How free are we?

There are a handful of things that make me undeniably uncomfortable.  These include political discussions, religious conflict, racial remarks, and mosquito bites.  Watching President Obama and Governor Romney's debates this past Fall made me so nervous I would start to sweat, and that was just sitting in front of the television.  I would literally cover my eyes with a blanket and put my fingers in my ears because it caused me such visceral discomfort to watch and listen to the two of them.  Listening to Andrew and his father discuss politics is so agonizing for me I have to go somewhere where I cannot hear them.

 As anyone who is in any way linked to social media, who turns on their computer/television, or who steps foot outside of their home during the day is aware, this is a very important time in the history of our country.  Big decisions are going to be made.  Do I have opinions about the issue of equality?  Absolutely.  Am I going to share them with you?  Absolutely not.  Why not? because I don't want my comment box filled with nasty remarks one way or the other. You may think you know where I stand on the issue.  I assure you, you have no idea.

A clean debate is something I can respect and appreciate.  I feel, however, that debating, discussing, and respecting other peoples views, opinions and beliefs is something that the general population struggles with.  I have read, listened to and watched people that I know and love tear down other people that I know and love because they do not agree on certain issues.  Isn't that interesting?  We want to be free to think and believe how we wish, but we do not want to allow those whose opinions differ from ours the same liberty.

Because of this, I go out of my way to avoid political discussions, or anything that feels as though it might result in argument, disagreement, or unkind words (unless of course the conversation revolves around which flavor of ice cream is superior, I'm all over that).

Perhaps it appears as though I am not proud of who I am, not sure of my own beliefs, or unwilling to stand up for what I believe.  Untrue.  I take advantage of every opportunity I have to tell people what I believe and why I believe it.  However, if people are only asking in order to open the door to bash me, I see no reason to continue.  I also bask in the opportunities that I have to learn more about other people and their beliefs.  I am fascinated by religion,  by lack of religion, and by peoples views on current issues.

Maybe I hope too much for a world where we can all skip around in the sunshine catching butterflies, riding unicorns and eating cupcakes all day long, but I wish we could have a little more respect for others all the while staying true to our own convictions.  I wish we wouldn't be so quick to tell people they are wrong just because they think differently than we do.  We may BE free, but do we FEEL free?

Sleepless

I know what you are thinking: you have a new baby, of course you are getting minimal sleep!

Keane, bless his heart, is a miserable through-the-night sleeper.  Miserable.  I guess we can't all be good at everything! Oh, don't worry, it hasn't always been the case.  Up until month 4, he was a rock star sleeper.  He slept through the night, waking up at 5:30 am  to eat, and going back to sleep until 8 am.  I was bragging to people about how well he slept.  That's when we were slapped in the face with some humility.  The past three months have been a roller coaster of nonsense.

Have you ever met people who say their babies started sleeping through the night when they were like, 2 days old, and have slept through the night perfectly since then?  Now their children are grown and winning the Noble Peace Prize, in the Peace Corps, and creating cures for cancer.  I hate those people.  I smile, listen to them talk, pretend to be thrilled for them, but I'm actually thinking, "I hate you."  So, if you are one of those people, don't take it personally! I haven't slept since early October, I am no longer in control of and responsible for my thoughts or actions due to sleep deprivation.

Now, perhaps you are wondering if Andrew and I educated ourselves on how to get a baby to sleep through the night.  Not only have I spoken to every person that I know that currently has, has had, or is thinking of having a baby, I also read for the following books on the topic:

Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber, MD, The Happiest Baby On The Block by Harvy Karp, MD, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Marc Weissbluth MD, Babywise by Gary Ezzo, MD, and Touchpoints 0-3 and 3-6 by T. Barry Brazelton MD et al. Along with these books I researched all ways to sleep train a baby including various crying methods and non-crying methods.

Over the past three months we have tried EVERY single method you can think of, and NOOOTTTHHHIIINNNGGGGG worked!!  Maybe you are wondering if we tried one thing or another, don't ask.  We tried.  Again, I am not looking for ideas on how to make him sleep better, because I guarantee I've tried it.  Lovey? Tried it.  Putting our scent on something? Tried it.  Night light? Tried it.  Putting him between us (yes I know, shame on me...)? Tried it. In our room? Tried it.  Out of our room? Tried it. I've tried it all, folks.

There is that moment, in the middle of the night, when through the baby monitor we hear Keane stirring.  My body involuntarily tenses up and I squeeze my eyes shut and just pray, "Pleaassseeee go back to sleep by yourself.  Please please please please pleaasseeee."  He doesn't.

Anymore, Andrew and I know only two emotions anymore, stupid slap happy, and ultra super duper grumpy.  Sometimes we go from one to the other in a matter of minutes.  One positive thing is I realize just how funny of a person I truly am.  I tell the funniest jokes when I haven't slept in three months!

And just as I think I'm going to snap, and it is 7:30 am and Keane wants up, NOW, I drag myself into his room and am greeted with this face:

He is so happy and giggly when he wakes up, it's hard to be frustrated about the night (other than the fact that I cannot walk straight because I am dizzy from no sleep!).

(Hotel on our trip to Cincinnati this past weekend)

(Union terminal station, Cincinnati)

Keaney Bopper

Keane is 4 months old.  Wahoo!  Can he roll over?  No.  But he CAN drool a lot, fit his entire hand in his mouth, and shoot his Binky across the room with the flick of his tongue.

One Month

 Two Months

 

 Three Months

 Four Months

 Keane took his first beach trip to Florida, September 2012, and is definitely a warm weather baby.  He slept on the beach, played in the water, and loved every minute of it.

 A Rigdon trait is to stick your tongue out when thinking, pondering and contemplating something very hard.  It does not skip generations.

 Keane loves his papa, and his papa loves him.  Plus he has super hip Halloween pajammies.

 I took him running the other day, which is not unusual.  It was, however, 37 degrees outside, which WAS unusual, for him anyways.  So we got him all bundled up and he didn't seem to mind.

 Post run, rosy cheeks, but still smiling!

The weather is starting to get cold, and stay cold.  The man cub has to wear a lot more layers, which he isn't super fond of all the time, but he sure looks dashing!

Life at The Ohio

We are all continuing to adjust to things here in Ohio.  Ohio itself is fabulous.  We really like the area, the enormous trees, how green everything is.  The biggest adjustment might be all the red that people wear in their pride for OSU.  For those of you who do not know, THE Ohio State University (yes, that is what it is called, and yes that is what people call it.  "Hey, where do you go to school?"  "I go to THE Ohio state university" "Ah yes, As opposed to the OTHER Ohio State University....) has a football field that seats 103,000.  Well, they ALWAYS oversell, and so every Saturday 108,000 red wearing crazies are crammed snugly into the football stadium.  We live about 3 miles away from the stadium and have made the mistake of trying to get on the freeway on game day.  Not the brightest idea. Despite all of this, Andrew and I still want to go to a game.  It's bound to be different from our good ol' BYU football games (ra ra, rarara, ra, ra rarara GOOOOOO COUGARS!)  First off, It is the OSU Buckeyes.  For those of you who don't know what a buckeye is, it is a nut, similar to an acorn, that falls off trees around here.  So...THATS an exciting mascott...

The end of the beginning

With all of the hustle and bustle of, like, having a baby and stuff, there are a lot of important things we failed to report, and I KNOW you all have just been sitting at the edge of your seats, checking the blog daily wondering WHEN we are going to give updates on our extremely exciting lives!  Well let us backtrack some....The whole reason we went to Colorado in the first place has come to an end.

In May (2012 guys, not like, May 1999), Andrew graduated from Colorado State University with his master's in Marriage and Family Therapy.  Ok..well he really doesn't graduate until like...next week, but he WALKED May 11. 

So he isn't really "walking" here, so much as he is receiving his empty diploma cover

He had one more class he had to take that was in the end of May/beginning of June which means that sweet diploma won't come in the mail until sometime after August commencement but that is neither here nor there. 

SO, nearly all of his family (Mom, Dad, brothers, sisters, brother in law, sister in law) came for the occasion which was, in fact, quite a big deal. 

You see, Andrew is the first person on his side of the family (from what I understand) to get a degree higher than his Bachelor's degree.  So it was a party.  My parents came out as well and we all crammed in our tiny little apartment for some fun!

Now, I grew up on Guam, and there is a graduation tradition there (and in Hawaii, and on many other islands, I presume), where you give all kinds of leis to the graduate.  The best kind to get are money leis, but we are poor, so I had no money to give him.  Mama Lemons and Mama Rigdon spent awhile making delicious candy leis, however, and went to the dollar store and purchased many lovely cheap flower leis and Andrew was adorned with them. 

Please note, he was given a green and yellow (CSU's colors) lei to wear during the ceremony and it made it much easier to spot him for photo shoots!

Can you spy Andrew with his bright, fluffy leis?

Now, Andrew was offered this job in dreamy Ohio before he even graduated (ya folks, he is in high demand!).  Just a bit about what he does: He is doing Multi-Systemic Therapy (google it because my explanation won't make it any easier to understand).  In a nutshell he does in-home therapy with the families of kids who have been through the judicial system for one reason or another.

Colorado will always be a special place for us.  It is where we moved right after being married.  It is where we spent the first two years of our marriage.  It is where our first baby was born.  And of course, it is where Andrew earned the degree that is going to help him earn some dollars so we can eat and stuff.  We miss Colorado immensely, but who knows, maybe we will find ourselves back there someday.

A little addition..

Underestimating my size, I thought I could shimmy through the door, I was wrong

A little addition to our family...

So it has been a little while since we have written in our blog (not that we are regular writers anyways) because we have been a little busy.  We've tried to pack as many life changing events into the smallest time span possible.  First and foremost Keane Merrick Rigdon joined our family on June 13th at 12:04 am.  He weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces and was 21 inches long, for those of you who keep track of such things.

Stuck on the ground, Andrew refusing to help me up until he took a picture, 8.5 months pregnant, note Andrew's shoe

Now, a lot of people give the whole labor story, but I will take into consideration your feelings and your attention span and give you the important details while trying not to give you T.M.I.  Keane was due June 12, we did not know the gender before he was born.  This is because my dad and I made a bet that we would not be able to wait to find out the baby's gender until the birth.  He promised to pay us....a sizeable sum of money....if we waited to find out.  My dear father thought we would not take him up on this offer, apparently he forgot how poor we are.  ANY-WHAYS

June 12 early morning: Contractions, go to the doctor for my routine checkup, they tell me it won't be for a could days

 My last doc's visit, due date, having  a stress test where they listen to baby's heart beat for like....ever.  I spent most of the last month in this arm-over-my-head position to encourage baby to GET OUT FROM UNDER MY RIBS

 June 12 afternoon water breaks, go for a walk, go to Wal-Mart for something to do, eat a quesadilla, more contractions; June 12, 7pm, call the hospital and find out there is only one room left with a bathtub so go to the hospital June 12 at 7:15pm

 

 Last picture, exactly 9 months pregnant, due date June 12, 2012, just before being admitted

 Our "Disneyland" picture (thanks to Lauren Lloyd, now Fuller, for this idea), Andrew didn't like this one cause his "midriff" was showing

 So we took this one as well..

More contractions, worse contractions, pushing, more pushing, more pushing, Keane came, happy, healthy and unmedicated.

Now, let me say something: everyone says you immediately forget about the pain when you see your baby and hold him or her in your arms.  Folks, I still have not forgotten about the pain.  The oxytocin did NOT give me warm fuzzies and make it so I could run, jump and dance the moment Keane was born.  I love this boy, but I also have a very clear memory of everything that happened.The Pain is why people look so haggard after it's all over.

We were SO lucky in the fact that I (obviously) was done working, and Andrew was done with school.  For two weeks we got to stay home together and get to know Keane and prepare ourselves for the next big adventure.  Andrew's Mom was there for a couple days, then my Mom came out and was with us for awhile.  Let me tell you something, for the first week my mom took Keane during the night except when I needed to feed him, BEST THING EVER.  We got to sleep!

 Papa and the Boy

We then decided it would be a good idea to move across the country with a 2 week old.  That means that in the two weeks before the move (aka the first two weeks of Keane's life), we had to try and pack up our house and get ready to move to Columbus, Ohio.  My parents offered from the moment we thought we might be moving, to help us pack and move out to Ohio.  We took three days to get from Fort Collins to Columbus and a full train of people came with us: Mom, Dad, Sister Bekka, Grandma, Andrew, Brittney and Keane.

Now we are here, we are getting settled, Andrew has started his job.  After two days at work he had to go to Pittsburgh (about 3 hrs. away) for one week for a training program for his job.  Luckily, Bekka stayed here and so I had her and SHE watched Keane during the night so I could sleep, because if I was by myself the entire week I might have died.

So now we have had a few "REAL" weeks.  Andrew working, Keane and me at home, no Moms, no Bekkas, no family.  Maybe they could come back?

In the end (or the beginning?) Andrew and I decided, Hey, if we are going to make one drastic change in our lives, why not just change EVERYTHING?  And so, I quit my job, had a baby, Andrew graduated, got a job, and we moved across the country to a state and city that neither of us have ever been to and know nothing about, farther away from our families and people we know and love.  We both love a good adventure and we figured this is going to be one major adventure!

The Late Gina

It has now been a month and a half since the passing of our dear Gina, and I feel like we are through the mourning process and can now celebrate her life.

Ok, so I've made light of this a little, but for both Andrew and I, Gina was a member of the family.  To all you cat haters out there, I understand.  If you check earlier posts, I was attacked by a cat last summer and certain cats still scare the bejeebers out of me, whatever bejeebers are.

First I will tell you about Gina:
In October 2010, Andrew and I had lived in Fort Collins for about two months.  I was working full time, he was going to school full time.  School ended up being a little more time consuming that he anticipated, which left me alone and bored most weeknights while he did homework or studied or wrote papers or read text books.  One night I asked dear Andrew if it would be alright if we got a kitten, so I could have a friend.  He replied with, "That might be Ok.  Let's look into that."  I do not think he expected me to have found a kitten by the next afternoon.  I called him on my way home from work and told him I had found a woman whose cat had just had kittens and she would give us one for free.  Andrew's retort was, "I said we could look into it, I didn't think you'd have signed the adoption papers already..."  But he loves me, so we went to look at the kittens.

We picked the smallest kitten, a little girl.  We promptly (at 10pm on a weeknight) went to Wal-Mart to get litter, a cat box, and some food for our newest addition.  Andrew picked the name Gina (I wanted Izzy but i wasn't going to complain because I had my kitten).  That first night was....rough.  She slept between us, crawled on our heads, bit our ears, and meowed and meowed and meowed, I'm certain because she missed her family. After two nights of that, Andrew had had enough and we turned our spare room into "Gina's Room"  For the first few months we had to shut her in there during the night or else she wouldn't sleep.  She would start meowing at about 2 or 3am, and one of us would go in, pet her for a second and then shut the door and she would be just fine.

2 days after we got Gina

When I woke up in the mornings I would let Gina out and she would sit on my shoulder while I got ready for work (Yes, my shoulder.  Like a bird.  Or when I brushed my teeth she would hope on my back and fall asleep promptly while I was spitting and rinsing.).

Andrew became a quick fan of Gina as well, and I would regularly find them "studying" together

We also regularly found Gina in interesting places, such as in a hole in the cupboard, and in Andrew's shoe holder thinggy!

Now, just before her one year birthday, we started having some male cats hanging around the house wishing to..."court" her.  Well, our 800 sq. ft. apartment couldn't accommodate a litter of kittens, so we had Gina spayed (after which the male cats were never to be seen again...)  The day we brought her home, the vet said she would be "drunk" for up to 48 hours.  I thought that meant drowsy, sleepy and a bit out of it.  No, she meant drunk.  The vet advised we put her in a room where she couldn't jump on anything.  I don't know about any of you but I don't have a room with nothing in it.  I put her in the bathroom thinking it'd be safest.  I kept hearing this "thunk...thunk...thunk" noise and when I went to check on her, she was attempting to jump onto the tub, but couldn't jump.  So....she was just hitting the side of the tub with her head.  While babysitting her to make sure she didn't cause herself significant traumatic brain damage I got a few videos.

Gina was an unusually social cat as well.  She had trouble getting along with children under the age of three, as well as other mammals, but any other creature she loved.  Andrew and I both grew up with lots of animals, particularly cats.  We mentioned many times how none of the cats we have ever had were as social as Gina.  She wanted to be around people always.  Even when she wasn't hungry!!  She had a habit of jumping into neighbors cars, scaring people on the walkway, and going into other people's houses, just to say hi!

Gina loved to be outside too, and she is a cat, so she loved to hunt.  Although she didn't hunt to kill, she hunted to play.

Her playmate, a little garden snake

It took her awhile to learn, but once she got the hang of climbing things, she climbed everything.  Trees, bushes, sides of houses etc.

 

 We took Gina to travel with us a couple of times, but it really didn't work out well, and she didn't enjoy it, therefore, we asked friends to take care of her, which she enjoyed because she loved people!  In April of this year Andrew and I went on a trip for a few days.  We asked our neighbor and friend to come let Gina in and out, and to feed her.  We told our neighbor that she could stay as long as she wanted, play with Gina if she wanted, and to let Gina out if she wanted.  When we left, Gina was outside already.

Well...during the weekend, Gina never came around.  Our friend said she came over twice a day and even stuck around for 30-45 min. one afternoon.  We got home on Sunday evening, about 8pm, and left the doors open and lights on so Gina could know we were there.  We started to get a little worried.  

After about 45 minutes of being home, I heard her meow, and she wandered into the house, looking tired and dirty.  She went immediately to her food dish.  While she was eating, I noticed a large gash near her tail, and called for Andrew.  We could not tell how deep or how big the gash was because it was covered by her tail and a lot of fur, but we could tell that she was not doing well.  She went and just laid down, looking like she was in a lot of pain.  She couldn't walk very well and the gash was pretty bad looking.  We decided that we needed to take her to the vet (and on a Sunday night that means the animal ER...which means expensive.)

When we got there, they told us they would need to use local anesthesia to numb her so they could shave her and find out what was wrong.  After several attempts at that, she was screaming and bouncing off the walls, not letting the vet touch her, so the vet let us know that she would have to use general anesthesia and have her out so they could check her out.  After about an hour or so, they finally came to us and told us we could go back.  Gina's butt was shaved and it was apparent that the "gash" was a lot worse than we originally thought. She had clearly been attacked by some sort of animal, possibly a dog or a fox. She had a terrible hole that extended across her rectum and up into her abdomen.  The vet told us she had about a 5% chance of living IF we decided to do a $3500 abdominal surgery.  I cried and cried knowing that we needed to put her down.  At this point it was about 10.30pm, we were tired and the evening had been incredibly emotional and trying as it was.  I cried and cried as they put her down.  

Andrew and I got home about 11:30pm and again, we were exhausted.  We felt the loss of Gina, as strange as it sounds.  For the next several days we struggled, because Gina truly was part of our family.  We felt awful because it looked like the attack happened early in the weekend, and we didn't get home until Sunday night.  I felt like we made her suffer.  It was sad and hard to deal with, but we managed.

That is the short version of our Gina.  I know, she is "just" a cat, and now that we are having a baby, the baby is going to be more important than the cat, but as I mentioned, she was important to us and we loved her dearly and she taught us a lot about patience and love and truly caring for a creature other than ourselves.