10 Day update, from Pony

Hi Pony,

Here is the little video chat we had this morning. Some very interesting stuff in here!

Love, Daddy

Pony Husom, 10 day update from Arrowyn Ambrose Husom on Vimeo.

A sneeze, a hiccup and a poop.

Lovely Pony,

Don't have much time to write today but wanted to post this video of you for everybody to see. Its pretty darned cute. And funny. I'll give you the password later in life to this bog so you can remove this part cause homies don't play each other like that. :) But right now I get to. HAHA.

Daddy

A sneeze, a hiccup and a poop from Arrowyn Ambrose Husom on Vimeo.

Pony is here!

I love you Pony. I will always love you Pony. You were born at 2:11pm (PST) in Los Angeles on July 20, 2011. And so you know, that is exactly 1 year to the day that your mother and I met in front of my office, randomly, as she rode her bike into work at Young Storytellers Foundation. It looks like you did put us together. Thank you sweetheart.

For the stats: you are 6 lbs 15 oz and are 19 inches long. You have brown hair and your features look like your mothers do, to me. Your Mom pushed for exactly 1 hour before you came to meet us. Thanks for making it tolerable for her.

I'm going to let Mom write all the details in her next blog, she's a much better writer than I. Here is a photo and video of your first day.

I love you. Daddy.

Pony Patricia Ambrose Husom from Arrowyn Ambrose Husom on Vimeo.

One Eyed Jerry!

Dear Pony,

Sometimes when people have a baby they hire a doula. This is a person that helps to "quarterback" your birth. She protects you from the mystery curve balls that doctors and their hospitals throw at you. When our doula Tracy met us for the first time she wanted to know what our safe word would be when ordering an epidural. The word that you say when you REALLY want one instead of just saying so cause you're having a particularly hard contraction. Our safe word is "One Eyed Jerry".

Last night we hit the sheets about about 11pm. Our wake up time was scheduled for 3am to remove our little buddy Cervadil and start on the Pitocin potion. At around 12am midnight we learned what a real contraction felt like. Your mother is one of the toughest ladies I've ever known Pony, and these suckers had her buckling in half. We fought them until about 4:30am when we both agreed it was time to get some help. ONE EYED JERRY! ONE EYED JERRY! we both told our nurse Amy, who treated us like we were her brother and sister all night. So kind and wise.

After Arrow received our epidural from Dr. Blasko, both us us were able to sleep until about 6:45am. Man did that feel good Pony.

Now we're waiting for your Mom's cervix to open further so we can show you how to get out. We're at 2cm and over 90% effacement. Which is promising for having the kind of birth we hope to have.

A few more photos. Your mother said it was okay to post these cause they tell a very detailed story. :)

Photo 1: thats in the AM yo, California time

Photo 2: thats your Momma, just before we asked for help

Photo 3: photo of the dry erase board in our room. Make no mistake about this, ONE EYED JERRY!

Love, Daddy

Dentine Gum

Pony honey,

A little update for you. At about 5pm the good and wise Dr. Dwight came to our room with his satchel of charms and potions. The tool of choice for us was a Dentine sized piece of plastic called Cervadil. This is used to help soften her Cervix. For all the fellas out there that means this helps to get that door open so Pony knows how to get out. The Cervadil takes about 12 hours to fully work so the next step in our trip to hospital camp will go down around 5am. There's a bunch of stuff happening then which I'll report on when the birds start chirping. A few more photos:

1) the time

2) Mom in her bed

3) Daddy's bed

4) Pony's bed

More later, Daddy

Arrival at Hospital

Hey Pony,

Its your Daddy here. Taking over the blogger duties for the time being. Your Mom is being busy being treated like a Queen here at Good Samaritan hospital. Seriously, they are pampering her right now like she's royalty. Our nurse's names are Carla and Lori. Both are very sweet, with soft eyes. Perfect for us.

I'll keep you posted with developments here. A few photos for now.

Top one is the time right now in Los Angeles.

Middle one is your Momma.

Bottom one is your heart rate and contraction monitor. It says you're doing amazingly well in there!

Alright, more later.

Love, Daddy

oh, bye the way, the photos are in black and white for a reason. I promised your mom that there would be no close up shots and crazy discolored photos like they print in Hollywood tabloids. :)

Lessons in Motherhood #1

This is not happening on my schedule.

I am not in charge.

All I can do is wait.  

And accept what is.

I have to admit- Pony is  much closer to God (loosely defined) at this point and so far, the two of them have done a pretty amazing job of organizing things, i.e. bringing Timmy and I together so why the hell should I start doubting them now?

This is going to be an amazing experience however it goes down.  Even if that means we medically induce on Friday, July 22nd.  I am okay with that.  Especially after a major meltdown this morning.  But that is how it usually works with me,  I have to experience complete defeat before I'll throw in the white towel and give up.  Or at the least, loosen my grip just a little.  

So dear darling daughter,  I'll meet you when you get here, on your own time, and in your own special way.

But goddammit if we aren't super excited to meet you.

xx

mom

We meant 'next' weekend...

Pony dear,  Papa and I need to work on our 'believing' skills because as you well know, you are not in our arms keeping us awake all night right now.  You are nestled comfortably in your little uterus studio apartment keeping it real in this heat.  Probably smart of you as it's supposed to cool down this weekend anyways- much better time to meet and greet Los Angeles- I agree.  Damn you are smart Pony!  Just like your Dad- the absolute love of my life.

and here we are on Fourth of July at Elysian Park enjoying the grass, air, and mosquitos, which apparently only bite me.

I custom ordered this decal for your room and since it might be awhile until you can read it and we might of moved (fingers crossed) by then, I want to make sure you saw it.

And same goes for this magnificent 8 foot sunflower I planted not too long ago that is growing beautifully proving once and for all that I can indeed, grow things.  It's a good sign for you and me, babe.

Lastly, I have noticed something really interesting lately, that it really is true "what you put your attention on is what you create."

I have traded in one obsession for another,  I won't go into what the previous one is because it's stupid, but this one is serious, and plaguing me in rather humorous ways.  I have this really strange thing with sound.  Not all sound, some is good, real good, but sound I don't like, when I don't want to hear it, coming from people I find even slightly annoying, DRIVES ME CRAZY.  I get this visceral physical response that my meditation teacher said is an actual Trauma Response.  She knows, because she has it too- for different reasons and different sounds- but nevertheless her body also tenses up, she gets sweaty, and wants to cry, scream or kill someone.  It's crazy- but during the day our next door neighbor, a 20 something latino kid who still lives at home, fancies himself a DJ, so he thinks he needs to 'practice' spinning his 'beats' once or twice a day.  Now mind you, I live love worship music, that I like love and worship-  NOT bad top forty hip-hop mixed in with reggae or new wave.  Cut into savagely, is a better way to describe it.  I actually liked some of the new wave songs before he butchered them ruthlessly and without any talent. He hacks and hacks at full volume with a bass that beats against my skull and gets under my skin leaving me a frustrated angry bitter helpless crying puddle on the floor.  If we owned a firearm- it could get ugly.  But we don't, thank god. Although he does, he's told us so.  Which makes me think twice about running over there and banging on his door.  Papa doesn't get it.  He says it's the day time so people should be allowed to make noise, and maybe he's right.  But he also doesn't have a historical traumatic experience with noises you can't control keeping you up at night when you are a child and what that does to you physically and mentally as an adult. So at this point I believe I have two options, as I see it:  I can buy him a bottle of vodka or a case of beer and a kick-ass set of headphones, begging him in the nicest way possible and for the love of god  to use the fucking things after the baby is born and I'm helpless and hopeless without sleep  OR  I can go through to get out.  Meaning, I can dive onto what the traumatic reaction is physically, mentally, and emotionally with my meditation tools I've learned, threading each piece out and examining it before coming to peace with it- and then actually meditate when at the height of my reaction and sit still with it until it changes and I have peace.  Obviously one is much cheaper and takes far more courage than the other.  And since I am one to never back down from a learning experience that requires courage (natural birth)  I think I'll choose the latter.  It's now or never, really.  I believe that if I don't tackle this now it will follow me wherever I go.

Speaking of- my other pet peeve is people talking and texting during movies and seriously, the past 4 movies we've seen guess who has sat down right next to me EVERY SINGLE TIME?  Yup, you guessed it, THAT person.  The one who talks and texts the entire movie.  It's becoming comical at this point.  To me, it's only a definite sign from the universe to get over myself and my control issues and learn to just let people be the annoying assholes they want to be.  :)

Here is a last look at your somewhat defeated and very ready to have you Momma.

That's it for today.  I love you and want to meet you so badly!  Come out Pony, the water's fine, we're here to catch you.

Big mad crazy wonderful love

momma