FuzziBunz!

Yesterday was a big day at the Haney household. After 4 1/2 weeks Gwen finally lost her umbilical cord stump! This means it's now time for cloth diapers and real baths. We bought a bunch of size small FuzziBunz and tried them out. Even though she appears to be swimming in them, they work well! We bought a dozen more of the One Size adjustable diapers and should be getting them in a couple of days.

Gwen enjoying some semi-naked kick time. Not quite as satisfying as the full naked kick time, but still fun.



First bath in her tubby. Thanks Kate and Chris for the hand-me-down!



Snuggled up in her towel with Daddy.

Happy 1 Month Gwen!

It's hard to believe our baby girl is a month old already. A friend recently told me that while the days home with an infant seem to crawl by, the months go by so fast. I can already see how that is possible. To celebrate I've posted some new pics as well as Gwen's birth story that I wrote 2 weeks ago (for all of you who are interested in that kind of thing). Enjoy!



It’s been exactly two weeks since the arrival of our little Gwen. Last night during our midnight feeding Gwen and I reminisced once again about the night she was born. At that same time 14 days earlier I was pushing like crazy to get her into this world. I wonder if this will be the ritual every Wednesday night for the next few weeks. I can picture myself years from now crawling into bed with her the night before her 16th birthday and giving her the play by play for what will probably be the hundredth time or more. Maybe I’ll spare her some of the gory details.

I wanted to write this experience down because although as a whole it’s a day I will never forget, I know the details will become fuzzy over time.

My due date was February 21st. For months I had been hearing “you should have the baby on (insert date here)… it’s my mom’s cousin’s son’s birthday” or similar suggestions as if I had some kind of control over it. I pictured going early, as many expectant mothers tend to do, yet continued to be disappointed on a daily basis those last couple of weeks.

It wasn’t that my body was not trying to get her out. Each week I would go to the doctor and hear that I had progressed more from the previous appointment and that it should be “any day now”. During these visits we also realized that my blood pressure was starting to rise to a slightly less than acceptable level.

On Wednesday, February 23rd, after many sleepless nights due to back pain and contractions and two not so great NSTs, I went to my last appointment. I was completely effaced and 3cm dilated.

“Do you want to be induced?” our doctor asked?

“Ummm…. I guess, yeah. When would we be looking at?”

“Today would be a good day”.

Doug and I just looked at each other and said “OK, I guess we’re having a baby today”.

And then the terror hit. I was about to experience labor, which you know hurts and stuff. I had a vague idea of what to expect but knew from other people’s stories that the whole childbirth thing can vary greatly for each woman. But I was excited. This baby (which I had at that point made up my mind was not really coming out) was indeed going to be born. Today.

We headed down to admissions and straight to labor and delivery where I was put into a hospital gown and attached to the monitor. At 3:00pm my midwife, Mary, came in to break my water. We had chatted a couple days prior that we would try this route first and use pitocin only if necessary. Not more than 10 minutes after breaking my water I was in active labor with contractions about 5 minutes apart.
Doug and I spent some time doing laps in the maternity ward, stopping every once in a while so I could breathe through my contractions. Back to the room to be checked and I was at 5 centimeters.

It was then that Mary suggested that I go into the Jacuzzi tub. Let me just say that the water and jets felt amazing. I was so relaxed and seemed to sail through the contractions as they came. Doug was next to me keeping me supplied with liquids and cold compresses for my head. I would have stayed in there longer, but my body temperature started to get too high for the baby.

Back in the room, I was at 6 cm and beginning to head into transition. The contractions were now every 2-4 minutes, but lasting up to 100 seconds. I was starting to feel like I wasn’t getting enough rest in between then and knew if they kept up like that I wouldn’t have anything left for pushing. My goal from the beginning was to go as natural as possible, but would be open to pain relief if necessary. I deemed it necessary and got a shot of Nubain into my IV.

From then on, I felt awesome. I was resting, contractions were back to a manageable strength, and I was feeling pretty calm and confident about the whole thing. Doug, however was freaking out. In between contractions I would all but pass out and he would keep asking me questions to me to make sure I was still alive. I assured him that everything was ok.

By the time I got checked again, I was almost completely dilated and getting ready to push. The pushing began at 10:15pm and was going really well at first. Mary, our nurse, Doug and myself were all convinced we would have a baby before midnight. About an hour in though, we hit a standstill. The baby would not go any further and my contractions were actually starting to die down. We added some pitocin into my IV to see if we could make them stronger and more productive, but still nothing. At 11:45 pm I was told we had 30 more minutes before we had to call Dr. Kirollos in to assess the situation. I pushed harder and longer, but still no progress. By the time 12:30am rolled around the decision was made. The baby’s head was not in the correct position and would not be able to be delivered vaginally.

Cue emergency c-section.

We went from calm delivery room to operating room at what could only be described as Mach 5 speed. Not going to lie… this part sucked. Prepping for a c-section would not be that bad if it weren’t for the fact that I already had a baby’s head in my birth canal and was still grunting through full force contractions. The anesthiologist asked me a bunch of questions, none of which I could tell you now since I was only really half listening. And then came the spinal anesthesia, which I may add must be administered in a cross legged position, leaning forward. Apparently this woman forgot that I had a baby in a most inconvenient place along with a catheter. We got the needles in though and seconds later I couldn’t feel anything below my chest.

Through this whole transition, poor Doug had to wait outside. He made it in just as they started to cut and he held onto my hand. They told me it would feel like a Volkswagon was being set on my chest. They weren’t totally wrong. But then we heard a cry and felt nothing but relief and joy. I think we both forgot about the whole not knowing the gender thing until we heard a voice from the other side of the curtain say “IT’S A GIRL”.

I look at Doug and we smiled. We have a daughter! “Is she a Gwendalyn?” I asked him. We went into this feeling pretty certain about our girl name, but you never quite know until they are actually here. Gwendalyn Terese became her name before we even saw her though.

And then we did see her. A mess of brown hair, chubby cheeks, and the pinkest skin you’ve ever seen. She was beautiful. In the half hour that followed, Gwen was whisked off to the nursery followed by the proud daddy. I was stitched, cleaned up, and all the while thanking these poor people profusely for dragging themselves out of bed in the middle of the night to help us meet our baby. I think there were lots of pain killers involved.

I was wheeled into the recovery room and not more than a moment later was joined by Doug and Gwen in our first moment as a family of three. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy in my whole life.

After an amazing 5 day stay in the hospital for my elevated blood pressure (surrounded by the worlds greatest nurses I must add), we were finally able to bring our little girl home. Life is quite a bit different for us now what with baby swings and burp cloths strewn about, middle of the night wake up calls, and perpetual bags under our eyes, but we are happy and healthy and wouldn’t change it for anything.

Badass Baby Bunting

Thanks Spyder, Gwen is already dreaming of the steep and deep.

My Girls

Gwen

Meet Gwendalyn Terese Haney. She has the most incredible blue eyes, chubby cheeks and a mess of brown hair. She's inquisitive, looks around – seems to size you up when you speak to her.

She was born at 1:24 a.m. ET on Thursday via emergency C-section after Kat gutted out just over 10 hours of labor to find out our little one wasn't so little. At 7 lbs, 10 oz Gwen was too big for a 5'4 – 120 mommy. Our quiet little room with one nurse and a midwife transformed into a stark operating room, scrubs and eight bodies in about 20 minutes. I've never been more scared in my life. Then from the other side of a sheet, she cried.

She's perfect. We're perfect. It was a long, but awesome five days in the hospital and feels so good to be home with our baby.

How many babies get a birth annoucement on The Ski Channel


Chubby Cheeks (on Dougie..and Gwenie)

Which way is the beach?

Gwenie, meet your insane cousins Kayla and Bizer - via Skype.

Passing the grandma and grandpa test - with honors

Ryan Knight (far right) is stoked to meet Gwenie

Cute, cute, cute.

Our special "baby" dinner at AMC

Time to go home

Grandpa's first solo with Gwen

Happy Carnival

Way better than the prom court

Ameteur float building at its best

Medeival Times

Adirondack Lawn Chair Ladies

Bring out your dead

20,000 pack Main Street Saranac Lake (population 8,000)

Professional bobsledders Mason and Ethan

The three-man Olympic Team

Yeah, it's really fun

Wengen

Wrote this today. Wengen will do that to you...

WENGEN, Switzerland (Jan. 13) – Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT) leans back onto tan couch inside the historic Park Hotel in Wengen. The U.S. Ski Team has been staying here for decades. Robert Redford and Gene Hackman made its rooms famous in the 1969 film Downhill Racer.

"There's a book in the other room," he points. "I look at it every time I come here. The photographs in there, well, they really tell the story. Wengen is a special place."

The Wengernalpbahn, a cog rail completed in 1892, serves as taxi to the auto-free Swiss village. It continues onto Kleine Scheidegg and over a pass to Grindelwald. Three of the most ominous peaks in Switzerland - the Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger - tower above.

It will be Nyman's sixth year of racing the Lauberhorn downhill, the oldest downhill in ski racing.

"The list of names who have won here is the history of ski racing," says Nyman. "But for me, I get my most inspiration when I think about the U.S. guys who have won here like Bill Johnson (1984), Daron Rahlves (2006) and Bode [Miller, Franconia, NH; 2007, 2008]. This race is a classic. When you win here, you've become a part of Wengen."

The same cog rail that drops the entire Audi FIS Alpine World Cup field and the thousands of skis and tons of luggage in Wengen also serves as the first chair lift. Special trains are added to the meticulous Swiss schedule on race day. Athletes exit at Kleine Sheidegg and load a lift to the start, 2.7 miles above the finish.

With average times of 2:30 seconds, the Lauberhorn is also the longest race on the World Cup circuit. The Swiss Air Force flies F5 Tiger fighters in acrobatic formation at noon each day.

"The first time I raced her, I could feel my legs burning halfway down," said Nyman. "Now I feel them at about three quarters. This hill takes it all out of you. You have to fight the urge to stand up and if you win that fight, you'll be in a good position to win the race."

The Wengen finish is tucked into a farm pasture just outside the village. It's small with room enough in the stands for a few thousand. In big years 30,000 have been known to flank the Lauberhorn from top to bottom with the highest concentration packed below the famous Hundschopf, a 130 foot leap through an rock outcropping.

Beyond that is Canadian Corner, a long fall-away curve named after the Crazy Canucks, who dominated Wengen in the early 1980's. Following the harrowing turn is the Kernen-S, a near 90 degree jog onto a tight ribbon of snow before peeling left into another 90. The hill then drops through the Wasserstation, a tunnel under the Wengernalpbahn. At times the train passes as racers rip below - all this in the first half of the run.

In the lower segement, skiers reach nearly 100 mph down the Haneggschuss, then soar off the Silberhornsprung and immediately into the Austrian Hole, a near two G compression. At this point, racers have been skiing for roughly 2:20. Above the finish is the Ziel-S or what U.S. coaches call stump alley.

"The three turns above the finish are probably the hardest on the slope, not because they're particularly technical, but because you're so cooked by that point. It's not easy to be dynamic on your skis and a lot of guys 'stump out' there because of fatigue. I've been one of them," said Nyman.

A top three finish is rewarded with a helicopter ride up the vertical face of the Eiger. It then swoops back and tracks up the Lauberhorn before plunging over the summit and down into town.

"I don't like to come all the way back from the finish, I like taking the helicopter," said Miller during Thursday night's super combined bib draw. "That's why it's really important to get on the podium here."

Miller won last year's super combined in Wengen, then went on to capture the Olympic super combined gold medal.

The downhill portion starts at 4:30 a.m. ET Friday with slalom at 8 a.m. on www.UniversalSports.com. Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) starts 14, Miller 21, Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) 43 and Nyman 44.

Welcome to the 81st running of the Lauberhorn races in Wengen.