much to potentially say I just may be here till the sun comes up. Thats another 5 hours for those wondering. It's A Girl. Sedona Rae Fredrick. We're excited, I know I'm excited. I can't wait to be a daddy. I went to the library the other day and went to the kids section. Got the book Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. I read it to the baby before Preggers went to sleep. Heck I figure I have to get my reading skills perfected before the baby is born. That and flipping pancakes. I have to get a griddle for that though....I realized that its still a few years down the road but I'm gonna start learning to flip them now. Ok I'm gonna eat a string cheese to go with my beer while I type up this atrociously long blog. Ok about Sedona.


Preggers and I went to her 2nd Ultrasound, and the lady was lookin around and checkin things out. I told her if you don't know 100 percent what you're lookin at don't guess. She says oh I know what it is. Its a girl! If I could've been more excited you'd never have known it. I was jumpin around pumpin my fist in the air and doin a dance. I was so excited. EVERYONE else knew it was a boy. The baby is sittin high or it's her complexion or blah blah blah. Eat it! Its a girl. HA! I guess thats what I have to say to that. I actually didn't think I'd get the girl. I figured that I should be thankful for the fact that we got pregnant so quickly, and I should prepare for the fact that because I wanted a girl I was gonna get a boy. But so far I'm battin a thousand. What next I wonder? The world may never know. Tomorrow is an Appointment with the OB and I'll meet him for the first time and another ultrasound to check Sedona's heart. We couldn't see it last time because Sedona's back was facing Pregger's front. So yet another free ultrasound to check on the baby. Woohoo.

Ok so we've registered for Sedona. We registered at Babies R Us. I can't belive how much fun that was. It really was fun. It took a long time and Preggers hates shopping but it was fun. Its under Sarah Fredrick and um I hope that we thought of most everything. If not then please feel free to let me know what we missed so that I can put it on the list. We're kinda new to the whole thing anyway. Well thats about it for the ITS A GIRL blog. Sorry for taking so long to update.

Update

Ok no pictures this time nothing fancy....until I can think of an appropriate postable picture. Ok I have no idea where to start. So I'll just start somewhere. Preggers now feels the baby. I am still out of the baby feeling loop as it were but I am hopeful for the future. Um...I....hmm yes ah well we did have an appointment. Yes this is where I might get in some trouble. I did promise to post after the appointment but the news was ambiguous anyway so I'll use that as my defense. Anyway the appointment was for the ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. Really it turns out they want to take a bunch of measurements and if you happen to find out the sex of the baby then kudos to you. If not oh well. But in our favor the baby was all hopped up on sugar and didn't let the ultrasound tech find anything. So no sex of the baby....no measurements.......come back in 2 weeks. So thankfully the tech couldn't get any of the things she needed otherwise we'd have to wait until our next scheduled ultrasound which I think is at 30 weeks. We have another scheduled ultrasound on the 2nd. So Preggers and I are cautiously optimistic about that. Today is Week 21 and 3 days, and the day of week 22 we'll hopefully get to see some more.

We intend to register for the baby stuff after we find out the sex. I'm pretty sure we're going to register at babies r us and target and I'm pretty sure we know most of what we want. We went into babies r us to find the crib we wanted and we always go from the beginning of the store to the place where we intend to actually look. I love that place and normally someone will stop and ask if we need help, the answer is always no and that we're just looking and so on. However this time we had a little extra help anyway. We just stopped to check out some car seats recommended by Michelle and the nice lady asked if we needed anything and we told her no but she asked me if we had a car seat picked out...I said well yes and no....which then made her all inquisitive as to why yes and no. So I told her what I knew about them and she told me a little more. So she sealed the deal on the one we want cause she pulled them all out and showed us why. We then spent the next two hours going down the aisles talking about each section and what was popular and what was the most expensive and why and so on. We also got some very valuable input from mothers that happened to be walking through the store. What they thought of the products and why they liked or disliked them. So overall a great experience.

So thats about as good an update as I can provide today. It's something......I felt guilty not having posted. I didn't get any ribbing from anyone about it though...at least I don't think so anyway. Well I hope it goes as I plan because I'll post when we know the sex. Wish us luck

Cobwebs

Ok so I guess from Michelle's recommendation I should update. According to her the blog has begun to grow cobwebs. I decided that no one likes to read about my woes and everyone loves to read about the baby, so I am trying to keep my bad, horrible stuff out and focus on the baby. That being said Preggers is having such a wonderful pregnancy that there really isn't much to keep updated.

Now we did have a doctors appointment that I was unable to attend due to taking family members to the airport. I swore up and down that I wouldn't miss one but it wasn't an important one and this one I could afford to miss. The trip was to finally meet the Dr. that could potentially be delivering the baby. They're kind of on a rotation and all that cool stuff so we may or may not get delivered by him, I say we like we're some furniture...ok not we, the baby. Speaking of the baby.

We find out the boy/girl news on the 18th of July. So that gives us 10 days from the writing of this letter to find out. Pink or Blue, Blue or Pink woohoo I can hardly wait. We're going to register sometime after we find out. I'm not sure when the appropriate time to register is or even if there is an appropriate time. But thats when we are going to so thats ok by me. We've talked about registering at Target and Babies 'r' Us.

Also on the realm of really kick ass news. Preggers felt the baby move for the first time a few days ago. She said it felt like "someone was lightly dragging a finger across her skin". Thats way awesome I can't wait till I can feel it. I've even heard that later in the pregnancy that you can actually see the baby move. That would be cool in an Alien kinda way I guess. It would be cool if I could get a picture of it. Maybe some video. Still working on getting some video to put on the blog. That will happen though in time. Preggers is getting bigger though, I guess thats worth mentioning. She has to sit in all kinds of funny positions to keep the pressure of the baby. So sometimes I look over and see her sitting in her chair sideways and one leg up on the end table, it's amusing to me because its a recliner. She doesn't find it all that funny, the recliner doesn't take the pressure off and so she sits however she wants.

So I apologize for taking so long...I know I have some die hard readers out there (Hi Gram) and that they check often. So I figure from now on that posting and mentioning that I have no news is better really than no news at all. So I'll post baby growth updates. I got that idea from Michelle too. I just have to figure where I'm going to get my updates from. So this is it for now. I suppose I've rambled on long enough.

Concerns this week:
1. Have to get Preggers a Maternity Belly Ring
2. Have to read up on the good and bad baby products before we register.
3. Need to get real smart on baby safety as far as Car Seats are concerned.

P.S. Kristi this link is for you Phoneme.

Baby Names

If you were to ask me what the perfect amount of humidity is.....I would tell you about 70 percent. For you Arizona types this is absurd I know, however when coupled with the awe inspiring oceanic breeze that seems to be everywhere in Hawaii, I would tell you to think twice. The air seemed to have a hint, of the smell of the hibiscus flowers that grow everywhere, and the weather just seemed perfect. At least that was my question when I stepped outside of the airport for the first time in Hawaii. What makes this place so "perfect"? I know now. It's the weather. It could just be my thoughts on the matter but allow me to opine just a bit longer. I think that the perfect weather is weather you don't think about, you wake up and get dressed, not something you have to adjust for. What you wear today is just as good as tomorrow and next week. If you stop and think or say something about the weather it isn't perfect. Or if it is different its because the day before was less than perfect one way or the other and this day that is so ideal in comparison. There really is a huge segue here by the way....just have to get to it.

So that's where we are now, Hawaii. The setting is along Ala Moana (for those that care about this kind of stuff, Ala Moana is Hawaiian for "Path to the Sea")Boulevard in Hawaii. We're walking along just past the mall and the beach is on our right hand side with the crystal blue-green water crashing upon the sandy shore, and the cool Hawaiian ocean breeze drifting off the ocean carrying the smell of paradise across your senses. People running along the trees, and the multicolored beach towels spread across the fine sand. (it's hard to believe that I couldn't wait to get off that island). We were walking and talking about things, stuff, random everyday things people talk about. We weren't married at the time so just stuff. As we walked along noticing the stores and whether or not we wanted to go inside, mind you the stores were across the street and not really on the agenda. As we continued we saw a particular store, a furniture store (at least I remember it that way) if you will, a store like any other but the name stood out. Sarah and I are both Arizona people and the name of this store stood out of all Hawaiian nature. Six letters and the letters transitioned from one color to the next with every letter. The word Sedona, it's a city in Arizona. It said something to Sarah and I and we decided then that if we got married, and if we had kids and if the baby were a girl we would name her Sedona. Sedona Rae is the girls name we've chosen.

Now the boys name has no particular story or cool meaning or even anything remotely close to that of the girls name. I chose Tallon. Tallon Jacob, it has a story albeit a rather short and uninteresting one but I'll at least tell it and let you know why I'm not sure about it. I remember the name from some BMX game I was playing many years ago and liked the sound. Something I pocketed away in my brain like many other useless tidbits of information that matter to nobody but me. So we started thinking about names and Tallon is what came out. Tallon Jacob. Sounds good, has great phoneme structure. If you think I made that last one up you can look it up yourself. Eat your heart out Mrs. Whateveryournamewas English Teacher of 10th grade. I don't think I'll ever use that again in a sentence on purpose in my life so lets relish the moment......ok thats enough relish.

Anyway I think I have an issue with the name. People ask about the names we've chosen for the baby and Preggers and I are quick to respond to the girls name. Preggers is also quick to respond to the boys name too, I however find myself hesitating, even half saying it under my breath. I mean I can't name my baby something I'm embarrassed to say before I even know the sex. I mean maybe I'll warm up to it, who knows. Maybe not. Nonetheless we bought a baby name book at the store yesterday to see what else we can find. Let me tell you. Names are not prophetic, if I knew that it would make the boy successful I'd name him Adonis, or maybe Thor I like Thor, but I know I was a scrawny kid. In fact all the pictures I've seen of those Fredrick's before me were kinda scrawny too, I mean we grew into it but nothing worthy of the name Thor. That's just asking for a beating. So all the names with their meanings in this 450 page book from around the world, is going to be kinda tough to sift through. I mean don't get me wrong, Some countries names I'll pass over with ease, not that I have a problem with the most common Cambodian boys names...I'm not Cambodian, I don't intend to be Cambodian, I could be an Israeli Prime Minister, I'd still have to bum rides off of people. Sorry Ferris Bueller Plug, nobody will get it but me so it's ok. So some of the smaller countries names I'll pass over and those chapters will stay untouched. I'm in the Hebrew names right now and it's starting to pick up a bit. However I don't want a name that you spit everytime you say it, specially if you're yelling at the poor kid and spitting on his face the whole time....so I'll be cautious in this area too. Just going to look for a good sounding phoneme structure, that and the lack of the need to spit when it's said. Yeah! Well everyone I have bored you all to death and ended this rather quickly. I apologize. But this is it for today.

The New Stuff

Well I suppose that I should update as its been awhile and I sit here wondering what I need to write about. I suppose we'll start with a Preggo update and move from there. Preggers and I went to her second appointment last Wednesday the 30th and we just really updated the status and the Nurse felt Pregger's uterus. We got to listen to the babies heartbeat and I couldn't be a happier man. It sounded so awesome. I almost cried. Held on this time though. We set up our next appointment and out the door we went. It really was mostly uneventful. So the up to date status is that Preggers is 14 weeks along this Thursday. She is doing well, although she though the nausea was gone, and although it was for a day or two it seems that its still around. Still no vomiting, just typical (typical for her anyway) morning sickness.



My new updates.....I am doing much better now. All the suck it seems is in the first week to a week and a half. My fingers and toes are no longer numb and tingly from the Chemo. Nausea is mostly gone if not all gone. I get an occasional fit of nausea once in awhile but nothing to complain about. The new stuff however is I have started losing my hair. Preggers and I were in the shower and she nonchalantly had asked if I had started losing my hair yet. The answer was of course no and emphatically I reached up and grabbed a handful of hair and gave it a tug to show her how attached to my head it still was. Only it seems the joke was on me and fate had a different story to tell. My hand came away from my head with a large clump of hair. I thought well thats an odd amount of loose hair. So I did it again, with the same result. Albert Einstein once said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." So one last time for the insane I pulled out a handful of hair. I was so pissed off. Why now? Why not next week? For that matter why at all? So I said screw it and went to my favorite Barbershop and had Michelle shave it all off. Danielle and Michelle both took pictures that I may one day get a hold of and post somewhere. It still didn't change the fact that I was angry. I know, I know. I hear you all saying it. Wasn't it supposed to fall out anyway? The answer is...yes. I knew it, hell I expected it. Why then was I so angry? I don't have that answer. Hair isn't supposed to fall out. It didn't all go. Just quite a bit. Well it is all gone as I have shaved my head. Thats the only hair thats gone too. So far anyway For all I know my leg hairs are falling out as I type. I've been told that my eyebrow (yes, singular) is rooted somewhere deep, somewhere close to oblivion but not as far as infinity, so who knows when that will go. But I'm sure that you'll hear about that when it does. I can only bet I'll be angry then too. The fun starts up again on Thursday. 9:00 in the morning I'll be getting my blood taken and waiting to see the Doc. I am freaking ecstatic. I just wanna scream lets get this over with. But I don't really want to walk back into that building. I don't want to go anywhere near it. Whats worse is I still have so many rounds left. So I'll suck it up and put on a happy face and go (as if I have a choice). This is it for now. I have to go to sleep. Its late. Goodnight everyone!