A Whirlwind of Days

It's been a pretty crazy week to say the least. It started with craft fair and ended with bring our newborn daughter home. So let's get a breakdown:

Saturday, May 14: Leandra had a craft fair in Jasper, Ind. She had to work so I got called into action. I've done it before so it wasn't a big deal, but this fair crosses into the Eastern time zone so I had to wake-up at 5:00 am to account for the time change.
Sunday, May 15: I woke up at a normal time, but I had to prepare for a 30-minute Group Kick demo at a health fair and then depart for a job interview in Ohio. A lot of running around followed by a seven hour drive. Again another time change to consider as I didn't get in until almost 10:00 pm that night.
Monday, May 16: I woke up at 6:00 am to prep for the interview. Not that big of a deal, except for the time change which, on my internal clock, had me waking at 5:00 am. The interview lasted most of the morning followed by seven hour drive back home.
Tuesday, May 17: I had to teach my Group Kick class at 9:00 am which shouldn't have been a big deal. For whatever reason, I wasn't able to finish the class. About halfway through, my body started feeling really heavy and I was experiencing some difficulties breathing. It's nothing I had ever dealt with before so I sake another instructor who happened to be at the gym. While I don't know for sure, I suspect that I had a combined sugar and caffeine crash from the sodas I had been downing over the last few days with the early morning and long days. (Prior to this, I had not had a soda for almost two weeks.) I rested up and was able to teach a class (as a sub) that evening.
Wednesday, May 18: I'm sure many of you know that a certain addition to the world started this day, but the series of events are not as well-known. I had dropped Leandra off at work so I could run some errands during the day. Leandra said she wasnt feeling too good, but she tends to be a trooper and just fights her way through. She compared her discomfort to menstrual cramps, which she thought was brought on from her final doctor appointment a few day earlier. We later found out that she was probably in early labor.

Fast forward to early evening. I had plans to do the Ride of Silence starting at 6:00. Upon arriving, I unloaded my bike and got set to meet the riding crew. Ten minutes before the take-off time, I got a call from Leandra asking me to pick her up at work. She was scheduled to work until 8:00, which would have given me plenty of time to get back and pick her up. Her boss decided it best that she go home early. So I packed up the bike, loaded the car and took off.

After I arrived at Opus 1, I met Leandra at the checkout desk. We walked back to her department to get her stuff. She told me she needed to make a quick trip to the restroom where she proceeded to throw up (one last time).

Before we left the store, I threw out the idea of going to the hospital. The store is much closer to the hospital than our home and I figured the worst they could say to us was that she wasn't ready. She was still uncertain so I told her to call her mom or sister who are both nurses (her sister had her second kid in January) to get a recommendation. They said to go...and we did.

Once we were checked in (around 7:30 pm), they hooked her up to the various monitors they use and told her that she was "going to have a baby today" (or at least within 24 hours). So the waiting game began as we waited for contractions to progress and the nurses to say that we were set to go.

Leandra decided that we were going to try and go completely natural. Taking any drugs was going to be a "game-time decision." Around 1:00 am, she was given the option of taking a painkiller which was supposed to take the edge off of the contractions. Shortly afterwards she decided to take them, but it was a pretty minor painkiller lasting only 30 minutes.

Around 1:30 am, we were told that the doctor could be called in to break her water. We finally made the clal at 2:00 and the doctor came in to break it at 2:30. As we were told, the contractions picked up in intensity and frequency and she went into hard labor (at least that's what i call it) 90 minutes later.

At 4:10 am, Aria ("Speedwagon") Marie Krueger was born...and sleeping will never be the same.

Belly Bump - Week 39 (Last Week)

I apologize for being a couple of days late with this week's picture. Between a job interview in Ohio and some conflicting scheduling, I wasn't able to snap a picture until this morning. As you can tell, Leandra is ready to get this baby out of her belly. This is the closest resemblance to a smile I could get out of her.



She had her last doctor's appointment on Monday and everything is progressing well. Outside of some "lady-part" stuff that I didn't really need to know about, nor will I share it here, I will say that she is about 2 cm dialated. Basically, the doctor said that she can go into labor anytime now, but our "scheduled" due date is Monday, May 23. Should she not go into labor by that time, she has decided to wait an extra day and be induced on Wednesday, May 25.

Going back to her overall well-being, she is toughing it out just as any other pregnant woman has (I'm assuming). She works on Thursday and Saturday and then she is done. Luckily, both shifts are short and her boss has sid that she can leave early, if needed. her parents should be down here by Friday which I will lift her spirits as well.

Five days to go...let the countdown begin...

Belly Bump - Week 38

Nothing new to report. While Leandra was getting checked over by the doctor, I was having a representative from our hospital look at our car seat to make sure it was installed properly. My attempt at installation was not correct, but I was close. Now I know.

With a job interview next week Monday and two Group Kick classes to teach next Tuesday (morning and evening), we are keeping our fingers crossed that the baby can hold out until next Wednesday to make any "considerations."

Here is this week's picture. Again, I'm trying to make things a little interesting so we are at Opus 1 Music to display some instruments and Leandra's walking "bass drum."



(I've noticed that Leandra tends to wear a black top whenever I decide when it is picture day. I'm sure it isn't done on purpose, but you just don't get the belly detail without some color.)

Group Kick "Disaster" Class

Before I get into the sequence of events, I just want to point out that the class wasn't really a "disaster." Perhaps "headache" would be a better word. Here's how it played out:

At about 5:06 pm, I got a phone call from another instructor asking if I would want to sub for the Wednesday night kick class. Its not her class, but she offered it to me because my Tuesday morning class was cancelled due to a school delay. I wasn't really aware of the time, and freaked out to see how much time I had to get the to gym...with no car.

I know that I could make it there in about 20 minutes on my bike, but I wasn't in my gear and I would have to pack clothes. I figured that I could make it so I ran around the house getting ready. Luckliy, I went to a class this morning and I never unpacked my bag. Yeah I know...a little gross, but it ended up saving me some time.

I was out the door at 5:10, hopped on the bike and sprinted as fast as I could to the gym.

I arrived right at 5:30 ran into the locker room to change and headed to the studio. At first, it looked like I was only going to have one participant, but two more arrived. All of them were new. Not that big of a deal, right? Let me continue...

Lexie, the instructor who called me, and I were working to get the sound system set-up, but found that someone messed with the cords so nothing was working. As a stall tactic, I went over the general basics with everyone while Lexie worked on figuring out the mess. She hit a road block so I looked at the rest of it and was able to figure it out. At this point...it was about 5:40 (ten minutes late at this point).

We got moving and everything was going fine. I wasn't able to spend too much time demonstrating some of the moves before each track since I had to make up time. Unfortunately, the participants had to figure everything out on the fly. They caught on, it just took a little time.

Because I use my iPhone as my iPod, I have to make sure to turn off phone calls (airplane mode) so the music doesn't get interrrupted. Normally, I do this...except today. In my haste to get rolling, I completely forgot. As luck would have it, my wife called right in the middle of track four. I didn't pick up, but I couldn't continue the track until she went to voice mail. That was a very awkward pause.

It was right about this time that I realized that I didn't have a water bottle. Actually, I had two bottles on my bike, but I never grabbed them when I got to the gym. I usually go through two bottles of water in this class and I had zero. There were two women who were in the lobby waiting for the next class (Boot Camp) to begin. I sort of know them, so I ducked my head out the door and asked if one of them could snag a water bottle out of the cooler and I grabbed the attention of a deskworker to ring me up. Not exactly my most graceful purchase, but I was desperate.

I got through the rest of the class without a problem. I felt a little bad that I came across as being disorganized with a group of new folks so I was overly apologetic. I just hope they come back.

On a side note, because we started late, I asked the Boot Camp instructor if it was alright that I run into his time to finish the class. He took his class outside to start while I was wrapping up and one of his people tripped on something and hurt himself pretty good. I could blame myself, but I'll pass it along to the idiot who screwed up the sound system.

Belly Bump - Week 37

With all of the rain we have received over the last week, I thought I would take advantage of a dry spell to get this week's pregger pic of Leandra. This is one of the last batch of lilac bushes that have not lost their blooms yet so I had Leandra strike a pose.


When we moved down here, I decided to plant a row of lilac bushes in homage to one of the houses that I grew up in as a kid. The backyard had a number of huge lilac bushes that create a beautiful aroma in the spring. I had hoped to be here long enough for them to grow where I could take out the ugly fence back behind them, but it doesn't look like that will happen.

At our doctor's appointment yesterday, we were told that the baby is head down and we are about 1 centimeter dialated. Everything appears to be on schedule.