Telecommuting (in style)

telecommuting
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

During my paternity leave, i've been keeping up on my work email on various computers, including my mac laptop... in this case, in the backyard. Note the tools of the telecommuting trade in the picture: laptop, cell phone, blackberry, glass of beer, and cigar

More Photos

Kissing
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

At my mother's request, I have just posted more photos on my Flickr account, like this one of Hunter kissing his little sister for the first time.
Things are going great with Sarah, except that she's on a 9pm to 2am sleep cycle. Other than that, she's a dream.

Star Wars humor

I thought this ad was pretty funny

Sarah's Home Now

Burp
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

Because Sarema and Sarah are such studmuffins, we received an early parole from the hospital. They let us out about 22 hours after we arrived.
Mom and baby are now at home, doing fine and you can see some more pictures on my flickr account
Check out that full head of dark brown hair on Sarah!

Full Stats

Sarah Ann Wooldridge
7 lbs, 5 oz.
19.5 inches tall
All vitals are normal and she's already had two meals from mommy.
She's bigger than her brother was at birth and a lot quieter/calmer.
--------------------------
MAJ Rob Wooldridge
(Sent from my BlackBerry)

MAJ W. will be out of the office for a few weeks

My wife, Sarema, just gave birth to our daughter, Sarah, at 1828 tonite after 2.5 hours of labor and only 15 minutes after we got to the hospital.
I'll be completely out of the loop for a couple days and I'm taking 4 weeks leave starting tomorrow as previously planned. I'll have my blackberry and will pop in to the office for various crucial meetings during my leave. I'll be at my house, so don't be afraid to call my cell if you need to speak to me about something.
In accordance with the chain of sucession published on the portal, LT Vaquera will be in charge; she and Alex will pick up the slack for me while I'm gone. You all know my intent, so plan to drive on with all the scheduled activities without me for awhile.
Thanks for your support,
Rob
--------------------------
MAJ Rob Wooldridge
(Sent from my BlackBerry)

Showtime

Enroute to the hospital now. It's on like Donkey Kong.
--------------------------
MAJ Rob Wooldridge
(Sent from my BlackBerry)

No really, this might be it

Well this may be it. Sarema thinks her water has broken (more of a slow leak than a "gush", so she's not too sure). We've called Kathy the Doula and Kymi, so it's time for me to change out of my uniform, pack our stuff up, and pull the RV around to the front of the house.
I'll update more as we go. Keep your fingers crossed that Niblet's really coming into the world today!

Nothing So Far

Spent the weekend waiting for the other shoe to drop, but Niblet has still not decided to be social. We're hoping she'll decide to come into the world soon. Sarema is really hoping she'll come into the world soon.

Still No Word

Sarema didn't go in to labor again last night as we hoped. We're still in a wait-and-see mode. We're both very disappointed that her labor stopped and that Kym drove all the way down here for nothing.

or not

False alarm. The contractions stopped about 0530 this morning. I was able to get a hour or two of sleep and now I'm off to work.

Ready or not, here she comes

It's a little past 2am and Sarema thinks this is it. She's been having contractions and is pretty sure that the baby is on her way. She's called her best friend, Kym who lives in San Jose, and told her that it's time to come down for the birth. Kym was a real blessing to have around when Hunter was born, so I'm looking forward to having her here. The final member of the crew, our doula, Kathy Tuck, will hopefully be on scene here shortly, too. Kathy was a Godsend during Hunter's birth and I'm glad she'll be a part of our daughter's too.
And yes, we still haven't officially picked out a name for our daughter. We'll do that as we turn the corner on the way to the hospital (again; that's when we decided on Hunter's name, too). Nothing like waiting until the last minute.
I'll post to the blog from my blackberry if we end up going mobile and heading for the hospital. If this is just a false alarm, I'll post that, too.
Right now, we're both too excited to sleep, so we're going to catch up on some episodes of 24 on the ReplayTV.

three cool videos

here are three cool youtube videos about the next step in user interfaces:
the most radical: a touchscreen drafting table that you control with your fingertips
less radical, but still cool - BumpTop
and, of course, a neat userface for gaming (Warcraft, specifically)

OB results

Hmm, it doesn't look like we're going to make it all the way to the due date. Sarema went to the obstetrician this morning who told her that her cervix is 1.5cm dilated and 25% effaced. What does that mean? well, basically the doc didn't think it was very important to sign Sarema up for her next weekly checkup and just said "call me when you feel it's time."
So, we're thinking that our daughter should show up sometime in the next week. We're packing bags and getting ready for a trip to the hospital soon.
and I'm thinking that Sarema will win the pool with the earlier prediction.

Two weeks left

Sarema_38_weeks
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

...until Sarema's due date (24 April). Notice how big her tummy is? Niblet isn't moving around as much these days because she's getting too big for her current living quarters.
We've started a pool on when the baby will be born. You can sign up in the comments of this post.
Sarema has 17 April and I have 18 April.

Looks like fun

Wanna go for a ride?
aren't robots fun?

Birthday Photos

Birthday Cake
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

I've posted a bunch of photos about Hunter's second birthday on my flickr site. There are some shots of the party and cake with some shots of Hunter enjoying his presents in the days afterwards.

Mostly Settled

New House
Originally uploaded by Rob Wooldridge.

We're mostly settled in the new house, so I thought that I would post a picture of it and change the banner at the top of the blog to reflect our new town. We're about 30 miles south of Morro Bay (our old town) and about 3 miles inland. We traded a close beach for a big yard (font and back).
It's a quiet cul-de-sac and chock full of young families. The community mailbox and school bus stop are right out in front of our house, so we basically get to see everyone.
We really like being able to hand out in front or in back and enjoy the sun. The weather has been fantastic the past couple of weeks and we've been trying to soak it up.

Paroled

Hunter was released from the hospital Friday morning, which was also his second birthday. Everyone was home this weekend for the first time in seven days, so that was nice. Hunter has started on two weeks of oral antibiotics and Sarema is changing his dressing twice a day. It's looking a lot better than it was earlier in the week when there was a hole in his neck the size of my thumbnail.
We also threw a housewarming / birthday / surprise baby shower party on Saturday and had some friends over for that. The Hoovers, Tanguays, Olcotts, Oksners, and Allison were here and it seemed like everyone had a good time. The house is still not ready for the new baby, though, so we are continuing "postion improvement" as we say in the Army. 4 weeks and counting until she is due to come into the world.
Thanks for all the nice wishes while Hunter was in the hospital. They helped speed his recovery.