What an Amazing Time!

It's simply amazing to watch Olivia. Amanda and I are both addicted to her already! She's such a quiet baby...at least for now. That will change, I know, but I'm doing my best to enjoy just looking at her in such a peaceful state. I'm in awe and I love every second of it.

Amanda is doing very well recovering from her c-section. We should be leaving the hospital Saturday. As I sit here and type this, Amanda is sleeping with Olivia in the cradle at the end of the bed. I am such an incredibly lucky man. God is truly shining down on me and all I can do is thank Him over and over again for all His blessings. Here are two more pictures of Olivia. The first two you can't really see her face very well. With these, you definitely won't have that problem. You can see her self-inflicted scratches pretty well in the first one. Those baby fingernails are sharp! We may try cutting fingernails tomorrow. The second picture is my favorite so far. Remember all the hair the last ultrasound showed? It wasn't wrong!!!

Olivia's Birthday

Olivia Raine Swiatowy

Born: March 29, 2006 at 5:10pm CST
Weight: 7 pounds, 5 ounces
Length: 19.5 inches

Mom and baby are doing great...and dad's doing okay too.

We're Going In!

After this morning's visit to the ObGyn, Amanda decided she wanted to go ahead with the inducing process and the doctor agreed. So, we are headed to the hospital this evening! They will first try to kick the cervix into gear and see if it will thin out enought to cause stronger contractions. If that doesn't get labor started, they will start Pitocin tomorrow morning. If all goes well, Olivia's birthday will be tomorrow! I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow (depending on my level of consciousness). Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

40 Weeks of Pregnancy...

...and we're still waiting for Olivia's arrivial. At this point, all we can do is be patient and wait. So, we wait...

Not Cleared to Land

After this morning's visit to the ObGyn, the doctor has decided to give it another week before doing anything...that is if Amanda doesn't go into labor naturally sometime this week. The doctor noted some progress, but it has been slow up to this point. Looks like my "spring baby" prediction is down the drain. That's okay...as long as Amanda doesn't have too much discomfort, she is willing to wait it out until Olivia is ready to join us. The biggest problem Amanda is dealing with is hip pain. We're using a combination of heat and massage to ease the pain. That's it for now...we're just waiting like everyone else! :-)

Still Standing By

After those pretty strong contractions last Friday night, things have calmed down quite a bit. That's not to say there's still some progression taking place. Amanda says there's a definite change in the way things feel, and she's still having general cramping, but we still haven't moved to the "full steam ahead" phase. At the last appointment (Monday), the exam showed that nothing has really changed in the last week. That's not all bad because the doctor is on vacation this week. Anyway, just a quick update to let y'all know nothing has happened...yet. More updates will be given as conditions warrant.

It May Be Getting Close

Amanda has had two well-defined contractions in the last 16 hours...one coming late last night and another after dinner tonight. They both started at the top of Amanda's belly and worked their way down. It seems that things may be progressing...not necessarily fast, but they do seem to be moving along now. Tomorrow, Amanda will be at week #38. I took a picture of her today and it may very well be the last pregnant picture I take of her...with this pregnancy, at least. :-) She's come a long way! Let's revisit the past, shall we? Say 24 weeks (roughly 6 months) ago. Here's the picture I took of her at 14 weeks:
Amazing how quickly things change! Thanks to all of you for your love and support! I'll do my best to keep you posted!

Full Term!

Today, Amanda is 37 weeks pregnant and is now considered full term! It's time to place your bets, ladies and gentlemen! What day will she arrive? How much will she weigh? I'm going with March 20th and a weight of 6 pounds, 12 ounces. The reason I'm picking March 20th is because it's the day spring starts and since I proposed to Amanda on the first day of winter, I thought it would be quite appropriate. As for the 6 lbs, 12 oz., spring arrives at 1:26pm, so I just rearranged the numbers a little. Amanda thinks Olivia will arrive on March 25 and weigh 6 pounds, 5 ounces. What do you think? Post your guess! We'd love to see 'em! I may even come up with some sort of prize for the person who guesses closest! Maybe I'll send you Olivia's first soiled diaper!! LOL! :-)

Also, thanks to Damon and Laurie, we now have a Pack-n-Play!

4 Weeks (or Less?) Left

So here we are...roughly four weeks away from the blessed event and the levels of discomfort, excitement, and even apprehension are starting to really go up. We've also been staying very busy with accomplishing a few final tasks in preparation for Olivia. First and foremost, Amanda's health and general well being. As mentioned in my previous post, Amanda is feeling the Braxton-Hicks contractions with more frequency and with greater intensity. This is not only the body's way of getting prepared for "the big push", but also giving Amanda a taste of what's to come. Today, the false-labor contractions were their strongest yet probably for two reasons: One, at the doctor's appointment today, he checked on Amanda's progress which may have exacerbated things a bit (more on the doctor's appointment later). Secondly, we had a record warm day today with highs in the lower 80s and that made Amanda one uncomfortable mom-to-be. The contractions are still erratic and "weak", so there's nothing to worry about at this point. Other than that, she's doing very well.

We've been quite busy the past few days. Saturday, we went to the breastfeeding class offered by the hospital. It was a very informative and enlightening class...maybe more than I need to know, but Amanda got a good bit of information out of it.

Sunday, we did a little shopping. We took back the Roomba vacuum (robotic vacuum) I got her for Christmas because while the concept of the Roomba is good, the functionality of it isn't. It can clean the surface of the carpet, but can't get down and deep clean...especially if you have dogs that shed. We purchased a few more baby items, then Amanda and I went to Outback for a nice dinner date. We're going to try to squeeze in a few more of those over the next couple of weeks while we still can.

Monday, we went to the hospital. Now don't get all jumpy or excited...nothing went wrong and nothing happened. We went there to get all the admitting paperwork filled out and signed so when it is time to go to the hospital, all we have to do is show up. Amanda signed all the necessary forms then we were given a tour of their facilities. I have to say it's pretty nice up there. They have private rooms with the ability to get fairly comfortable, listen to music of your choice (bring your own CDs), even take a bath or shower to help the mom-to-be relax. We also strolled by the nursery...and that's when it hit Amanda that this really is going to be happening very soon. We talked about it later at lunch how seeing those newborn babies in the nursery is the subtle scream that our time is coming quickly.

Today (Tuesday), we had our latest appointment with the doctor and he did a low-grade ultrasound. Unfortunately, we didn't get any take-home pictures with this ultrasound. He used it to make sure Olivia is in the right position (head down) and she is. He also checked to make sure she has enough amniotic fluid which she does. He also estimated Olivia's weight which is roughly five and a half to six pounds. His examination then focused on Amanda and found that she is 50% effaced meaning her cervix has started to thin out and is about half way through the thinning out process. She is not dilated yet, though. The next appointment is March 6th (this Monday) and we'll find out what kind of progress she's made. Speaking of progress, here is a picture of Amanda at 36 weeks:

Just one more thing to add...as the day gets closer, I'll do my best to keep y'all posted. However, the length of the posts will likely drop off drastically. Basically, you can expect quick bursts of information. This will likely be the last lengthy post for quite a while...so wish us luck!

A Quick Update

Just a quick update...I will be posting a full entry either Tuesday or Wednesday after our next ObGyn appointment. This will likely be the last ultrasound before Olivia's birthday. I should have a fresh batch of pics to share as well.

Amanda is doing very well as she begins her 36th week of pregnancy. The Braxton-Hicks contractions (pre-labor contractions...also called false labor) are getting a bit stronger and a touch more frequent, but not to the point that they have any determined rhythm to them. Her back is starting to ache more as well. Other than that, she's doing okay.

One side note to pass along...Warren is out of the hospital and feeling much better (except for some sore ribs). Thanks to all of you who kept him in your thoughts and prayers.

Much more to post early next week!

In a Holding Pattern

I had a difficult time starting this blog entry. Not because there isn't anything going on...trust me, there's plenty of things still taking place. It's mainly because we're at the point in the pregnancy where we are in the "baby holding pattern". I almost feel like we're in a plane with Amanda as the pilot and I'm the co-pilot. We're circling the airport waiting for a runway to clear so we can bring Olivia Airlines flight #1 in for a (hopefully) smooth landing. In the meantime, we're "preparing the cabin for landing" by tying up any loose ends left dangling around. I attended Daddy Boot Camp last week Thursday and that was very educational. They had a couple baby dolls so the guys could practice changing diapers and also had an "empathy suit" so the guys could feel the extra weight and awkwardness their wives/significant others are putting up with. It was an excellent class and I would highly recommend it to any guy getting ready to be a dad.

Amanda and I were supposed to go to a breastfeeding class this past Saturday, but she felt sick with a sore throat and was simply worn down...so we'll attend the next available class in another week or so.

The appointment with the ObGyn on Monday was uneventful. The next appointment will be on the 28th and it will include the next ultrasound. Monday we also went out and purchased the last wave of items needed before Olivia graces us with her presence. Included in the purchase were diapers, wipes, crib and bassinet sheets, thermometer, children's Tylenol, and more hand sanitizer (I guess you can never have too much of that stuff). A big thank you goes out to my dad for picking up the tab from this last mini shopping spree.

Tuesday was of course Valentine's Day and it was also my Dad's birthday...Happy Birthday Dad!!! For Valentine's Day, Amanda got me three different types of chocolate collections. As a verifiable chocoholic, that's just what I needed. I'm sure my waistline will thank me later. For Amanda, I bought her some flowers and a card...but I also did some of the things around the house that she wanted to do but simply didn't have the time or energy to get finished. The biggest thing I did was put the finishing touches on the nursery. I bought a couple power strips for all the nursery items that require electricity...and the number of items totaled more than the number of plugs available. I put up the curtain rod and valence. I put all the toys away and the tools in their proper places. The result is: The nursery is now fully baby ready. Here is the last batch of pictures of the nursery before Olivia makes her arrival:





Everything is looking good...especially my gorgeous bride and mother-to-be! I got a little ahead of myself in the previous blog entry when I said it was week 34...that was actually week 33. This is now week 34:

One more thing before I wrap up this entry...this morning, my stepdad Warren (he's the one who was such a big help in getting the nursery painted) became dizzy and briefly passed out at my sister's house in Indiana. He was taken to the hospital where he's being monitored, but is doing just fine. It appears that Warren's body told Warren's hard-working mind and spirit to take a break for a few days! Still, I'd like to ask everyone to keep Warren in their prayers. Thank you very much! More to come soon!

The Clock is Ticking

Sorry for the long time between posts. It's been a busy couple of weeks with generally small things going on, but with so many of them stacked up back to back to back, it really starts adding up quickly.

First, we had another ObGyn appointment back on the 30th of January. Everything is as it should be with our next appointment coming up February 13th. After that, Amanda will be making weekly visits to see the doctor. On or about February 20th, we will be having one more ultrasound (the "low-grade" version) to make sure Olivia is ready to come into this world. Now the question is...are we ready for Olivia? For the most part, the answer is "yes". We have a few more small items to purchase before she gets here, but in general we're about as ready as we're gonna be. Other than a possible set of drawers, the nursery is done too. Here's a picture of the nursery with the crib, changing dresser, and glide rocker (with a nightstand just off camera to the left side of the rocker) all set up:
With the exception of sleep depravation, almost always feeling overheated, and not ever seeming to get enough to eat (Olivia is just taking every last calorie!), Amanda is doing pretty well. We got a good dose of birthing education this last weekend. After the class, we went to Wal-Mart and bought a birthing ball (one of those large exercise balls) since Amanda liked the way it worked when we tested it out in class. Tomorrow (Thursday), I'm going to "Daddy Boot Camp", a baby education class strictly for the guys. On Saturday, Amanda and I are going to breastfeeding class. I don't know if I should be going or not, but all this stuff just fascinates the hell out of me, so I'm planning on going for the educational value if nothing else.

I'll certainly be trying my best to keep y'all updated better over the next few weeks. It's all starting to blur together and my mind is turning into a bowl of oatmeal, so please excuse me if my ramblings seem to wander off on some weird tangent. Once the Daddy Boot Camp and breastfeeding classes are done, I'll post another update. Until then, here's Amanda at 33 weeks:

Whew!

Holy cow! What a whirlwind of a week! First off, a big "thank you" goes out to everyone who attended the baby shower and gave us all those needed items! Overall, the baby shower was a huge success. We got tons of much-needed baby stuff!! Unfortunately, Damon and Laurie were not able to come down from Tulsa because Laurie was under the weather. On the flip side, we had surprise visitors from Tulsa when Carol and Tyson Hinther showed up quite unexpectedly! Carol and Amanda became friends while at OU as they endured many classes together.

From there, things didn't quiet down because Warren and I started working on painting the nursery. Let me tell you, Warren is a master painter! Well, not really, but he has a lot more experience in painting rooms than me and he did an excellent job on this daunting task. It took three days to get the painting done, the ceiling fan put up, and place the furniture. Two of the walls have the sky blue and grass green with the other two walls having a lighter blue and lighter green. Here's a before and after look at the nursery (remember to click on the image to see the full-sized picture):

Let's not forget the ultrasound we had last week Friday too! Our little girl is estimated to be 3 pounds, 3 ounces right now. She's healthy and everything is normal. The only issue is she's breech meaning her head is still up, but there's plenty of time for her to get head down into the birthing position. One thing the ultrasound attendant pointed out is how much hair she already has! You know it's quite a bit when the attendant says, "bring a bow with you to the hospital." Here's an ultrasound picture...unlabeled and labeled:
Of course, as the baby grows, so does Amanda's belly! Here's a picture of her taken in the nursery for the first time! This picture represents week #32! Amanda was in a feisty mood when this picture was taken. You can also see the two other colors in the nursery.
Lastly, as I mentioned before, we have come to a decision on the baby's first name. The name we selected is Olivia! We both just love the name, so that was the easy part. The middle name is a different story, however. After lengthy discussions trying to decide between Skye and Mackenzi, we came to an impasse and have opted to start over. When we agree on a middle name, we'll be sure to let y'all know! Until then, y'all take care!

Let the Chaos Begin

This is going to be one of those weeks...by the time Sunday rolls around, Amanda and I will probably want to sleep all day. It starts with Monday when we plan on selecting the colors to paint the nursery. We found the crib bedding pattern we liked at a store here in Amarillo, but all they had was the "cradle bedding" version...plus, it was a discontinued pattern. So, I had to use my well-honed online shopping skills to find the pattern in crib bedding form. Well, I found it...but the prices were running around 300 to 400 dollars. 300 to 400 bucks for crib bedding?? Are you kidding me?? Then I checked e-Bay. Fortuneately, I found one set up for auction. I watched it for a few days...no one had bid on it yet. The auction ended on a Tuesday morning so I paid very close attention to it all morning. Still no bids. So I put my initial bid on it for the opening price of 50 bucks. Time ticked down...still no other bids. With 10 seconds left, I raised my maximum bid to 150 dollars. Turned out I didn't need to do it...I won the bedding for 50 dollars (58 when you include shipping)! So, I saved us at least 250 bucks! Now that's what I'm talking about!!! Here's a picture of the crib bedding:
We now have the colors of the crib bedding, therefore we can now select the colors for the room. Monday, we'll go to Home Depot or Lowe's and do some color selections. Well, actually, we're going to do some preliminary color choices today (Sunday) then go back Monday with our choices and buy the paint and supplies we need. With any luck, we'll be able to do this Monday and not drag it out because there's plenty more going on this week.

Tuesday is our next ObGyn appointment. At our last appointment, the doctor said we would be up for another ultrasound. Now, I'm not sure if he means we'll be doing a "low grade" ultrasound there in the office, or if we'll be doing one of the "high quality" ultrasounds (the clearer pictures, plus the ability to show 3-D images). If we do a "low grade" ultrasound, then it will be done on Tuesday, if it's the "high quality" one, then it probably won't be done until later this week, at the earliest. Personally, I'm willing to wait a few more days for better-looking images. I'm really excited to see what she looks like now, though!

Wednesday, my mom (Pauline) and step-dad (Warren) fly in to town for Amanda's baby shower...which takes place on Saturday (see what I mean about a busy week!!). They haven't been to Amarillo since we moved into our house which was back in May of 2003. It will be nice to have them out here and spend some time with them. Plus, Warren has to buy me a steak because Michigan State (his alma mater) lost to Michigan (a team I've liked since I was young) in football this year...and trust me, you can get an awesome steak out here in the Texas Panhandle. Amanda and I have to work Wednesday through Friday and that will just add to the hecticness of everything.

Thursday is Warren's birthday, so I hope to make it an enjoyable birthday for him and help him celebrate. I don't know what we'll be doing yet, but with me at work that day, that kind of limits the possibilities.

Friday should be fairly quiet (the calm before the storm, if you will), but I think our very dear friends Damon and Laurie will be driving in from Tulsa in the evening. It's always good to see them...it's too bad we live so far away from each other. They really are our best friends. In fact, they will be our daughter's Godparents.

Then Saturday arrives. Saturday is going to be Amanda's day...it's her baby shower. We briefly talked about having a "couples" baby shower, but with some many other people in town, we decided it would be best to have it be an event for the ladies. Not only will Damon and Warren be here, but so will Jim and Sylvia Westmoreland (Amanda's dad and step-mom), plus Amanda's mom (Teri) and step-dad (Carl) already live here in Amarillo. The baby shower is being held just down the road at a neighbor's house...Amy and Jameson Longanecker offered up their house to us for the shower. I can't leave Jameson to deal with all those women, so hopefully he'll join the rest of the guys over here. Basically, while the girls are at the shower, the guys will be here at our house watching sports, eating pizza, and drinking beer. Good stuff, eh? Now you see why this is going to be a long week!

A couple more things before I end this entry...first, Amanda and I feel we have decided on a first name. I won't be posting it until after the shower is done, at the very earliest. It may be even later than that because we are still discussing the middle name...and that may take some time to reslove. Second, here's the latest picture of Amanda. This represents week 30...three-quarters of the way through the pregnancy.

What's in a Name?

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope y'all had a safe and fun New Year celebration. We really didn't do much at all. I had to work and Amanda was too tired to even make it to midnight, so we drank some sparkling grape juice at 11:00pm CST (midnight eastern time) and called it a night. We celebrated the new year early by going to Wal-Mart Friday night and completed our baby registry there. I know, I know...we really need to settle down and stop being so wild on Friday nights (please note the sarcasm). So, now we're registered at two stores...Wal-Mart and Target. Amanda and I think that will suffice for now.

Something really cool happened this week though. Amanda and I were sitting down watching TV when our little miracle started moving around. The cool part was watching the baby moving so much that it made Amanda's belly twitch and bulge! It was amazing! I know I'll get to see more of that over the next three months, but that was the first time I really got a chance to see her belly move that much. What a cool experience!

Amanda has also started the process of changing her name from Westmoreland to Swiatowy. When Amanda and I got married six years ago, she really didn't want to have to deal with all the flack that comes with an unusual last name like Swiatowy (pronounced swat-a-way). We agreed a long time ago that when it came time to start a family, she would change to Swiatowy for the simple reason that it makes things easier all the way around.

Speaking of names...this evening, Amanda showed me her list of names. After some discussion, we have narrowed it down to a list of five...call it "the final five" if you will. We wanted to post the potential names for everyone to see and give feedback just in case there was some aspect of the names that we weren't aware of (bad connotations, correlations, etc.). So, feel free to give us your feedback and let us know which ones you like and why! Without further delay, here is the list of names in no particular order:

• Autumn Mackenzi
• Olivia Skye
• Abigail Mackenzi
• Autumn Raine
• Olivia Mackenzi

Last but certainly not least, here's the latest picture of Amanda...this represents week #28:

No Name...At Least Not Yet

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Amanda and I had a very enjoyable Christmas...except for me having to work Christmas Eve and Day. Oh well, part of the TV business I guess. Next year will be different though. Come hell or high water, I will be off for Christmas next year! Ok...time to get off the soapbox.

Amanda is doing very well and the pregnancy also seems to be running its course just fine. It's now week #27 which means the last leg of this journey...the third trimester...has now begun! We had an appointment with the ObGyn earlier today. Nothing new there except that Amanda needs to do a glucose screening test. This is the point in the pregnancy where Amanda is checked for the onset of gestational diabetes due to the pregnancy. According to some of the information I've been reading, somewhere between 2 and 7 percent of expectant mothers develop gestational diabetes making it one of the most common health problems during pregnancy.

As the title of this entry suggests, we have not decided on a name yet. The week before Christmas ended up being really hectic for Amanda, so she wasn't able to finalize her name list. So, we have pushed back the process of selecting a name until things have calmed down around here. That means sometime after the New Year...when Amanda scales back to working 4 days a week...is when we'll probably start putting our heads together on a name. In the meantime, we continue prepping the house for the baby's arrival. We now have a crib and changing table/dresser thanks to our neighbor across the street. Now we just have to come up with a theme for the baby room then we can go to town on that.

Here' s the latest picture of Amanda. Happy New Year!

Not Much Has Changed

Just a quick update...nothing new to report as of now. The December 6th appointment was just a general check up to make sure everything was going smoothly...and it is. Amanda and I have spent the last week cleaning out every room in the house. Some people may call this nesting, and that's what it pretty much is. We've got a good pile of stuff for a garage sale and have really opened up quite a bit of space in the house both for baby and for us.

Amanda has decided on January 21st as the day she's going to have her baby shower. So with that in mind, we went to Target one night and did our first go round of registering for baby stuff. Holy cow, there's more baby thing on the market than you can shake a stick at! The cool thing about being registered at Target is anyone can look at the registry list online and even buy things online and have it shipped...so with so many of our family and friends in different parts of the country, they can still get us something we need. We'll probably also register at Toys R Us (we don't have a Babies R Us here) and Wal-Mart since they both have good supply of baby goodies. If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.

As for the list of names...Amanda is getting her list together now and our goal is to have a name picked out by Christmas. If I can get Amanda's list before we make the final decision, I will be sure to post it.

I plan to update this blog one more time before Christmas with a new picture of Amanda, but just in case I don't get the chance because of other activities, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

Back to Baby Stuff!!

Okay, I've given you nearly every detail concerning Hurricane Wilma. In the past month, I've only had one entry that actually dealt with the topic at hand: Amanda and I headed down the path to parenthood for the first time. We strayed from the path, but now it's time to return to the path.

So what's been going on in the past month? Well, the biggest news was revealed during the ultrasound when we found out we're having a girl. That means I will be outnumbered 4 to 1 in my house...Amanda, the two female dogs, and now a baby girl on the way. Yikes...too much estrogen! I better be ready to get in touch with my feminine side. I know I'm in trouble already...she's going to be "daddy's little girl" which means I don't stand a chance. She already has me wrapped around her little finger and she's not even born yet!

Something else that has changed is Amanda's appearance...more specifically, the growth of the belly. I know I haven't posted any pictures of Amanda recently and I apologize for that. I'll do my best to make up for that now. Here's how she looked at 19 Weeks:
So very cute and a well-defined belly showing. Now onto the 20th week:
Not too much of a change from week 19. One thing that just amazes me is the glow Amanda has being pregnant. She just radiates incredible beauty! Well, she does that everyday, but it's even more pronounced now that she's pregnant. Here's week 21:
She really didn't want me to take a picture on that day...yet being the trooper that she is, she put down the meat cleaver she was going to kill me with and smiled for a picture (I'm just kidding about the meat cleaver...it was more along the lines of a steak knife.) This next picture was taken this past Saturday (the 26th), so this is the most recent one at 23 weeks:

Doesn't she look simply fabulous?? As you can probably guess, she likes that purple shirt (both in week 20 and 23). The problem is there just aren't many clothing options out there for "vertically challenged" pregnant women. Being 5 foot and pregnant isn't an easy shopping experience.

The other big thing to pass along is that Amanda is feeling our little girl kicking and punching, moving and grooving. I have felt her moving around too...it's an amazing experience...I gently press down on Amanda's stomach and "Little Miss Thing" pokes back. Very cool stuff!

We've got the back room cleared out (well, mostly cleared out with the only items left in there being books that were going to put on a soon-to-be-bought bookshelf), but we haven't decided on a theme for the baby room yet. We also haven't decided on a name yet because Amanda hasn't gotten through all the baby name books yet. That's right...I'm calling her out! That's okay though...I want her to take her time and come up with names she really likes so we can decide together on a name. I have come up with my top six names and I'll share them with you in a minute. My original top choice is a name we unfortunately can't use. Allow me to explain...I really like the name Autumn Skye but we can't use it because her full name would be Autumn Skye Swiatowy giving her the initials A.S.S. and that would make her childhood and teen years a living hell. So that one had to go by the wayside and I was bummed about that...but I've come back strong with other possibilities. Here is my top six in no particular order:

• Autumn Raine
• Alexia Mackenzie
• Bayleigh Victoria
• Autumn Mackenzie
• Sierra Skye
• Amber Mackenzie

Well, there they are...but you have to remember these are coming from a guy and what guy in his right mind would be able to come up with a good girl's name, right? Feel free to give your feedback if you dare! Once Amanda comes up with her list, I'll be sure to post it.

Our next ObGyn appointment is next Tuesday (the 6th). If anything of interest happens, I'll be sure to pass it along. Until the next post, y'all take care!

The Epilogue

Okay, now that Thanksgiving is done and the nasty little winter storm has left the area, I now have the time to complete this final entry. It's obvious when I say our trip to Cancun did not go the way we had wanted. It was not a restful vacation, but it was very educational. We learned so much while we were down there...and it wasn't a few "learn and forget" tidbits, the things we learned down there will probably stick with us the rest of our lives. For those of you who travel (whether it's every once in a while, occasionally, or frequently), there are some items we will never leave behind again: First, we will always carry a pocket-sized multi-use tool (kind of like a swiss army knife, but with more than just a knife...it will have the pliers, screwdriver, etc.). I know they're not allowed on the plane, but pack it in your checked baggage then pocket it once you get to your destination. Also, a batteryless flashlight. I think the cost around 25 bucks, but I think it's well worth the investment. Lastly, if you're staying in the states, buy a calling card. If you're going out of the country, buy an international calling card. Our cell phones died within a day and a half. No electricity meant no charging (I even bought a hand-held wind-up charger for my cell phone, but that didn't work so well).

We also learned a lot about Mexican culture, how it differs from our own, and how it is similar. It was a real eye-opener to see how an average Mexican family lives and how lucky we are to have everything that we do here in the United States. This was a family with two incomes and they still lived in a very small house with only a few extra amenities. They get by with very little and are just happy to have what they do have.

If I had to narrow down the single reason we made it through Hurricane Wilma, it would be because of the people of Cancun. These people, who had to deal with one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit Cancun, realize how important tourism is to their economy. Despite all the terrible things they have to go through in terms of getting their own lives back on track, they made us (the tourists) their priority. They know that if we leave Cancun with a bad taste in our mouth, we will tell people about our experience and advise them not to go. The people of Cancun know how critical it is for us to leave there with the feeling of being cared for and to realize that despite all the chaos and trouble, that Cancun is a nice place with friendly, helpful people...and most importantly, the desire to want to back to Cancun for a future vacation. So, they took care of us before taking care of themselves. One of our FunJet representatives had three feet of water in his house...basically his house was a total loss, but he was at the shelter everyday making sure the evacuees were okay and helping us get on a plane and get back home. They had a commitment to us and they stuck by that commitment. It wasn't the people from the hotel, it wasn't the police or civil protection, it was the citizens of Cancun who helped us get through this ordeal in one piece.

Last but certainly not least, I learned how well Amanda and I work as team. Through all the stress and chaos, we worked so well together. We talked out problems and solutions, and with the exception of the airport, we stayed pretty close to each other. I give Amanda all the credit in the world too. She was strong and tough when she needed to be and kind, caring, and helpful when it was needed. That's why I love her so much and why I'm so glad she's my wife.

I guess the final question is will we ever go back to Cancun. I think we might. Will we go during hurricane season? No way in hell!!! This final picture is how I would like to remember Cancun. It was a picture I took the evening we arrived: Back to baby stuff (including pics of Amanda) later this week!

The Conclusion to the Cancun Experience

This entry begins with me and Amanda spending our last night in the Haro Diaz house sound asleep in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. I woke up and felt as though something was different. I lifted my head off the pillow and looked out the window...there was something different indeed...the streetlights were on! I guess that's one advantage to living on the same street as a hospital...that's one of the streets that gets power back first. I went back to sleep, but it was a little more difficult now that the glow of the the streetlights was coming into the room.

Josefina acted as our alarm clock Tuesday morning (the 25th) and woke us up at 6:00. We ate our breakfast (one more nice spread of fresh fruit) and then it was time for us to go back over to the school and find out what was going to happen next. Josefina had to go to work, so Jose needed to take her to the bus stop. That meant this was the time for us to say goodbye. It's hard to say an adequate "thank you" to a family who has opened their home and their hearts to complete strangers. They didn't have to...they could have stayed at their house and Amanda and I would have made it through this tough time with the rest of the evacuees at the school. They didn't do that though. They went out looking for people to help. They fed us, they gave us a comfortable bed to sleep on, they did everything they could to make it through this incredible ordeal. How do you thank someone for doing so much? Amanda and I did our best with some hugs and a few tears. We tried to give them money and initially they wouldn't accept it. We told them that if they wouldn't accept it for themselves, then at least put it in a college fund for Coral and Ambar (which they were trying to save for anyway). We said goodbye and walked over to the school where all the other FunJet people had gathered. About an hour later, a bus pulled up and we all got on board. I snapped one last picture of Ambar and Coral as they were there to see us off.

While on the bus, we talked with two other couples that were from the Dallas area, Joe & Jennifer and Jesse & Erin. They were all really friendly and we chatted all the way to our next destination...which turned out to be a school across the street from the original shelter (the gymnasium) we stayed at for the first day. As we were getting off the bus, the six of us decided we would stick together as best we could since we were all trying to get back to Texas. After waiting at the school for about half an hour, they had us get into groups of ten and board a travel van. The six of us and two other couples got on the first van not knowing if we were going to another shelter or if we were going to Merida, the nearest town with an operational airport. Thankfully, Joe speaks Spanish very well and he asked the driver where we were going next. The driver responded we were headed to Merida! A roar of cheers erupted on the bus. We were so happy that we were finally taking that next big step toward getting home.

Take a look at this map of the Yucatan Peninsula:

You can see Cancun in the upper right corner. You can also see the road going west out of Cancun that would take us straight to Merida. There's a problem with that, however. Wilma apparently did some pretty extensive damage to that road, so we had to take an alternate route. We had to take the road going south all the way down to Felipe Carillo Puerto then go west/northwest back toward Merida. The road going straight to Merida would have taken four hours. This trip would end up taking us nine hours! A large chunk of that time was eaten up right off the bat as we ran into a traffic jam just south of Cancun airport. The picture below shows the problem:

There was still a lot of water covering this road and only one lane was passable. Traffic was backed up as we all tried to squeeze down to one lane. This added about an hour to our trip. Once we got through the water, the roads were clear. We drove through Playa del Carmen, which got hit pretty bad as well, but nothing bad enough to slow us down. We kept driving south stopping at Tulum and at Felipe Carillo Puerto for potty breaks and a chance to get some snacks. We passed the time on the van by talking to Joe, Jennifer, Erin, and Jesse. It was really interesting to go though the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula and see all the small Mexican towns and villages.

It was dark by the time we arrived in Merida. I had brought with us a small map book that we had received back in the hotel just in case...and it's a good thing I did because we quickly found out that our van driver had no idea where the airport was in Merida. He pulled over a couple times and asked locals where the airport was, but no one seemed capable of giving us a decent response. We finally came across a group of police and they initially gave us directions. Then they offered to give us an escort right to the airport! All the people who had traveled with FunJet were being grouped together outside well away from the terminal. We unloaded the bus and sat around with the rest of the people waiting to see what would be coming up next.

It was 9:30 when we started talking about trying to get some food for all of us. I was especially concerned for Amanda...it had been quite a while since our last decent meal (breakfast then only snacks on the trip). There was a Burger King up in the terminal, so "the guys" from our van decided we would go up there and get some food for the girls and bring it back. We walked up to the terminal and when we got there, I simply couldn't believe the number of people! It was a sea of stranded travelers with barely any room to move at all! We make our way to the end of the Burger King line and it's incredibly long as well. We stand there for just a couple of minutes and decide it would take too long to get anything from there, so we start heading back out of the terminal and toward the girls when we see our van driver. He offers to drive us someplace to get food! We had heard any FunJet flights were going to be delayed for quite some time, so we decided to hop in the van and go get food. We drive around and finally find a Domino's Pizza as our best option. We order some pizzas and wait while they're being made. They had a TV on and we watched some of the video out of Cancun. The shots of the damage they were showing was incredible...especially Cancun airport. In hindsight, I'm so glad we didn't try to stay in Cancun and wait for a flight from that airport. It would have taken us several more days to get home. We get our pizzas, hop back in the van, and go back to the airport. Traffic is bad driving around the front of the airport, so we get out of the van and walk over to where the girls were. At this point, we had been gone about an hour and a half. As we're walking up, one of the other girls on our van says, "You guys better hurry up or you're going to miss your plane." At first I thought she was kidding. Then she says to me, "Hurry up, your wife is right up there." I get this really deep sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I see Amanda running toward the terminal and I call out to her. She whips around and yells, "BRIAN???" I said yes and she says something to me I can't repeat here, but trust me, she was pissed. I found out later that about 10 minutes after we got in the van, the people from FunJet went up and down the row telling everyone who needed to go to Dallas that the plane was ready to board. Amanda, Erin, and Jennifer collected our things and made their way to the terminal to get us thinking that we were in line at Burger King. Of course, we weren't there and when they couldn't find us, they started freaking out. Amanda told me later that at one point, the FunJet representative told her to get on the plane without me because with her being pregnant, it was more important for her to get on that plane. Amanda had all the bags including my birth certificate and if she had gotten on that plane, I would only have my driver's license as an ID. Because of that. she firmly told them she was not getting on that plane without me.

Jesse, Joe, and I gathered around the girls and our pile of luggage. I don't know how many times I apologized to Amanda for what happened. All we wanted to do was get some food for the girls and us...and now it looked as though it may have cost us our best chance to get home. I went up to the ticket counter to see if there were any seats available and the FunJet rep said no. I went back to where we had our stuff and apologized to Amanda again...at least she was chewing on a piece of pizza. Just as I bit into a piece myself, the FunJet rep I had just spoken with comes up to us and says, "There are seats still available on this flight. Get you things and come with me." Amanda and I drop our pizza, get our stuff, and follow the FunJet rep through the packed terminal. Initially, I thought Amanda and I were the only ones who were going to make it on this plane, but there were four more seats so Joe, Jennifer, Jesse, and Erin were going to get on this flight too! Talk about luck!! We all got up to the ticket counter, check our luggage, got our boarding passes, and made our way to the plane. We sat in the plane for about 45 minutes while some paperwork was being completed. We finally took off somewhere around midnight and we were finally headed back to the United States. The flight was going to stop in Houston before continuing on to Dallas, and since our original flight took us from Amarillo to Houston to Cancun, I figured we'd have an easier time getting back to Amarillo from Houston.

We landed in Houston, got off the plane, went through customs, got our luggage, then waited in the terminal for the Continental ticket counter to open up. Once it did, we got tickets for a 9:00am flight to Amarillo. We got some breakfast from McDonald's then slept at our gate area until it was time to go back to Amarillo. The flight from Houston to Amarillo was a quiet one...we both slept a little. After landing in Amarillo and getting our luggage, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for a decent meal then went home and went to sleep...thus concluding our amazing vacation-turned-survival-adventure in Cancun. I will have a few final thoughts...an epilogue, if you will...for my next posting. I hope those of you who took the time to read this got a sense of what Amanda and I went through. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. After my epilogue, it's back to pure baby stuff...including potential names for our little girl!