Finally Coming Home

Lily is finally coming home today after 2.5 weeks in the hospital. It will be nice to start getting into a routine that does not include driving back and forth to the hospital every day. We are all very excited and hoping for the best.

Let me enlighten you...

Some Good News

Lily passed her 3rd attempt at the hearing test with flying colors! She had previously failed the two in the hospital. I guess we can chalk that up to excessive fluid from the c-section. We are still looking forward to her release early this week.

George Carlin Dead at 71

RIP George.

Coming Home Soon

Lily is doing really well with her on-demand feeding schedule. In fact, the doctor has said that she should be able to come home in the next few days! Unfortunately, I did not get to see her tonight as Gwyneth woke up from her nap this afternoon with a fever.

A Different Strategy

Today the doctor at the NICU decided to put Lily on an on-demand feeding schedule. Basically, they wait until she wakes up hungry and then just give her what she will take without tube-feeding the rest to her. It seems that she did much better on this schedule. We also got the results that Lily does indeed have Trisomy-21 (Down Syndrome). Kim also happened to speak with a nurse who's god-daughter has Down Syndrome and she said that she is now 22 and graduating from High School. Right now we are hopeful that she will come home sometime in the near future. We also have a meeting with a doctor at the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

Making Progress

Just a quick update on Lily. She did really well with today's feeding. In Fact, she woke up two hours after a previous feeding crying and hungry. Kim has also been working with the nurses trying different bottles. This is great news considering that she has always had to be awakened for all of her feedings. Hopefully, she will continue to make progress and be home soon.

What is Down Syndrome?

Click here for a great and simple explanation of what Down Syndrome is.

Holding Pattern

Kim was released on Tuesday evening but Lily remains in the NICU for the time being. She is having trouble feeding on her own and we are hoping that she does not remain in there for too long. It is getting difficult to split our time between the hospital and home and between Gwynny and Lilly and some stuff at home is also starting to pile up a little. I will be returning to work next week and Kim has one more week of not being able to drive. She will be dropped off at the hospital each morning and I will meet here there after I put in my eight hours.

Putting Things Into Perspective

It's been an interesting week to say the least. After what appeared to be a normal C-Section we were shocked to learn that there is a high percentage that Lily has Down Syndrome as well as a congenital heart defect. A pediatric cardiologist with the Cleveland Clinic spoke with us regarding her heart condition and the treatment. The good news is that her heart defect is fairly common and fixable. She will require surgery at 3-6 months to fix her heart and should not have any other issues after that and everyone knows that The Cleveland Clinic is the number one cardiac center in the world.

The Down Syndrome needs to be verified with chromosome study. I've been doing a lot of reading on it lately and it's basically an extra chromosome that is introduced at conception and it's a more common occurrence with older mothers but can happen to any mother regardless of race, nationality or socio-economic status. This genetic abnormality is in no way preventable and 90% of pregnancies that test positive for Down Syndrome are aborted. Kim and I refused all the prenatal screens figuring that we would keep our child no matter what. The doctors who have seen her at Fairview are fairly certain that she has Down Syndrome but we need the test to be certain and I never realized just how high the odds are for women as they grow older. Lily will also have to see an audiologist and possibly have tubes placed in her ears to drain fluid. The congenital heart defect, hearing, etc. are all physical symptoms of Down Syndrome.

Our life will definitely be challenging but Kim has experience working with the mentally challenged and we've both adopted a positive attitude towards this. Lance Armstong said that cancer was the greatest thing that ever happened to him and we are both looking at it from that perspective. There are some amazing things being done with children who require "special needs" right now and we do not consider this necessarily a "bad" thing. It may seem "politically correct" but when I told this to my Dad (who is in a nursing home with MS) he said that we will have an "exceptional" child. After reading several stories about kids like Lily, I now truly believe that.

This has all really put things into perspective for us and I hope everyone understands if I cannot immediately deal with work issues at least for the next few days. Kim and Lily will be discharged tomorrow but it will be a long road ahead with doctor's visits, therapy, etc. When Lily was taken down to the NICU for heart observation and before we had any information, we feared the worst. Now we are just happy to have a little one no matter what her issues are.

The Big Office Move

Well, it finally happened and my company moved it's offices across town to within 2.5 miles of my house. The building is much nicer and the commute is going to be awesome. Being this close to home will open up a wealth of opportunities for making my life more productive for the most part. As soon as my wife is off for summer vacation, I can start riding my bike to the office!

Castaway Bay

At the end of last week we spent a few days at Castaway Bay in Sandusky. This is a resort with an indoor water park. Gwynny had a ball at the park! Each night was karaoke and a dance party with Snoopy which Gwyneth also loved. Full photoset is available here.

Easter Egg Hunt

Gwynny went on an Easter egg hunt yesterday and had a great time! Unfortunately, she was afraid of the Easter Bunny and would not sit in her lap for a photo. The complete photoset can be found here.

Spring is in the Air!

The clocks have already been changed and the snow is slowly melting. I am looking forward to spending more time outside of this house in the fresh air. With a little one on the way and my office moving to within a 3 mile drive of our house, the next 3 months should be interesting. Now, if I could just find the time and money to get back into cycling a bit more.

March 2008 Winter Blast

This past weekend were were treated to 24+ straight hours of snowfall that accumulated aver 18" on the ground and practically shutdown the entire city. Everyone was trapped inside their homes from Friday night through Sunday morning with the occasional outside snow removal excursion. Here's hoping that the snow is nearly over.

Check out a complete photoset here.

February is the Longest Month!

Wow, for such a short month, February draaaags on with no end in sight. It's most likely the fact that I have no days off and football season is over. I went for a two mile run tonight with the dog in the sub-20 degree weather. The ground had warmed just enough to remove the ice from the blacktop and sunset wasn't until 6 pm. March always means about a month or so to go until Spring. I realize we get snow here in April but at least the end is in sight! Warmer weather is on it's way and I'll be on my bike again!

I've not ridden my stationary trainer at all this winter. I guess I just needed a change and I realized that I won't log as many miles with the newborn on his or her way. As I grow closer to my 40th birthday this year, I'm mulling the usual things that most people do when they reach "mid-life". I really hate that expression since absolutely no one knows how long they have on this planet. Anyway, I'm thinking I really need more creative outlets. Need to get some more time in behind the camera that doesn't simply involve more family snapshots.

Quake on the Nokia N810

Zoo Trip

Sunday, Kim, Gwynny and I made a trip to the Cleveland Zoo to visit some of the indoor attractions. We got to visit the Rain Forest and the Cat & Primate Building as well as a few of the outdoor exhibits. Wintertime is a great season to visit the zoo since it is practically empty. Some of the attractions are closed but many of the outdoor animals are more active because of the temperature. Fun was had by all!

More great photos from the trip can be found here.

Doom on the Nokia N810

A short video of Doom running on the Nokia N810.

Canon PowerShot A720 IS

Last weekend we attended a wedding and Kim took along our 2+ year old Nikon Coolpix 4600. I had never really taken many shots with this P+S camera but soon discovered that it's virtually unusable in less than optimal lighting conditions. Kim always complained of this but I chalked some of this up to operator error. :) P+S should mean POS for this old Nikon.

So I decided to research and purchase a new compact digital camera with some of our Christmas cash. I settled on the Canon PowerShot A720 IS for those times when I don't feel like lugging the d70. I hadn't researched compact digital cameras for quite awhile but was blown away by this thing. I originally thought about getting a pocket-sized camera like a Casio EX series or Canon Elph but this PowerShot isn't that much bigger and is packed with features.

This camera has a 8 mp resolution and does up to ISO 1600. It has a 35mm equivalent zoom range of 35-210mm with Canon's Image Stabilizer system. The software allows for aperture, shutter priority and full manual control. It runs on AA's which is a mixed bag. I have a ton of NiMh AA's which is great but flash recycle time isn't that great. Apparently, the li-ion batteries of some of the newer cameras allow for a flash charge time of half of this camera but we all know that built-in flashes suck. I figured the higher ISO and IS are more important. This camera will also work with a small, external flash but it no longer becomes as portable at that point. Oh yeah, it also takes great photos and is fairly quick with virtually no shutter lag. It also has the "face detection" technology that virtually all other cameras have now. Not sure if this is gimmicky or if it really helps enhance portraits yet.

The best part is that I got this locally for only $200. You can find the PowerShot A560 with a shorter zoom, no IS, and 7 mp for under $150 as well and Ken Rockwell loves them. :) Both of these cameras are awesome in the bang for the buck category. I love my Nikon dSLR but Canon seems to have the best pocket digital cameras out there right now.

I'm still blown away by this camera and the $200 price. Now I have to see if it is worth Ebay'ing the old, barely used Nikon.

Steve's Digicam's Review

Blogged with Flock