Super Ginormous

Category: Personal

Posts of a more personal nature.

  • Fatherhood, One Month Later

    It’s been one month since Tyler came into our lives. One month. Seems completely unreal to me.

    For Kim, this has been an experience she’s accustomed to. She’s helped her sister with her two children… So diapers and bottle feedings are nothing new to her. For me, each day is an adventure. I think I may have changed two or three diapers in my lifetime, prior to Tyler. Now, I change a couple a day… feed a couple of times a day… make bottles… clean bottles… the list goes on.

    Tyler runs the show. I think, even in his infanthood, he gets a sick sense of satisfaction to see his daddy dry-heave at the sight of a dirty diaper.

    But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

    Fatherhood serves to test the best of us. It will test your patience, your endurance, your faith, your love. But the rewards are awesome if you’re willing to give it your all.

  • click me baby, one more time.

    click me baby, one more time.

    DaddyTypes posted an entry on their blog about a father who’s baby ended up getting “burned” by the “ipodmybaby”ipopmybaby onesie she was wearing. (That’s one heck of an allergic reaction, if you ask me!)

    It’s not very clear at all at what caused the skin irritation on the baby… but it’s pretty apparent from the flickr feed that it only occured in the area where the click-wheel was screen-printed on the onesie.

    I bought one of these a couple of months ago, when we were anticipating the birth of our son, Tyler. He hasn’t had the opportunity to wear the blue “ipodmybaby”ipopmybaby onesie I got him, yet. So I don’t know if he will have this same sort of reaction. (I’d probably say it’d be highly unlikely. People can be hypersensitive to certain things) It has made me a little more cautious about what I put on my son… and keeping a closer eye on how his clothing might affect him.

    Definitely weird.

  • Happy New Year

    Well, I’m only a day late. I stayed away from the computer yesterday. Sue me. ;)

    It’s 2006 already. Hard to believe, isn’t it? 2005 was a great year for me. 2006 can be even better. We all tend to make resolutions at the start of each year… I thought I’d make mine public. Next year, I’ll do a review to see how each resolution stacked up. That is, if my resolution for this year of eliminating procrastination from my vocabulary succeeds…

    1. Be a better father.
    2. Be a better husband.
    3. Lose weight.
    4. Excercise more.
    5. Grow closer to God.
    6. Read through the entire Bible this year.
    7. Finish books I’ve started and not finished.
    8. Stop procrastinating. (Maybe tomorrow?)
    9. Stop being so impulsive.

  • New Year, New Ride

    Yep, I broke down and got another truck. I wasn’t ready to get rid of my old truck, just yet. But the fact that the work truck package I had wouldn’t address the needs of our family (i.e. being able to fit a car seat in the rear seat), we had to get something different.

    I picked this truck up from Master Pontiac-GMC in Augusta, GA. It’s a 2006 GMC Sierra 1500 SLE. Color: Stealth Gray Metallic. Interior: Charcoal Gray fabric. It’s the nicest vehicle I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning. Thank God for giving me the ability to be able to afford something like it. I know that others are not so fortunate.

  • It’s nice to be home again

    How time flies…

    Tyler was born nearly a week ago. Hard to imagine sometimes. If all had gone according to the “schedule” we had, Tyler wouldn’t be here for another 2 days, 19 hours.

    I brought Kim and Tyler home on Wednesday, and it’s been an adventure for the three of us. It’s really good to be home, and not in a hospital. (Though, the folks over at St. Joseph Hospital were awesome! The staff in the NICU, Labor & Delivery, and the Madonna Wing, were all phenomenal. The level of care Kim and Tyler received, was unlike anything I had ever experienced at a hospital before.)

    This first week with Tyler has been awesome. It’s had its highs and lows, but I thank God that my little boy is finally here. I can’t imagine life without him.

    A Recap

    • 12/11 @ 2230: We brought Kim to St. Joseph Hospital because of some lower back pain she was experiencing.
    • 12/11 @ 2241: Tyler is delivered via an emergency c-section.
    • 12/11 @ 2245: Tyler is rushed to the NICU because of complications during delivery. It was discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck several times. Kim’s doctor indicated that if we had waited much longer, Tyler could have been in terrible shape (or even dead).
    • 12/11-12/13: Tyler was in the NICU under observation/treatment for the breathing difficulities he was experiencing.
    • 12/13: Tyler leaves the NICU and joins Kim in her room.
    • 12/14: Tyler and Kim come home!

    Keeping the faith

    I broke down in tears when the doctor told me that there was a chance we could have lost Tyler if we hadn’t come in. God truly was watching over us that night. The whole ordeal served to strengthen my faith, and further trust in the Lord. Kim and I said a prayer before she went into the operating room… Every single moment of our lives serves to bring us closer to Him, no matter how joyous or painful the situation might be.

    It was God’s plan that Tyler might come early to us. That we would go to the hospital early so that his life might be spared before it even began. Praise be to Him for His glory! I’m glad we listened to the concerns in our heart; that we went to the hospital when we did, even though we fully expected nothing to go on.

    Everything happens for a reason.

    Where’d the pictures go?

    Right after the delivery, I posted well over 150 pictures to my Flickr account and they were easily accessible by anyone. While this is awesomely convenient, I have no idea who might be looking at them. Call me possessive, but that thought scared me a little bit. There are some crazy people out there… I do have a significant number of photos available to friends and family on my site and on flickr, but I need to control access to them (I hope you’ll understand.) Drop me an email (if you know the address) or use the contact form on this site to send me a note. I’ll let you know how to access the photos )

  • I’m a daddy!

    At 11:35pm last night, doctors did an emergency c-section on Kim. At 11:41pm, we welcomed Tyler Douglas Harrison into this world. Words cannot describe how much joy I have right now.

    I’ve posted a couple of pics of him on Flickr, and will hopefully post more when I have time.

  • Congratulations, Augusta.

    I’ve steered clear of discussing politics in my blog for quite some time. I find it good practice to do so, unless your blog happens to be about politics. This was too good to pass up.

    Augustans voted for change the other day. They elected Deke Copenhaver as their next mayor. Why’s this important? Deke was an unknown, an outsider to Augusta politics. That’s a good thing for Augusta.

    Congratulations, Deke. Let’s see what you can do…

  • And the Beat Goes on….

    I am continually amazed at technology these days… Utilizing a doppler from StorkRadio.net, and my laptop, I was able to record (via Quicktime 7 Pro) the sound of Tyler’s heartbeat in the womb. It’s amazing… Just thought I would share it with you all… Grab the MP4 here. (2.48Mb) Grab the WAV here. (13.4Mb)

    Don’t have Quicktime? Grab it here.

  • Tyler, Week 33

    Kim had another 3D/4D Sonogram this past weekend.Little Tyler was rather uncooperative this time. Most pictures we were able to see either had him obscuring his face somehow, or shoving his toes into his mouth.

    I am continually amazed by the thought of this child that will soon come into Kim and my life. We’re truly blessed by God to have had everything go without complications so far. If all goes well, and I am praying that they will, little Tyler will come into our lives in a few short weeks.

    If you’re interested, I’ve added a set of pictures from the sonogram to Flickr.

    I’ll post video from the session later. UPDATE: I converted a snippet from the DVD we received from Prenatal Imaging. It’s available here for your viewing: tyler-4dsonogram-111205.mov (Quicktime 7 Required)

  • 20.2 Pounds and Counting

    I didn’t give a weight update last week, because I was extremely disappointed with myself. I gained 8.8 pounds. :\ This week, however, I got back on track and lost 8.6 pounds, bringing my cumulative weight loss total to 20.2 pounds. This week is going to be even better, I hope. I am going to be more focused, and hope to introduce walking into my regimen to help with my weight loss. Please keep me in your prayers!