Big Poppa

I have discovered that all the advice and maxims about parenthood that people offered to us about becoming parents does not become real until the baby does. Cards with the sentiment, "get some sleep now dad, ha ha" were plentiful but simply could not prepare me for the harsh reality of "parenting" a newborn. I use the term parenting liberally because at this stage it is probably more appropriately "care taking".

"Sleep when he sleeps" - Sage advice, yes. Damn near impossible to accomplish. If the infant eats an average of every 2-2.5 hours that is a good amount of sleep between, right? Umm yeah, not so much. Through reading of parenting and baby books (such as "Babywise") you will learn that nursing infants should eat for a good 15 to 20 minutes per breast. Do the math - 2 x 20 minutes = 40 minutes. That math works using the assumption that 20 minutes of feeding will take 20 minutes. Ooops. Often it takes 30 minutes per side to get a good 15-20 minutes of feeding. The first two weeks it was my job to annoy Sawyer while he was eating so he would stay awake and actually eat. This was accomplished by rubbing his head, tickling his feet, changing his diaper, etc. So back to the math. 40 mins feeding = 1 hr. 2-2.5 hours - 1 hr = 1-1.5 hours. Not quite. After he finishes eating he is awake for a bit. The natural inclination is to put him back in his bassinet once he is back asleep.... and then lay there listening to him to make sure he is really asleep.... and not, for some irrational fear, suffocating on his blanket. That requires getting out of bed and making a visual check. Bottom line the equation works out like this:

60 minute feeding + 5 minute awake period + 5 minute diaper/outfit change +10 minute falling back asleep allowance = 80 mins

120 - 80 or 150 - 80= 40 to 70 minutes of sleep between feedings. Don't even get me started on the times he wakes up 20 minutes after falling asleep because he has gas.

All that arithmetic was to highlight one concept that is still boggling my mind - How is SteelerSteph still functional?!?! She has not had more than 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep in almost 3 weeks but is still being a great new mother. She is not complaining (much) and has embraced the job of caring and loving little Sawyer like she was born to do it.

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I am back at work this week and it has been a mixed bag. I am more tired than I have ever been at work but I am still getting it done. We are in the midst of many high impact technology projects right now and it is pretty exciting to go to work each day knowing the impact my work is having. As a firm, we are transitioning from multiple IBM Domino (Lotus Notes) centric systems to the equivalent Microsoft solutions. For example, I am leading a project that is deploying Office Communicaton Server 2007 to replace our current Instant Message software called Sametime. It is going pretty well although slightly behind (I can pinpoint that to my two weeks away from work with the baby) and slightly over budget. This is not as much of a concern as it normally would be since we have instituted a "first to the trough" policy. I purchased an entire IBM Blade chassis, a $15k of switching hardware, and $13k of Virtualization software that I will only be using a portion of, but since I was the first to this point it is charged to my OCS budget. Planning, testing, and then deploying and troubleshooting the new software has been a welcome challenge. After I get my OCS servers ship shape I will be jumping feet first into a Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1 migration. That will be a much more complex project. All of this new technology will be deployed firmwide this June. Right now it looks like it will consist of Vista on the desktop, Outlook/Exchange for Mail, OCS 2007 for Instant Messaging, Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) for collaboration, and a new Identity Management Software solution from Novell to manage all these accounts. Shaping up to be very fun (hectic, busy, crazy) spring and summer at work.

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Poker and a new baby turned out to not mix very well. I managed to deplete my $50 seeded bankroll on Full Tilt. Playing $5 and $10 SNGs with a bankroll under $100 is not advised, especially at odd hours when you are trying to comfort a fussy baby and cannot sleep. I do not have Poker Tracker installed on the new computer so I don't have much to review but I am confident it was a mixture of some bad luck, poor play, and pushing the limits to chase losses. Not sure how many diapers $50 would have purchased but it lasted at least 5 months at the low levels of Full Tilt tables and gave me some satisfaction and ultimately some frustration. Casual poker player? No doubt. It is tempting to re-load somehow so I can play in some blogger-ments but I feel like dead money in most of those due to the caliber of players.... but it is still fun and worth the price of admission.

Finally, I understand now the severe decrease in posting frequency (after becoming a dad) by one of my favorite reads, Absinthe. Wishing him luck in his live games this week.

Happy Dad

Happy Dad, originally uploaded by STeelerJosh.

Sawyer Charles came early this morning. He clocked in at 6 lbs 9 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great. He came a little earlier than expected but was still considered full term at 37 weeks. I am still trying to absorb it all and spend a good bit of my time staring at him. Kinda hard to explain, but the dads out there probably know where I am coming from.

SteelerSteph blames the Steelers-Jags game for his early arrival. That and maybe the gameday chili we had. Regardless, we are pumped that he is here and healthy! Happy Birthday Sawyer.

Boooo

In addition to high blood pressure, gripes about the annual horrible post season officiating, and frustration in some of the Steeler play calling.... I am left feeling unfulfilled. I don't think they had the personnel or the play calling to go all the way again but I do think that they should have won the game tonight and I really would have liked to see them give the Pats a run.

On the piss poor officiating of the playoffs - why does it seem so horrible every year? In both games I watched today there were blatant no calls, unexplicable overturned calls, and phantom penalty calls. I don't know why the NFL does not keep regular season crews together for the playoffs.

Enough steam blown off I suppose, time to dwell on my dissapointment until the next season..... oh wait, perhaps only as long as it takes for the next generation Steeler fan to arrive in the SteelerJosh household! SteelerSteph is ready to pop and I am amazed that this game tonight did not send her into labor. Yeah, I suppose that will put it in perspective and quickly bury this loss in the archives of my brain.

Looking forward to reading what MeanGene has to say about the game.