Monday, June 13, 2011
His Favorite Toy
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Some Feeding Progress
Monday, June 06, 2011
Nearly Pulling My Hair Out
I’ve barely had a minute to stop in the last two weeks. How I'm doing totally depends on the moment you ask me. I’ve thought often of blogging but I seriously haven’t had any time to sit at the computer. The only time I am sitting still (when I’m not trying to sleep) is when I’m pumping. Yep, that’s my down time and even then I often have to listen to one or the other of the kids fuss about something. Today I haven’t even gotten dressed yet. (Yes, I could be doing that now, but I just HAVE to write first. It helps me process.)
I’ve been on my own as a mother of two for a full week now. It’s one on two. While it’s nice to figure things out on my own, it’s very clear that I’m outnumbered. I feel like a ping pong ball bouncing back and forth between the two kids often leaving one discontented while tending to the other just long enough to calm them so I can get back to the first one. And all this on five or six hours of interrupted sleep. It’s exhausting.
I was trying to feed Kaylynn this morning for the fourth time in the past hour or two so I could get her to sleep more than a couple minutes so I could fix Desmond lunch so I could get him down for his nap so I could pump. I felt like I was a broken record telling Desmond to stop doing things. “Stop climbing on the crib, please don’t take all the clothes out of the dresser, don’t go behind the chair while I’m rocking, stop swinging on the door, please don’t climb on me!” I like to state things in a positive way saying what he can do rather than saying “no” all the time, but with Kaylynn in what felt like non-stop crying mode I nearly melted down. I couldn’t understand why she would just eat or sleep. “Those are your two options,” I tried to tell her. Then out of frustration I sucked on her bottle to double check it wasn’t too cold (I don’t take time to warm up the milk from the fridge) and I realized the bottle was clogged. I’d been trying to feed her this bottle all morning. Once it was unclogged Kaylynn gulped it as fast as she could pausing only long enough for necessary breathing. Poor thing. No wonder she was crying.
After that I bounced back and forth between trying to get Kaylynn to go to sleep and feeding Desmond lunch. Kaylynn cried while I read Desmond a story and sang his naptime songs. Desmond then cried because I had moved the rocking chair out of his room and into Kaylynn’s so I could feed her in there. I got him settled into bed finally and went to pat Kaylynn’s back. Soon Desmond was calling for me again and asked for the little light to be turned on. He cried again when I told him we don’t sleep with the lights on. It took me awhile to realize he meant the monitor light. I had put it in Kaylynn’s room too. By this time Kaylynn had finally fallen asleep in her crib so I unplugged the monitor to move it back to Desmond’s room. He settled down now that his little green light was back and – dare I say it – both kids are sleeping right now! Quick! I need to… do something! In about an hour it will be time to feed Kaylynn again.
Well, that was therapeutic to share about my morning. Now I need to eat something and pump. Also I should probably see who called me several hours ago, and maybe I should get dressed.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Picnics and Pictures
Baffling the Lactation Consultants
At today’s one-on-one the consultant wondered if she’s getting conditioned to scream on my breast so I want to do my best to get her comfortable and calm there. We’ll keep trying. I only had three hours of sleep last night so today has been a bit difficult in staying calm with her fighting me. We both end up crying. Davin also returned to work yesterday so I’ve got to do this on my own which is very difficult with the tube feeding. I have another lactation appointment on Tuesday with the expert in the office to see if we can figure this out.
Kaylynn had her first bottle yesterday and though I feel like it’s a cop out it also felt so good to just simply feed and enjoy her as her deep blue eyes stared at me over the bottle.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
From Hospital to Home
I have a few minutes before I need to feed Kaylynn so I’m raising my head out of the "I have a new baby and a 2-year old” abyss to record our first week.
Kaylynn Hope Eliana Studer was born on May 9, 2011 at 8:41 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 4.5 oz and was 20.5 inches long. I won’t go into the full birth story, but Kaylynn and I are both doing well. There are a few major differences between this and my first birth experience. For one thing I started off feeling very well rested since it was a repeat cesarean. Also Kaylynn knew just what to do for breastfeeding. She helped me out a lot and though she got down to 7 lbs 10.8 oz, she was back up to 7 lbs 12 oz before we left the hospital.
It was hard being away from Desmond and Kaylynn reminded me of him so much! Desmond came to visit on Tuesday morning and didn’t quite know what to think. He immediately came over to look at her and got a huge smile, but then she started crying and he teared up and wanted me to put her back in her bed. We gave him some big brother gifts from Kaylynn and he played with his new battery operated Percy train the rest of the visit. The next day he was more interested in her and wanted to hold her and give her kisses. He’s going to be a good big brother!
On Thursday afternoon we came home. My parents and Aunt Marcia were staying at our place while we were in the hospital, but they returned home Thursday evening. Friday all of Davin’s parents arrived and stayed through the weekend. It was fun having them here, but having all the company has also created quite the whirlwind as we adjust to our new addition. Cheryl is thankfully staying for two weeks to help me adjust to Davin’s return to work in two days.
My recovery is going just as well as it did with Desmond. I took some pain medication at first, but the last few days I haven’t needed any. The main downside is I have no abdominal strength and can’t pick Desmond up or get out of bed very easily for that matter. It is getting better, though.
And here we go again! Kaylynn fed like a champ for the first five days bringing in my milk in just over two days (which impressed all the nurses). Then Sunday she became really lazy with her sucking and wanted to nurse almost non-stop. I don’t know what changed, but at our first mother/baby appointment yesterday the lactation consultant confirmed that she’s not getting enough and is a lazy feeder. She falls asleep almost as soon as she’s on. So here’s my new regimen: breastfeed, feed her extra breast milk with the aid of a tube, pump, and repeat every 3 hours. Sigh! I was so hoping we had this thing down and I didn’t need all this paraphernalia! I can’t do the tube feeding on my own yet (if only I had three hands) and this whole process usually takes just over an hour to complete which means I can’t tend to Desmond for quite a stretch.
Yesterday was my hardest day after breezing through the first several days. I get frustrated with the new feeding process, but if pumping for 11 months with Desmond is any indication, we can make this thing work! I just have to find my new rhythm. My goal with Desmond was to get him off formula and I did. So far we haven’t needed formula with Kaylynn so my goal with her is to get her back to proper nursing so we don’t need the tube.
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Easter Weekend
The Saturday before Easter we went to Esther Short Park downtown and joined in an Easter egg hunt. There were tons of eggs in a sectioned off piece of lawn for the four and under crowd. Once they said, “Go” it was over in about 15 seconds. This was Desmond’s first hunt so he didn’t really know what to do, and all the people kind of intimidated him, but he managed to get six eggs and then enjoyed eating the candy inside.
Easter day we had my family over for a big meal, and the rain stopped long enough for Desmond to do another egg hunt in our yard. He was very cute to watch.
The games are fun, but what a gift to remember that Jesus conquered death for us that we may live forever with Him!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
New Craft Project
Thanks to a birthday gift card to JoAnn, I’ve been working on a new craft project. I’ve had my eye on this one for awhile. It’s kind of what I imagine our daughter will look like as a little girl. I work on it in the evenings when Desmond is in bed.
As I was thinking about it I realized this is the first cross-stitch I’ve done in about six years! I go in spurts. I’ll really get into one project for awhile then it will get old so I’ll move on to something else. I’ve been a bit knit crazy the past year so it’s time to switch. It’s been really fun going back to cross-stitch.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Convert CSV data into a SQL table
Recently I have been working with some report data that is stored statically in a database in CSV format. I had a need to have that CSV data displayed in a tabular format. I searched around and couldn't find anything written to do this in SQL, so I decided to write a stored procedure to do this very thing. It will take a CSV and parse it out into a SQL table. For instance if I have report data that looks like this...
"FirstName","LastName","DOB","Children" "John","Smith","1/5/1980","Bob,Sally,Joe,Chris" "Jane","Smith","2/25/1982","Bob,Sally,Joe,Chris" "Bruce","Wayne","5/13/1975","" "Peter","Parker","5/23/1970","" "","","",""
It would be transformed into this ...
| FirstName | LastName | DOB | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| John | Smith | 1/5/1980 | Bob,Sally,Joe,Chris |
| Jane | Smith | 2/25/1982 | Bob,Sally,Joe,Chris |
| Bruce | Wayne | 5/13/1975 | |
| Peter | Parker | 5/23/1970 | |
Note that in the last column the commas are preserved because they are within the quotation mark text qualifiers. Below is the stored procedure that does this. Feel free to use it, and leave a comment if you found it useful.
-- ==========================================================================================
-- Author: Davin Studer
-- Create date: 4/5/2011
-- Description: This will take a CSV input
-- and transform it into a table
--
-- Params:
-- @string - The CSV string
-- @textQualifier - Character that denotes a string within the CSV
-- @columnDelimiter - Character that denotes different columns ... doesn't have to be a comma
-- @rowOneIsHeader - Does the first row contain column names?
-- ==========================================================================================
create procedure [dbo].[CSVToTable]
@string nvarchar(max) = '',
@textQualifier varchar(1) = '',
@columnDelimiter varchar(1) = ',',
@rowOneIsHeader bit = 0
as
begin
-- set nocount on added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with select statements.
set nocount on;
-- We need and input string
if isnull(@string, '') = ''
begin
raiserror ('Please supply an CSV string', 15, 1)
return
end
-- We need and column delimiter
if isnull(@columnDelimiter, '') = ''
begin
raiserror ('Please supply a column delimiter.', 15, 1)
return
end
-- Make sue the user doesn't pass null as a value
if isnull(@textQualifier, '') = ''
begin
set @textQualifier = ''
end
-- Make sue the user doesn't pass null as a value
if isnull(@rowOneIsHeader, '') = ''
begin
set @rowOneIsHeader = 0
end
declare
@columns int = 1,
@columnNames nvarchar(max) = '',
@stop bit = 0,
@position int = 0,
@temp nvarchar(1) = '',
@dataStart int = 0,
@sql nvarchar(max) = '',
@qualifierToggle bit = 0,
@tempString nvarchar(max) = '',
@delimiterReplacementUTFNumber int = 2603
-- Get rid of the ##tempCSVSplitToTable table if it exists
if object_id('tempdb..##tempCSVSplitToTable') is not null
begin
drop table ##tempCSVSplitToTable
end
-- Get rid of white space
set @string = rtrim(ltrim(@string))
-- Set the EOL to char(13)
set @string = replace(@string, char(13) + char(10), char(13))
set @string = replace(@string, char(10), char(13))
-- Deal with the delimiter character within the text qualifier characters
if @textQualifier <> ''
begin
while @position <> len(@string)
begin
set @temp = substring(@string, @position, 1)
if @temp = @textQualifier
begin
if @qualifierToggle = 0
begin
set @qualifierToggle = 1
end
else
begin
set @qualifierToggle = 0
end
end
if @temp = @columnDelimiter and @qualifierToggle = 1
begin
set @tempString = @tempString + nchar(@delimiterReplacementUTFNumber) -- replace with UTF delimiter replacement character
end
else
begin
set @tempString = @tempString + @temp
end
set @position = @position + 1
end
set @string = @tempString
end
-- Get rid of text qualifier ... we don't need it now
if @textQualifier <> ''
begin
set @string = replace(@string, @textQualifier, '')
end
-- Get column names
set @position = 1
while @stop = 0
begin
set @temp = substring(@string, @position, 1)
if @temp = @columnDelimiter
begin
set @columns = @columns + 1
set @columnNames = @columnNames + ','
end
else if @temp = char(13)
begin
set @stop = 1
end
else
begin
set @columnNames = @columnNames + @temp
end
set @position = @position + 1
end
set @dataStart = @position
if @rowOneIsHeader = 0
begin
set @dataStart = 1
set @position = 1
set @columnNames = ''
while @position - 1 < @columns
begin
set @columnNames = @columnNames + ',Column' + cast(@position as varchar(1))
set @position = @position + 1
end
set @columnNames = substring(@columnNames, 2, len(@columnNames))
end
-- Build ##tempCSVSplitToTable table
set @sql = @sql + 'create table ##tempCSVSplitToTable (' + char(13) + '['
set @stop = 0
set @position = 1
while @stop = 0
begin
set @temp = substring(@columnNames, @position, 1)
if @temp <> ','
begin
set @sql = @sql + @temp
end
else
begin
set @sql = @sql + '] nvarchar(max),' + char(13) + '['
end
set @position = @position + 1
if @position - 1 = len(@columnNames)
begin
set @sql = @sql + '] nvarchar(max)'
set @stop = 1
end
end
set @sql = @sql + ')' + char(13)
exec (@sql)
-- insert values into ##tempCSVSplitToTable table
set @position = @dataStart
while @position - 1 < len(@string)
begin
set @stop = 0
set @sql = 'insert into ##tempCSVSplitToTable ([' + replace(@columnNames, ',', '],[') + ']) values ('''
while @stop = 0
begin
set @temp = substring(@string, @position, 1)
-- end of column
if @temp = @columnDelimiter
begin
set @sql = @sql + ''','''
end
-- EOL
else if @temp = char(13) or datalength(@temp) = 0
begin
set @stop = 1
end
-- deal with apostrophe in data
else if @temp = ''''
begin
set @sql = @sql + ''''''
end
-- column data that isn't an apostrophe
else
begin
set @sql = @sql + @temp
end
set @position = @position + 1
end
set @sql = @sql + ''')'
-- Get rid of any UTF delimiter replacements that were put in to take the place of the delimiter character within the text qualifier
if @textQualifier <> ''
begin
set @sql = replace(@sql, nchar(@delimiterReplacementUTFNumber), @columnDelimiter)
end
exec(@sql)
end
select * from ##tempCSVSplitToTable
-- destroy ##tempCSVSplitToTable table
if object_id('tempdb..##tempCSVSplitToTable') is not null
begin
drop table ##tempCSVSplitToTable
end
end
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Getting Ready for Baby
Last weekend my parents came up and helped me paint the nursery. It’s now a pretty lilac color and I’ve had fun sewing curtains and decorating it. Desmond has been helping me along the way, and he likes all the baby things that are coming out of boxes. Speaking of boxes – I emptied one and made it into a house for him. It’s been a huge hit.
Today is our last free, unscheduled day before baby arrives. Weird! April weekends are full of Tae Soo Do events (Davin’s black belt ceremony and a tournament) and family birthdays. There are so many things I could do today… or I might just relax.
For more baby news and health updates check out my pregnancy blog.