Rocket's Landing - The Story

Now that we have officially announced Rocket's arrival, we thought we'd take a bit more time to relay some of the details. (Don't worry; there won't be anything explicit or gross!)

Lately we'd been getting a little behind on our posts here. A number of topics from the last few weeks are as of yet unmentioned: our latest Alton Brown party; several recent visitors; an update on our garden; some photos of deer bouncing around the yard; and our anniversary weekend in a swanky hotel in Portland, to celebrate the last of them without kids. As it turns out, we managed to sneak in that last trip in the nick of time!

Corinne had two baby showers scheduled for this past weekend: Saturday, 9/20 in Seattle and Sunday, 9/21 in The Gorge. So on Friday morning we piled into the car and headed North to Seattle. We stopped at the airport along the way to pick up the surprise visitor of my Mom, who traveled from NJ to attend both showers. Friday night Corinne and I went to our friends Malinda and Jean's place for chinese takeout and some last minute shower preparations.

Saturday early morning, all of our plans changed quickly.

Corinne woke up at shortly before 7am to use the bathroom. Right after she got up, she roused me and told me to run to the bathroom to get her a towel. I was still pretty asleep, so it took me a few minutes to figure out what was happening. After a few quick phone calls and consultation with both our mothers, we determined that it was likely that her water had broken and that we should probably head to the hospital. If I had learned one thing from all of the pregnancy books that we received, I knew that the next 48-72 hours (or longer) would be extremely busy and tiring. So I managed to get a quick shower before all 4 of us got in the car and drove to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue. We hadn't heard of this hospital, but someone suggested to us that they had a good birthing center. And we certainly weren't going to drive all the way to Hood River at this point!

We arrived at the hospital at about 8:30am and Corinne was admitted and given her own labor and delivery room. The first exam at about 10am showed that she was somewhere around 5cm dilated already! In retrospect, we think that she was probably in labor for some of the previous 2 days which would explain why sleeping Thursday night was the worst of the entire pregnancy (no longer than 1 hour intervals). This exam also showed that meconium was present, which meant that there was no going back; we weren't leaving the hospital until this baby was delivered! At this point it was clear that we weren't going to make our 11am shower; we contacted the organizers of both the Seattle and Gorge showers to let them know of the change in plans.

One of the biggest advantages of this unscheduled early delivery was that so many friends and family had scheduled to be in Seattle for the shower. In particular, Clare (wife of Corinne's cousin Tor) who is a OB-GYN nurse in Tulsa, OK was visiting for the long weekend. She arrived at the hospital at about 10:30am that morning and was with us for the entire day until delivery. We had hired a doula in Hood River, but obviously that wasn't going to help us in Seattle. Clare was that and more - awesome!

At about 11am began what would be the most difficult part of the day. Corinne's contractions started to get stronger and started to get increasingly painful. We hadn't prepared an explicit "birth plan", but we did have a desire to keep the birth as natural as made sense. For about an hour, Corinne endured the pain while Clare and I applied pressure to her back and massaged muscles to try to relieve some of the pain. She did an incredible job keeping the pain from overwhelming her and focusing on the end result, but the pain was just getting to be too much. After some mild pain relievers didn't seem to help much, we opted for an epidural. We wanted to try to keep it on the milder side so that she could still feel contractions and would be able to push more easily when the time came. Our anesthesiologist did a great job, and within about an hour the pain was gone but she was still able to move her legs normally and feel the contractions but without the pain. Thank goodness for modern medicine!

Corinne's latest OB-GYN appointment in Hood River was only 2 days earlier, on Thursday, where they took samples to test for Group B Strep (GBS). Unfortunately, those results hadn't come back yet, so the hospital administered an antibiotic through her IV as a preventative. By 1pm she was fully dilated, but the nurse wanted us to wait for the remainder of the antibiotic to flow through her system. That was just fine with Corinne, though. Now that she had the epidural, she was more comfortable than she had been in at least several weeks! She enjoyed some much needed relaxation time. Then 2pm came, and it was time to start pushing.

Pushing was actually rather uneventful compared with the painful contractions of earlier in the day. When each contraction came, she would push and we would instruct and encourage her. In between contractions the room was relatively quiet and relaxed. Rocket was progressing slowly, but was still progressing. After about 3 hours the doctor suggested using vaccuum to help speed the progress. Rocket was close at this point, so with the help of the vaccuum was born after just two more contractions.

It was at this point that we received our next big surprise. The doctor held Rocket up and exclaimed: "And... it's not a girl!" Many of you had already written to us saying "hey, didn't your doctor tell you that she was SURE that you were having a girl? Yes, she did. I'm sure she'll be surprised when we meet with her. ;)

After we got over the initial shock, it was all smiles. We had lots of fun "exposing" all of the family and friends to Rocket's unexpected gender. Everyone (including us) had the same reaction: shock and utter disbelief, dropped jaws, followed by laughing. I had particular fun sending a "closeup" of the juicy bits to Corinne's brothers Leif and Loren, letting them figure out the rest on their own. I hope that doesn't get me in trouble for distributing child pornography or something ridiculous like that.

Since Rocket came a little early and was technically considered a preemie, the hospital ran some extra tests and did some additional monitoring. His blood sugar levels were low, so we had to start feeding him formula shortly after birth in order to try to get them up to normal. We were concerned about nipple confusion and tried to avoid having him bottle fed so early on, but we didn't have much choice as breast milk takes some time to come in. Six hours of monitoring and a few feedings later his levels were near normal, but we would have to continue to feed him formula until he could breastfeed. Rocket needs to be fed every 2-3 hours, to make sure that he gets enough nutrients to finish his development.

It was great to have so many visitors at the hospital! The group photo that we included in the announcement is indicative of the amount of support we got from friends and family during the whole weekend. We weren't prepared for any of this and weren't in our home town, so we had to rely on others to fill in the gaps. Our friends Malinda and Jean loaned us a number of key items, including a car seat so that we were able to take him home from the hospital. We bought our own car seat, but of course it was at home. Corinne particularly enjoyed the Dr. Pepper and latte that she was brought while in the hospital; both are things which she gave up during the pregnancy!



By Sunday night we were tired and ready to go home - at least home to West Seattle. We can definitely understand people who want to home birth. We definitely wanted to have the security of all of the facilities available at a hospital, and the folks at Overlake were friendly, knowledgeable, and cared. But at the same time a hospital is not exactly the most relaxing place. In between feedings the nurse would tell us to try to get some rest; 10 minutes later, however, someone from a different department would come in to do some test or draw blood or give us some forms to fill out.

When our 24 hours was over we were extremely tired and ready to leave. After about 5 hours of trying leave, we finally made it out and were home in bed at about midnight on Sunday night.

Now that we've left the hospital, it's up to us to take care of him! I wonder how we do that?

- Mike (and Corinne and Rocket)

Rocket Has Landed!

We are happy - and surprised - to announce that on Saturday, September 20th at 5:06pm Corinne gave birth to a happy, healthy baby BOY!

Name: TBD! (See below)
Weight: 7lbs 11oz
Length: 19.25in
Location: Overlake Hospital, Bellevue WA

There were lots of unexpected aspects:

• The baby wasn't due for another 3+ weeks
• We were in Seattle for her baby shower, so we had to choose a doctor and hospital "at random"
• Our Hood River doctor told us after looking at our ultrasounds that she was SURE that we were having a girl! She was so sure that she said if she was wrong she needed to find a new line of work.

Everyone is healthy and doing well. One nice aspect is that we had lots of family in town for the shower. We're staying at Corinne's mother's house in West Seattle while Rocket (our codename for our still nameless son) is treated for jaundice, which is common for early babies. Our plan is to head back to the Gorge as soon as we can, hopefully at the end of the week.

We sure are glad that he came early; 7-11 is plenty big!

 

Oh, and it's time for the Name The Baby Contest - Lightening Round. We only have a few more days to come up with a name for him! None of the baby girl names that were submitted during the last round are doing us any good right now. ;) namethebaby@ilvedson.com

More details - and more photos - will follow. First, need sleep.

- Mike, Corinne, and baby-to-be-named-later

Taryn and David Visit

Taryn visited us for the weekend and brought along her new beau David. A friend of David's was getting married in Trout Lake, of all places! Apparently Trout Lake was a favorite vacation spot due to the spelunking opportunities, so they decided to marry here.

We had a good time getting to know David and showing our guests the local attractions which include the river and neighboring farm animals. The first farm stop was Green Pastures Farm where we get our eggs. (Fresh eggs direct from the farm make one realize that grocery eggs have as much flavor as cardboard! All those bugs that the chickens eat while roaming in the fields must be flavorful.) We admired her beautiful chickens, were entertained by the donkeys, and gave the barn kitties some love.

The next stop was at the White Water Holsteins Organic Dairy, a member of the Organic Valley Coop. During Taryn's visit in February, Mazzi had a good time checking out the cows. This time most of the attention was focused on the calves. This one apparently thought that milk should come out of Taryn's finger.

The last weekend activity was a stop by Bingen's Huckleberry Festival to see our favorite entertainer, The Reptile Man. He tours with all sorts of reptiles and snakes and puts on quite a show, for child and adult alike.

Their visit also coincided with the peak of the gorge harvest. They went home with a trunk full of corn, peaches, pears, tomatoes, huckleberries, nectarines, and more! Taryn has lots of plans for canning and pickling, so we hope to see some of those fruits and veggies again some day. ;)

- Corinne and Mike

Mysterious Hole in the Woods

Last year we had a professional forester walk through our trees and make recommendations to us on best practices to improve its health and commercial value. We knew that our trees were overdue for thinning, and one of the primary recommendations he made was to thin our existing stands by 20% in order to provide some more growing room for the remaining trees.

To that end, we recently spent several hours walking through one of our oldest stands, marking a total of 200 trees to be removed. We walked up and down each row, looking up trying to identify the weakest trees (split or broken tops, dead branches.) In the process, I almost stepped right into a hole in the ground!

I immediately called Corinne over (okay, first I backed up several feet.) This was probably the most comprehensive survey we've made of that forest section, so at first we thought the hole could have been old. Further inspection, however, revealed that the dirt in front of the hole was devoid of needles or sticks and was distinguishable from the forest floor surrounding it. This was no small hole, either. If one of us were to stand with our feet in the mouth of the hole, the forest floor level would be slightly above our knees; the diameter of the opening looked to be about 15-16 inches. These are estimates, of course, as it took a fair bit of fortitude for me to get close enough even for this photo.

We passed this photo around to a few wildlife experts we know - Jim, forester and Bill, wildlife biologist. At first the best guess was that it was a badger den. Although we've never seen a badger on our property, they are native to our area, and since they feed on pocket gophers they would have plenty to eat! However, after doing further investigation we now believe that this was a coyote den. Apparently coyotes dig dens such as these in which to raise their young; after the pups are old enough, the den is abandoned, either permanently or until the next breeding season. Since we had 2 pups frequent our yard this spring, we now assume that they were born and raised in this hole. We haven't seen the pups in some time, so hopefully they have now moved on to another area (although just as likely they have learned to stay out of sight.)

We still have many more stands to mark, so who knows what other exciting discoveries are waiting for us out there!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Another Bat in the House

Another bat got into the house recently. We're still not 100% sure how it got in; unlike the last bat that got inside, this time we didn't have the doors/windows open for nearly as long. And also unlike the last bat, this one stayed closer to the floor than the ceiling. I was able to get some pretty good closeup shots and a video.



We used the same trick we did last time to get him outside: open the windows and remove the screens and hope that he finds his way outside. If we find another intruder in the near future - three strikes - we'll have to start looking for possible cracks or holes that they could be using to get inside. But for now we'll assume they took the more straightforward open door/window approach.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Countdown to Rocket: Name Contest!

We’re looking to YOU to suggest names for our girl! Prizes will be awarded for:

• Most Creative (First+Middle Name)
• Most Creative (Last Name)
• Most Likely To Be Used (First+Middle Name)

To enter: Send an email with your suggestions in the above categories to namethebaby@ilvedson.com. All entries must be submitted by Wednesday, September 17st, 2008. Winners will be announced the following week.

Participants may enter as often as they like. Be creative! Be entertaining! Help us out so that we don't have to continue to call her Rocket after she's born (though who are we kidding - we probably still will.)

Rules & Disclaimers:

1. Winning names will not necessarily be used.
2. Winners consent to the use of his/her name, photos and likeness for publicity and commercial purposes without further compensation unless prohibited by law.
3. Void where prohibited.
4. River Ford Farm, LLC and its employees are not responsible for and shall not be liable for:
1. late, lost, delayed, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible, or unintelligible entries;
2. pen, pencil, paper, telephone, electronic, hardware, or software program, network, Internet, or computer malfunctions, failures, or difficulties;
3. any condition caused by events beyond the control of River Ford Farm, LLC that may cause the contest to be disrupted or corrupted;
4. any injuries, losses, or damages of any kind caused by a prize or resulting from acceptance, possession, or use of a prize, or from participation in the contest; or
5. any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the contest.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Countdown to Rocket: T minus 9.5 weeks

Here's Corinne with her ever-growing belly - 9.5 weeks left! Everyone is still healthy and doing well; the doctor reports that Corinne is on track for size/weight, blood pressure, etc. She is getting a bit more uncomfortable in general. Sleeping is not nearly as enjoyable as it used to be (for either of us!) I guess that is Nature's way of preparing us for Rocket's arrival.

Her belly is big enough now that it can act as a shelf on which Max can perch, although he's never interested in having his picture taken.





- Mike (& Corinne)

Boeing Buys Insitu

Here is that rarest of things: a post related to work. As many of you have likely already heard, Boeing has agreed to buy our company, Insitu. This is no big surprise to us; we've had a partnership with Boeing for a number of years. We've also known for some time that our investors saw this as a good time for an "equity event".

Our management did a good job of negotiating with Boeing. Some quick details:

• Insitu will be operated as an independent subsidiary with our own management team and board, our own benefits, etc.
• Insitu will remain in its current location in the Gorge.
• We will remain employees of Insitu, not Boeing.

You can read more about the details on Insitu.com. In the short term we don't see anything changing; hopefully we'll be able to say the same thing in 2-3 years. It's been an interesting trip to this point, watching the company grow from an independent company of ~45 people when we started to a 350+ Boeing subsidiary.

- Mike (& Corinne)

P.S. Before you ask: no, we're not millionaires and will not be retiring next week. ;)

Countdown to Rocket: T minus 11 weeks

Alright, you say, that's enough of the other stuff. Time for more belly shots!

These were taken July 28th, which is at about 29 weeks. The echinacea field next door was in full bloom, and it made a perfect backdrop.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Cold Springs Fire Update: Weekend & Fire Camp Tour

Saturday

Acres:	7956
Containment:	50%
Firefighters:	1086

Sunday

Acres:	7956
Containment:	60%
Firefighters:	1128

By the weekend the vast firefighting crew was winning the battle. And while the fire did occur relatively close to us (7-8 miles), it never really threatened us. The winds blew the fire primarily east, and not only were we located directly south but there were also a fair number of large irrigated fields between us and the burn zone. Still, no one likes a fire near them - particularly someone with a forest. We don't enjoy thunderstorms and their associated lightning strikes quite as much as we used to when we were renters. I guess that's just one of the downsides of owning your own place.

The school had become the headquarters for all of the 1000+ firefighting crew. There were tents covering the lawns and numerous trailers, trucks and other paraphernalia. Signs had been put around the school instructing people not to stop along the road to look since it could create a hazard. However, on Saturday we noticed a sign indicating that they were now giving guided tours of the fire camp! Being the engineers that we are, we were curious about some of the logistical aspects associated with fighting a fire of this size, so we signed up.

Our tour started at 3pm on Sunday. Since the majority of the crew were up on the mountain actively battling the fire, those who remained in the camp and were conducting the tour were members of the enormous support staff that is required to provide for that many people. After a quick overview of one of the fire trucks, we moved to the supply area containing pallets full of protective clothing and gear.

A sawyer showed us the contents of the standard 40-pound pack that each firefighter carries with him. That pack doesn't include containers for potable water, chainsaw, or chainsaw gas/oil, either - those are additional weight!

We got a demonstration of how to use the protective foil "pouch" that a firefighter can use for protection if they are overtaken by fire. Once inside, the foil can deflect the worst of the heat and protect the occupant from the high temperatures. Since there is no way to detect if it is safe to exit once inside, the occupant must remain under the protection until another firefighter gives him the "all clear". Apparently studies have shown that the human body can withstand temperatures in the 300-400° range for short periods of time, but I wouldn't want to be the one to test that.

From here we moved to a room in the school that was being used as a medical center. In here there was also a map of where each of the 5 divisions (A through E) fighting the fire were stationed, along with sticky notes indicating where each medic was.

The firefighters work (and often travel) in crews of 20. (Looking at the tent city, you could see that they were all set up in groups of 20.) Some crews are responsible for digging the fire lines that are used to contain the entire fire. We had assumed that they use heavy equipment to dig the lines, but no, they dig them by hand. The crew lead starts the line and digs one shovel's width and keeps going. Then next person comes behind and widens the line by another shovel's width. By the time 20 people take a pass, they have a pretty descent fire line. Apparently, they can move pretty fast this way.

During the hours when the fire fighters aren't on the mountain, they are typically either eating, showering, or sleeping. So the camp has trailers dedicated to each of the first two, and rows of tents for the latter. The food trailer operation was out of Montana. Their meals have to provide the firefighters with 6000 calories/day. Here is the breakfast menu for the day we visited.

The firefighters we spoke to claimed to be adrenaline junkies. Even so, I can't imagine why anyone would want to do this for a job, but I sure am glad that there are people who do!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Brian, Susan & the Rodeo

Our friends Brian and Susan (aka the Juddmansees) stopped in for a few days on their recent whirlwind tour of the west.

They arrived at our place on Friday night and brought with them a half flat (that's 6 dry pints) of mixed local berries that they had picked up at a farm stand along their drive. Coincidentally, we had also picked up a half flat of berries the previous day at Gorge Grown Farmers' Market. Presented with the situation, we had no choice but to eat them. Between berries on ice cream after dinner and berries over waffles the following morning, we managed to polish off the lot of them. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, marionberries - yum!

Saturday we gave them a walking tour of the property but mostly kept it low-key. Saturday evening, though, we had some excitement planned: The Dalles Rodeo! Corinne and I have been to the local Ketchum Kalf rodeo in Glenwood a few years ago, but Brian and Susan had never been. It's kinda like the circus - you just have to experience it at least once.

We coordinated ahead of time with our friends Judith and Rodney to get tickets and they ended up quite good - front row center! Periodically a horse and rider would bolt around the stadium at high speed, hugging the walls; they were usually carrying a flag with the name or logo of a sponsor, so they were quickly dubbed "commercials." When this happened we would sometimes get showered with dirt kicked up from the horse's hooves. Now THAT'S close to the action!

Relative to our previous rodeo experience, we had expected this one to be a much bigger event. In actuality it seemed about the same. The biggest difference was the success of the cowboys in the rodeo action, and it was in the opposite direction. As an example, there were 9 pairs of cowboys competing for the best score in the team roping event. On this particular day, only 2 of those teams scored at ALL; all of the others were not successful in roping the calf and therefore did not score. Each of the other events had similar outcomes: steer wrestling, bull riding, bronc riding (bareback & saddle), etc. This was definitely a rodeo where the cows won. The barrel racers - whose event did not involve a large farm animal - generally fared better. We still had fun watching the events, and I have no doubt that they all did a better job at their events than I would have.

Brian had hoped to be able to enjoy a NW rodeo whilst drinking some Rainier Beer. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) the rodeo was sponsored by Bud.

There was a lot of fun outside of the non-competition events as well. A "business persons donkey race" organized by the local 4-H was actually quite a bit more entertaining than we had expected, and a "Wild West Revue" had some pretty fancy riding and roping. And let's not forget all of the various Northwest "rodeo queens" who were making the rounds and signing autographs.

At the end of the evening we went home satisfied that everybody had a good evening - us AND the animals.

On Sunday we walked to the Trout Lake Arts Festival which also happened to be that weekend. The Mt Adams fires didn't seem to deter anyone, as the festival was as busy as ever. Pretty soon it was time for our guests to be on their way to their next destination.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Cold Springs Fire Update: Thursday/Friday

Thursday

Acres:	7604
Containment:	18%
Firefighters:	930

Thursday morning we awoke to the smell of smoke for the first time. The smoke had settled in the Trout Lake valley overnight and was quite thick. As you can see from the photo, there was no mountain in view. The inversion actually proved to be quite helpful for the fire fighters that morning. By evening, the smoke had dispersed.

Thursday, 06:30, View from Home

After spending considerable time online looking for updated information, we managed to find a "live" fire-mapping site and were able to get this snapshot on Thursday:

7-8 miles from our house

Thursday, 21:00, View from Home

Friday

Acres:	7933
Containment:	30%
Firefighters:	1037

The firefighting population is now more than twice the size of the "native" population (as of the 2000 Census).

- Corinne (& Mike)

Cold Springs Fire Update: Monday/Tuesday

Monday:
By Monday the fire looked better but that was just an illusion due to the smoke and flames being less impressive. We monitored the fire information on this web throughout the day.  The fire was 500 acres on Sunday, 3000 acres Monday morning, 6000 acres Monday afternoon, and 8000 acres by Monday night.  The total fire crew grew from 237 people to 335.

On Sunday the Trout Lake School had a fair number of spectators. By morning the Trout Lake School had about 80 tents in the field. By nighttime the school parking lot was off limits to all but firefighters.  It looks like the Trout Lake School may be the fire base camp.

There were still no reports of the fire affecting anything but wilderness.

Monday, 08:00, View from Home

Monday, 08:15, View from Trout Lake School

Tents at Trout Lake School

Monday, 22:40, View from Home

Tuesday:

Acres:	7160
Containment:	5%
Firefighters:	518

By Tuesday they had a better estimate of the size of the fire, coming down slightly from the 8,000 estimate of Monday evening. The smoke was now beginning to settle in the valley.

Tuesday, 08:30, View from Home

- Corinne (& Mike)