Zach Dotsey

I slept downstairs on the couch again last night, but not because of my cough.  I was just really tired and was nodding off.  I was too lazy to walk upstairs.

Milly was really good this morning.  I mean really good.  I don’t think she made more than a partial cry noise all morning.  What’s more, she slept from about 10:00 to 11:30, which let me get a bit done, which is good because things kept coming in.

To provide a little drama this morning, a rumor started circling last night that Harrison Barnes had dropped Duke from his list of schools.  This made absolutely no sense, as Duke has consistently been seen as one of the leading contenders for a long time, and Barnes is known for keeping things close to the vest and not showing his hand.  Long story short, apparently a waiter said he saw Coach K take a phone call from Harrison Barnes and that the Duke coach was upset after it.  Yeah, there’s a lot there that doesn’t make sense.  At the end of the day, I think Duke still has a great chance.

Okay, I’ve got to make a note of something.  I was watching a documentary on Green Planet, a channel about, you know, renewable resources, eco-friendly stuff, that sort of thing.  It was about what happened to the electric car (and was pretty upsetting, as documentaries tend to be), and I’ve seen several car commercials.  Not hybrid car commercials or anything like that, just regular car commercials.  Just a little funny.

Back on track, Amanda brought home a pizza from Little Caesar’s for lunch, which was very thoughtful of her.  After eating, I went out to do a little running around and took Milly with me.  Amanda noted that it was the first time I’d taken Milly out of the house while she stayed behind.  While I was out I went to drop off a work check and talked to Todd Graham.  I jokingly asked him when he and Laura were having their second kid, and he said May.  I was taken aback, of course.  They don’t know the sex of the baby yet.

We had a bit of a quandary with what to do with the fair tickets I got.  Long story short, I ended up going with Billy.  Amanda called it a man-date.  We had a good time though.  We were out there for probably under two hours, but we rode a bunch of spinny and upside-downy rides.  We probably left at about the right time, as we were both starting to feel the beginnings of sick.  It’s just going to happen when you don’t have to wait in long lines in between rides that throw you up in the air and spin you all around.

I got back home just in time to help put Milly to bed, which is always a pleasure, then Amanda and I watched the regular Thursday night TV.  Amanda stayed up and played some Spider Solitaire before going to bed at, what was it, about midnight?  That’s late for her.

Zach Dotsey
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Milly once again did the whole “wake up at 4:00, eat then bawl my eyes out because I don’t want to go back to sleep for a few hours” thing this morning.  She did finally settle down eventually.  She’s beautiful, but particularly so when she’s peaceful.  Or when she’s smiling.  She smiled a lot today.  From my office I could hear Amanda having a lot of fun with Milly today.  She even read to her, which will have been the first time besides Leviticus chapter 7 that she’s been read to.  It was Horton Hatches an Egg, and we intend to read to her more often now.  Amanda also had Milly upstairs in the nursery on the little baby gym mat thing.  There’s a mini boppy that goes along with it and Milly kept pushing herself up and over it, like she’s trying to crawl already!

In another baby note, congratulations to Evan and Jenny Vetter on the early arrival of their first kid, Charlie!

Work today… I’ve still got this one big thing I’m trying to get knocked out and I thought I’d be able to devote most of my day to it, but I had so many little things keep coming up that I had to take care of.  It was a little frustrating, to be honest.

Melissa Davis sent us a pizza for lunch.  She was going to bring Penelope over but she’s apparently been really fussy the past few days, so Melissa didn’t want to go out with her.  The pizza was good though.  On a semi-related food note, Kevin had to cancel getting together this evening as well.

Amanda bathed the Millster tonight (while I took out the kitty litter- I let her pick which she wanted to do) then we decided to try putting her in the crib in the nursery (as opposed to the cradle in our room).  Amanda’s finally been reading up in Baby Wise and decided to let Milly cry it out a little when we first put her down, but after 40 minutes we figured she needed some consoling, so I swaddled her, rocked her and rubbed her head a little and got her to calm down.  After that she was out.

In the meantime Amanda and I were watching President Obama’s news conference about health care, then we watched Wipeout.  If the health care thing goes through and turns out to be a good thing, I was thinking about how different things might be for Milly when she’s old enough to care about health insurance.

Zach Dotsey

Remember how I bragged yesterday that Milly only got us up a couple times her first night home?  Her second night was nothing like that.  I think she woke up wanting to feed every hour, and since Amanda’s not able to lean over to pick her up out of the cradle yet, not to mention that she’s slow to move around on the bed due to the c-section surgery, we both had to get up every time.  It was miserable.  At about 7:00 or 8:00 I took her downstairs to sleep on my chest.

Despite this, my new daughter continues to astound me when I look at her.  Somehow, Amanda and I made this new little life.  She moves and makes noises and looks at us.  She even does things that look like the beginning of a smile, and yet somehow it still doesn’t completely seem real.

With the complete and utter lack of sleep Amanda and I got last night we were very slow to get going this morning and didn’t accomplish any of the things we were planning to do, like going for a walk (though to be fair, it did look like it was going to rain for most of the day) and going to Target.  Karen had a productive day though, as she pulled up weeds and planted some flowers she bought for us yesterday.  She even bought dinner from Smithfield’s BBQ tonight, which my brother, Adam Dotsey, and Amanda’s brother, Michael Mercer, joined us for.

Milly seemed to feed every hour today.  She’d feed, rest for a little bit, then cry her tiny heart out.  The explanation for this is that Amanda’s milk has come in (replacing the colostrom that mom’s start out with) and I think it’s supposedly less filling.  Add to that the fact that babies have tiny stomachs anyway, they do what the pediatrician called cluster feeding where they feed, as Milly did, very often.  She did take a break for several hours while she was sleeping.

I had trouble getting batteries into the baby swing, but between myself, Amanda and Adam we finally got it working and put Milly in it while we ate dinner.  Well, most of us had finished already, but Amanda was feeding her when we started, so really we put her in it while Amanda was eating.  She woke up afterwards and I went to pick her up and started smelling something a little funny.

Yeah, this is where the title comes in.

I looked at her and saw a little spot coming out one of her onesie legs.  I was surprised that it had come out of the diaper, but not too surprised since she hadn’t pooed in a while.  But then I saw a spot on her front, a little to the left of her tummy.  By the time I got upstairs it had spread a bit.  I unbuttoned her onsie to take a look and it was all over the place.  Adam and Michael were intrigued.

I’ve surprised myself how fast I’ve taken to not minding cleaning up dirty diapers and such.  Karen took over the cleaning for me and Amanda though, smartly taking the onesie down her body instead of over her head, which I was about to do.  I knew it would spread it all over her, but I figured she was going to need a bath anyway.

Speaking of baths, Amanda got to give Milly one for the first time after that.  (I’d helped with her first one at the hospital.)  I think, with Amanda being laid up a bit, she feels like she’s missing out so far, so I try to let her do whatever she wants to do and can do to make her feel included.  It’s funny- I think usually the mom’s the one doing that.

That’s about it.  Adam and Michael took off and Karen, Amanda and I watched The Office while Milly alernatively fed, got put to sleep, cried and fed some more.

I came up with Milly Bug this morning.  That’s Amanda’s favorite name for her that I’ve used so far.

In the news, Iran is in turmoil as the questionable outcome of a recent political election sparks mass protests.  It will be interesting to see where this leads.  Elsewhere, a North Korean ship is being tracked by the US amid fears that it may be carrying nuclear missiles or something of the sort.  North Korea has said that any attempt to board the ship will be seen as an act of war.  Good times.

Zach Dotsey

Yes, as of today my parents have been married for 33 years, and around the country people threw “tea party” protests.  Okay, so the two aren’t related at all.  I talked to my dad and he said they were probably just going to go out to Clarksville Station to eat tonight.  Exciting stuff.  Then again, I can’t say anything because Amanda and I will be at five years in a couple weeks and we’re no more exciting than that.

As for the protests, they were loosely organized and mainly aimed at all the government bailout money that doesn’t seem to be doing much good.

Work continued to be busy today, although it was all pretty much just support busy as opposed to sales busy.  That’s okay, I’ve had several good months and there’s plenty of work going on right now anyway.

Karen stuck around until Amanda got home this evening.  Once again she was up in the nursery all day painting and drawing, and once again she’s doing an awesome job.  There’s still so much to do though.  She went ahead and drew in a good amount of stuff so Amanda and I can work on the painting ourselves.

“But wait,” I hear you say.  “Zach, aren’t you a good artist as well?  Why don’t you do some of the drawing yourself?”

I’ve thought about that, and there are a few reasons I haven’t.  First off, while I’m pretty good at drawing what I see (I did learn mainly by looking at comic books, afterall), I’m not well-versed in the Dr. Seuss style.  Plus, having two artists with different styles (even if they’re both imitating another style) might keep it all from fitting together.  Finally, I think Karen likes doing it, and I will like being able to tell Milly and any other kids we have in this house that their grandma drew it all for them.

I went surfing after work.  Michael and Lars had gone out earlier, but Lars had to pick the wife up from work and he was gone by the time I got there.  (I made horrible time, by the way- traffic was awful.)  Michael was there, but he was tired from his previous session and almost didn’t go out.  He did end up going out though, and we had a really good time.  The waves weren’t big or hard and they broke for a pretty long way, especially for Wrightsville Beach.  They were easy to catch too.  For a while I caught every wave I attempted to catch and on the whole evening I only wiped out once.

The best part of surfing tonight though was that I did my very first cut back.  Yes, I was so super stoked and proud of it.  I was surfing down the line, kept turning and went to the top of the wave, came back down it again then went back to the top of it!  Now, it wasn’t a huge wave or anything and I wasn’t kicking up spray, but I did what I did and I was very happy about it.  I had such a great time out there today, the best in a while I’d say.  And it wasn’t crowded.

After surfing I grabbed a burger at PT’s Grille with Michael.  I’m going to have to remember to avoid that place.  It’s yummy and all, but I ended up visiting the lav three or four times.  It’s the grease, I think.  I’m sensitive to it.

When I got home Amanda and I watched Lost then she went to bed.

Zach Dotsey

Work was a a little busy, particularly in the morning.  I’m still a little surprised how busy we’re staying considering all the doom and gloom about the economy.  Over the past few weeks we’ve had a few people cut back on services, but we’ve also had people expand on some and we’ve gotten a few full new websites and major updates in the works.

My mom called to say that she had sent my birth certificate and other such documents that I’ll need to get my passport so I can go to Costa Rica.  I called the post office to see what I need to do about having lost my old passport, but they never called back.

Amanda and I caught up on some TV tonight.  We were going to watch our usual Monday night lineup, but President Obama had a news conference that trumped everything in the 8:00 hour.  Amanda and I watched a little of it and got giggly over it because we couldn’t help but think of what a good impersonation Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live does of our current president.

I convinced Amanda to stay up and watch Heroes.  I’m enjoying the whole on the run from the government thing they’ve got going on.  The last couple episodes have felt like season finales.

Zach Dotsey

For some time now Amanda’s been able to feel a fluttering, ticklish feeling in her stomach that she’s pretty sure is baby movement.  Recently she said she could feel a weight in her stomach to the point that she feels it shift about when she turns over.  Amanda told me today that last night she felt an actual kick or lunch!  More on that in a sec.

I talked to my mom today.  I’d called her to tell her that we’d named the baby, but as it turns out she was about to call me to talk to me about my sister Erin Dotsey’s birthday, which is in a couple weeks.  While I was talking to her she mentioned that my dad was going to go to Lexington, Kentucky to visit my grandparents in a few weeks because his older brother, Tom Dotsey, was going at the same time.

She also took that time to update me on my grandparents.  Pap (Andy Dotsey) has been in and out of a nursing home.  His legs aren’t doing well and Baba (Jane Dotsey) isn’t best equipped to take care of him.  Aunt Terry moved back to Florida, Uncle Bernie has been there to help out some, but he lives several hours away, and Uncle Steve has helped as he can, but he can only do so much.  So Pap went to a nursing home, didn’t like it, came back and then went back to it.  That sucks.  I hate it for both him and Baba.

Erin called me a little bit after my mom did.  Mom had thought they were changing the date of the birthday celebration, but Erin called to tell me she was keeping it like it originally was.

Aside from those things, today featured the inauguration of Barack Obama and snow fell here in Wilmington.  After work Amanda and I watched a few DVRed shows then she went to the office to watch American Idol while I watched the much more important Duke game.  It was nice of her not to ask me to watch the game in the office, since we had both remarked how terrible games look on large TVs with a standard (non-HD) signal.

Duke was playing NC State, which should have been a pretty easy game.  Duke started off on a 10-1 run, but in that time they struggled to put even the most open of shots through the hoop.  The Wolfpack struggled with that too, but they started heating up before the Blue Devils did and ended up with a four point lead at the half.

Fortunately Gerald Henderson decided to take over the game in the second half and Duke finished on a 27-5 run.  they shot, I think, 21 or 29% in the first half and 76% in the second.  The final score was 73-56.  The game had been close only a few minutes before the end.

This Duke team seems to have a tendency to play up or down to their competition.  If they could just put to halves of a game together offensively they’re definitely going to make a splash in the tournament this year.  And if Gerald Henderson, Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer can all three have just an average game at the same time, they’ll be scary.

Hats off to David McClure for this game too.  He played great defense and did all those intangible things that make him such a good but quiet player.  He even had a three pointer and a dunk this game!  Greg Paulus continued to show some return to form, hitting a few baskets to keep them in the game in the first, not to mention an uncharacteristic drive to the basket.

So, back to the kicking baby.  After the game Amanda felt a couple kicks while she was lying on the couch.  I put my hand on her stomach and eventually felt two kicks!  It was like someone was jabbing a finger from inside Amanda.  That was it, just a couple quick little jabs.  I told Amanda that Milly was excited because Duke had won.  I was elated to feel that though.  Amanda has been wishing she could share that with me.

I told Adam about the kicks later and he said, “Lil Milly’s milling about.”  I thought that was a cute phrase and told him I’d use it and give him credit for it.  He said I could take credit since I’m the dad, but I pointed out that he’s the uncle.

We put new sheets on the bed tonight.  Amanda’s parents gave us some new 1000 thread count sheets for Christmas and we decided tonight would be a good time to flip the mattress (well, turn it around anyway, since it’s a pillow-top) as well.  Those sheets feel so nice.  We’re spoiled.  I think all but one set of sheets we have for our bed are 1000 thread count.

Zach Dotsey
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Whatever you think about Barack Obama, however you feel about his policies and ideas, you have to admire what the election of Barack Obama says about how far America has come.  Plenty of people have written about the significance of electing a black (okay, half-black, whatever- the point is that he’s not white) man to the highest post in the land, and they’ve done so far better than I ever will, so I’ll just post some pictures from today’s inauguration below.  I’m happy for my country and hopeful that our government and politics will indeed change.

The only thing that I think marred the day was the booing and jeering of President Bush when he made his appearance.  I get that he wasn’t popular, and I wasn’t happy with him myself, but I was really hoping the crowd would show some decorum, not sing “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye!”  Too much to ask for, I know.

Amanda’s mom, Karen Mercer, called her and asked if she was watching the inauguration.  Amanda told her she was at work and Karen told her it was an historic moment.  Amanda’s not big on history or historic moments, and she was working anyway, so it’s not like she could just ditch work to go camp out in front of a TV.  When Amanda told me all this she said she hopes Milly inherits my appreciation for history.

I was talking to Jason Revill about it too.  He said it was nice to have a positive historical moment for people our age.  Our parents had the Moon Landing.  All we’ve had are the Challenger Explosion and September 11th.  I would say President Obama’s inauguration was definitely a positive historical milestone for us.

One disturbing thing I read is that a tattoo parlor in Washington DC was giving free Obama logo tats for people who got another tattoo worth $200 or more.  I’m against political stickers on cars, nevermind permanent marks on your body showing support for a man who will be in office for only 4-8 years.  I mean, yeah most people are hopeful about his term, but what if Obama turns out to suck as president?

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what happens.  There are some things Obama has talked about doing that I’m not in favor of, but there are things he’s talked about doing that I think are a good step in the right direction for our contry as well.  Should be an interesting time.

Zach Dotsey