Meet Sabine Johanna Ficht

Sabine was born at 2:44 pm on Saturday, October 11th - her due date, believe it or not. She's a beautiful little girl, a healthy 8 lbs and 20.5 inches. Contractions started on Thursday afternoon and we went in to the hospital at 1:30 am Friday night (well, Saturday morning). Heather was amazing, a real trooper, but after 10 hours of very hard labor in the hospital and no forward progress, she got an epidural and delivered Sabine with relative ease 3 hours later. Much to my surprise. I hung in there and watched Sabine come out and then cut the cord.

Bine is a good little eater and the breastfeeding is going well. We chose her middle name to honor my maternal grandmother Johanna Hille. We got a pretty good night of sleep and are feeling great. The only downside is that Sabine won't be old enough to vote for Barack Obama on November 4th:)

9 days to go...

So this photo is from week 39...i am now have 9 days until my due date. I have been getting acupuncture, massage and doing water aerobics. My last day of work is tomorrow and my focus next week is to nest, prep meals for the coming week, and do as much as i can to get this show on the road...i am really ready to not be pregnant any more.

Baby shower, Portland style

We had an awesome coed baby shower on September 8th at Mt Tabor Park. Many thanks to Megan, Jodi and Heather for making it happen. It was a hot Sunday in the city, but nice and cool on our favorite extinct volcano. 

It was a perfect afternoon, with lots of friends, food and drink. Jodi made a beautiful Sabine poster for everyone to write their words of wisdom for the girl. I'd heard some freaky rumors about the weird shit that usually goes on at these baby showers, but the planning committee thoughtfully played to the boy/girl crowd and kept it real with a classic baby trivia contest. I did horribly, but I guess I'll be an expert soon enough. And in the midst of this very feminine activity, the Football Buddies managed to scrawl their Super Bowl hopes on the fabled Paper Plate of Prediction.

Our friends were very generous with their gifts for Sabine and we got lots of great stuff. I have to say though, that I have never seen a party clear out faster than when it was announced we'd be opening presents - I haven't seen a room empty that fast since the last time I did my poetry reading/interpretive dance/performance art ode to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Here's my video homage to all the great Super 8 footage I have from my childhood (it's about 5 minutes long):

And Lucy too!

I neglected to mention Lucy was among the ladies hanging out on Ladies Weekend. Sorry girly.

Ladies Weekend

I have been so lame that i haven't updated about the great weekend i had with Carol (step mom), Princess P (niece) and Megan (sister in law) last month. They all flew out for a weekend and we had a lot of fun. They spoiled me A LOT...waiting on me, nightly foot massages (a la Carol) and lots of good food and laughs. Little Miss P is so big already and a little sweet heart snuggler. Here she is hanging out with her cousin to be and auntie...

She also got to enjoy pool time in the back yard with Mom...

And play time with Grandma!

Thanks Ladies...it was wonderful!!!

34 weeks and counting

I continue to grow bigger and bigger...i am up 48lbs and measuring 33" at last week's doctor appointment. She claims all is well and that all those people that keep asking if my due date is wrong or if i am having twins are subject to what she calls the "fat-ass factor". She said cuz i am/was thin when i got pregnant there is no where for me to hide the weight gain...unlike people/fat asses apparently who were already overweight when they got pregnant. I like to believe her but dang my belly is huge!

Catching Up

Yes, we've been very lax with the blog. Wow, it's been over a month, sorry about that. We're looking for a new used car at the moment, so that's been taking up a lot of the evening computer time. We need to replace the Ford Ranger pickup, since there is no way to transport a wee one in it. We're looking for some kind of wagon with a hatchback, maybe a Volvo or Subaru. We need room for mom, dad, huevo and Lucy!

We went up to stay with my college buddy (and best man) Paul Custodio and his family in Seattle the weekend before last. We were looking forward to seeing them and relaxing in their beautiful backyard, they were looking forward to seeing Lucy. It was great to hang with them and our other college buddy TIm. The Custodios generously gifted us a ton of baby clothes. We went out for a nice dinner with the whole group: Paul, Geri, Pete, Heather, Christina and TIm.

Another thing that has kept us from blogging is our new pool. Heather's feet have been painfully swollen and it helps tremendously to spend time in the water. She found a great deal for inflatable 15' pool. We got the pool, the ladder, filter, skimmer, vacuum, everything for 150 bucks. It doesn't even make sense, how cheap it was. We set up at the beginning of August and have been enjoying it almost every day, except for the last week when the weather has been so crappy.

Can't believe it's already the end of August. September is already looking busy, Next week we'll celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary (September 2nd). The following weekend football season starts - oh, and we're having a baby shower. Our friends Ned and Megan Folkerth have been doing the planning for it. More on that later.

Around the third week in September our friends Pete and Nina will be visiting from New Orleans. And at the end of the month I'll be turning 44. I also have 3 concerts this month, The Raconteurs, Nick Cave and My Morning Jacket. Better get them in now while I can, right?