Anika has mastered sitting down!
For the last month or so, Anika could hold the “sit down” position for a little while, like 10 seconds totally unsupported. When placed on the position she would wobble and then start falling to the side slowly.
But two days ago Carol placed her on the floor and she was able to keep herself balanced! She now does it all the time with no problem. We can’t remember when was the last time we sat her down on the floor, we usually sat her on the bed without realizing it was harder for her to keep her balance on a soft surface.
So we now place her on the floor with some toys around for her to play with. We also put some pillows around so she doesn’t hit her head if she falls.
She’s also starting to enjoy more sophisticated toys like the one you see on the picture. She hits the buttons to play the music, we’re almost certain she does it because she wants to hear the music. She still prefers her old toys though, she can lift those and put them in her mouth =)
Anika’s first cold =(
Boogers and watery eyes did not stop her from smiling yesterday afternoon when I took the picture. But she did have a tough night. She woke up every couple of hours because of a stuffy nose. And had a fever at 3am so Carol gave her some acetaminophen.
I’m totally the one that gave her the cold … It’s one of those mean colds. I hope she’ll feel better tonight…
Anika’s first tooth!!!
There it is! The first little white one! Carol discovered it today when Anika bit her finger. Anika just barely turned five months 5 days ago.
We’re now thinking this is why she has been drooling sooo much for a month now. Actually it was much worse about two weeks ago. And she was crying a little more than normal last week.
Anika has grown sooo much it is unbelievable. For a while she’s been able to roll to pick up toys but it used to be hard for her now she does it really quick. And she started picking up her binky when she drops it! And she puts it back in her mouth… This still takes her some time and she sometimes gets frustrated but it is still truly amazing how babies learn so much so quick!
Rode 67 miles (108 km) today
Today I rode the Heber Metric Century Ride with Cody, Nicholle, and Jeff. I had a great time, nothing like a long ride with good friends. The scenery was awesome too, we went through rural roads with a lot of green fields and green mountains with very blue skies. And the leaves started changing colors around Heber so we would also see some bright orange trees in the middle of the mountains.
We rode through some isolated roads which were really smooth to ride. Well, most of them where, there was 2 miles of hard packed dirt road. And since my butt was already hurting a little, those 2 miles definitely wore it out and I was in pain the rest of the way…
I feel like muscle-wise I could have ridden the 100 mile ride (as opposed to the 100km one). But my butt was definitely not ready for the challenge. Humm,,, well and now that I write this, I remember that my knee also began to hurt a bit at mile 40 so I took some Ibuprofen (400mg) and that made things be normal for the remaining 17 miles.
This knee thing means I’m not doing long rides any time soon. I might do 50 milers but no more than that. I’ve been really good with my knee this year. I really have not made it hurt since April’s SLC Marathon. And today doesn’t really count.
I didn’t take any pictures of the ride =(, but I took one of my “farmer’s tan” when I got home:
After the ride we went to grab some food and a couple of beers. Carol and Anika met us there but they would not let them in! It turned out the place was a bar and not a restaurant/bar, so you had to be over 21 to get in. I gotta start thinking about that when we’re out with the little one.
Carol, Anika, and I then went to check out Jonsons Mill, a nice bead and breakfast where we might stay some day. We hung out on the gardens, pond, and stream that goes through it. They had a cool thing with a rope where you could make it spin as you grabbed the rope and flew over a stream, it was pretty cool.
Chilly morning rides
My commute to work is getting chilly, today was my first day wearing full finger gloves. And think I’ll start covering my ears soon.
The sun only hits me in the last mile of my 5 mile bike ride to work.
I’ve thought for the longest time that my commute was 6 miles but I measured it last week and it’s really 5.2 miles.
I’m happy to say that I rode to work 4 to 5 times a week throughout the entire summer. The days that I didn’t ride to work were days that I wanted to use my old Mazda a little, just to make sure it didn’t break since I’ll be using it during my winter commutes.
I’ll continue riding to work until it gets uncomfortably cold. I have at least one month more of riding.
And to end this post with some cuteness, here’s a picture of Anika grocery shopping that I found on my phone while getting the picture above.
Anika is now 4 months old!
Anika is now 4 months old! I’ve been slow at posting so she has actually been 4 months old for almost two weeks now. And along with the 4 month mark comes a visit to the doctor. One cool thing the doctor said was that Anika’s length was in the 90th percentile of US babies. I’m definitely taller than the average Guatemalan but I sort of blend in here in the US. And Carol is not tall so I was expecting something around the 60th percentile. I think it’s cool that she’s looking tall right now, we’ll see how it goes later in life.
The doc also said she is in the 80th percentile weight-wise, but to not worry because most of the weight is because she is a tall baby. I can’t remember how tall or heavy she is right now, Carol’s the one that takes Anika to the doc. (Carol, if you remember, please post this on a comment?)
It was also time for another round of vaccines. She cried less than last time but she got a fever the next day. We gave her acetaminophen and that kept her feeling alright until her body adjusted to the newly introduced viruses.
I recently uploaded two videos of Anika:
To see more videos, just visit http://pedroliska.com/videos .
Daybreak Triathlon 2011
This was my second year doing the Daybreak Triathlon. A triathlon that happens a couple of blocks from my house.
Last year was cold and I had an injured knee. This year the lake temperature and air temperature were perfect! And my knee did not bother me at all. Well, at the very end I felt like there could have been some pain if I kept going. But I was close to the Finish line so no big deal.
My overall time was 2 hours 47 minutes. Last year was 3 hours 2 minutes, but the swim was significantly shorter. For detailed times, heart rate, and other data, click here.
I like doing triathlons, specially when the weather is great and I’m not in any pains. This was definitely a fun one for me.
Rita came to visit!
Rita (my older sister) had been wanting to visit us for a while, and now that Anika is here she decided to make it happen. With three kids under her belt, she had lots of good advice for us and helped us with the baby.
Anika had her worst tummy ache to date when Rita was around. I had to work the next day so Carol didn’t wake me up. Anika cried for hours until Carol went to the drug store at about 3am to get some colic drops. Carol’s mom was also with us so I’m not sure if Rita stayed with the baby or went to the drug store with Carol, but either way she helped out and Carol and I are grateful.
Besides doing baby stuff, we took Rita to nearby places in SLC. The day after she arrived, we went downtown and took her to Ensign Peak:
After Ensign Peak we wanted to go to Temple square, but we were hungry so we stopped at Squatters brewery. This was the first restaurant Anika has ever been to. She was really calm and loved the beer… Ok, we didn’t give her any beer; but she did look drunk after finishing 4oz of milk while she was there. She actually looks that way most of the times she drinks a lot of milk.
Here are some pics of Temple Square:
The next day, Carol’s mom and sister came from California. They both live in Guatemala but came to the US to visit Anika and some family in California.
Rita had never seen snow so we drove to the mountains one day to check it out:
And the last cool place we went was Antelope Island. I had forgotten how beautiful and odd that place is. I want to come back for some hiking, running, road biking, and/or mountain biking. I just need to remember to check if it is mosquito season because they were eating us like piranhas while we were there.
Antelope island looks “odd” because besides being an island, it has very few trees and the plant combination is different than what you see throughout Salt Lake City. It also has bison, which ordinary people like me just see them as buffalo and have no idea why they are different.
I had tons of fun with Rita here. I’m very happy she came.
First MTB ride of the year!
This year’s MTB season began yesterday for me with a 1 hour 45 minute ride on the Corner Canyon trails.
Since I’ve been road biking a bit (commuting plus some rides). I felt ready to start where we left off last year. So I downhilled all the fun trails of corner canyon: Jacob’s ladder, ghost falls, and the new coyote hollow one (that’s how it is called right?). It was 11.3 miles of fun:
The trails were in perfect condition. I did the jump at the end of Jacob’s ladder, the one we just barely manned up to do at the end of last year. It felt, again, not as hard core as it looks. It had a deep, big, puddle of water that you have to clear, which is cool. Ghost falls was cool as usual. And Coyote Hollow was better than ever, it felt like an entirely settled trail.
I didn’t plan this ride in advance so I just went alone. I enjoy the occasional solo ride though. I’m looking forward to more MTB action this year!
Anika Sofie Liska is the cutest baby I’ve laid my eyes on
I’m totally biased, but I really think baby Anika is the cutest baby I’ve ever seen. Carol and I are absolutely in love with her and are enjoying every minute of her presence. I like her when she’s happy and calm, and when she poops and cries. I’m completely dazed when she practices her smile.
I’ll start you guys off with some pictures of Anika and then get down to the details of the tough labor Carol and Anika went through.
Cute pictures right? Anika was born on Thursday April 21st at 8:30am, but Carol’s water broke at 12:30pm the day before. Here’s the timeline and story:
Wednesday 20th 12:30pm. Carol’s water breaks. There is some significant leakage but she is not feeling any labor pains. She googled and it seemed it it was really that the water broke.
1:20pm. Carol calls me at work to give me the news. I freak out and tell her I’m on my way. She tells me there is no rush but I really don’t believe her. I hang up the phone and realize I was supposed to go get gas right after work. I’m really good at having gas in the car you know how things are some times; the day you really need it is the day it is not there.
1:25pm. I’m on the car and I call Carol to see how she’s feeling, she tells me she really has no contractions so we agree it is ok to get gas.
1:55pm. Carol is trying to get a hold of the doctor and wants to take a shower before going to the hospital. After the shower, we finally get a hold of the doc he says that even though there are no pains, we need to go to the hospital. Carol is almost done with her hair =)
3pm. We arrive at the hospital. Still no pains so we check in without any rush. At that point we’re wondering if the water really broke or what.
3:30pm. We’re in a nice, private hospital room. We thought it was just a fancy place to see if the water really broke but we quickly realized that the bed was one of those ready for holding your feet when in labor. We also notice directional lights in the ceiling so we were sure this was a “birth giving” room.
3:50pm. They take a sample of the dripping water and send it to the lab. The lab confirms it is amniotic fluid. Still no labor pains.
4:30pm. They begin inducing Carol into labor through an IV with Oxitocin (Pitocin). They explain that after the water breaks they like the baby to come out within the next 24 hours to minimize the risk of infection; because the amniotic sac is no longer protecting the baby.
10pm. The Oxitocin worked slowly but by this time the contractions were getting really painful so we decided it was time to get the epidural. The epidural has a slow drip of the thing that makes you numb. But your body recovers quicker from the drip than what the drip can make you numb. When you really want to not feel pain you need to push a button that increases the drip and you get significantly numb in about a half hour, the numbness then lasts a while.
Thursday April 21st 3:40am. Carol was able to sleep on and off for short periods of time throughout the night, and we only pushed the epidural button once or twice. At 3:40, the nurse came into try to give the first real pushes but nothing really happened. The nurse suspected the epidural numbness was not letting Carol push properly, so she was going to be back in a while when the numbness was wearing out a bit.
4am. The epidural wore off a bit and carol was able to push, this time the pushes were doing something but the nurse decided we were not ready for delivery.
6am. The nurse comes in for another round of pushes. Since we were not sure if the epidural was the issue at 4am, we did push the button between 4 and 6am. At 6am, the epidural was numbing Carol and she had problems pushing again.
6:30am. The nurse comes back, the epidural effect was off. The pushes are significantly better. We’re now sure the epidural messes things up so we decide to not push the button any more. This is bad news for Carol because we had only pushed it when she was really losing it. Next time she’s in pain, there will be no relief.
8am. The doctor comes in for the first time and says it is time to deliver this baby no matter what. I remember thinking to myself there was no way that baby could come out right now, I mean, we could see Anika’s head but it was really not poking out, not even a little.
After a lot of pushes, the doc decides to do an episiotomy. Yeah, that made Anika’s head come out quite a bit. But just like 1/4.
After more pushes, the doc decides he needs to use the suction cup to pull Anika’s head out. On the first try, the cup did not get a good grip and didn’t do much at all. But the doc was just warming up.
The second try was a good one but the doc didn’t put a lot of pull to it.
Then came the third one. This was a very decent pull. I thought the doc had given it all on that one but it failed. I got really worried, what if the baby didn’t come out? What if the suction cup messes up the baby’s brain?
I thought about telling the doc to think things twice but then I thought I really have no idea what I was talking about, maybe this was normal and the dangerous pull limits were still far from being reached.
Then came the fourth suction cup pull. Even harder than the third. This one did it, it pulled half of the head. The doc stopped there for a while, took off the cup, thought for a while. I’m not sure if he then pulled the head with his hands or if he used the suction cup. But a minute later, the head was all out.
The doc maneuvered just a bit and in less than a minute, the entire body was out. I could not believe it!
8:29am. Next thing I know the doc is holding the cord for me and asks me if I want to cut it. I’m like “ohh yeah,, ok”. I remember thinking if stopping for me to cut the cord was needed. I was worried for carol and her episiotomy. I just wanted her to get stitched up. But I just went with the flow again, talking about it would only stop the process more. And I wanted to cut the cord; I just remember thinking that I hoped us stopping for this would not affect Carol or Anika a tiny bit.
Having seen how sharp those scissors were. I wanted to make sure I didn’t cut the doc’s fingers, they were pretty close to where I had to make the cut. So I opened the scissors just enough to get all the cord, I failed by a tiny bit, like 1milimeter. I finished it off with a second tiny cut.
The baby was being held by the baby doctors and as soon as the cut was made, Anika was swiftly taken to the other side of the room where they had her tiny bed. I then remember Carol telling me to not take my eyes off our baby as soon as it came out, so I went with Anika.
They swiftly dried her with a cloth, unclogged her nose and mouth. She was crying really loud, not sure when she started. They then put her on the scale to weight her. 7lbs 6.8oz. Then they wrapped her in a blanket and gave her to me. As soon as I talked to her she calmed down, no more tears! I like to think she immediately recognized my voice, but maybe she recognized the first comforting touch. All the other docs were just worried about checking her vitals and such. I just wanted to hold her and tell her it was going to be all right.
I then took her close to Carol. Carol was crying, from happiness and relief. I’m not sure when she started crying, it started with tears of pain? I’ve got to ask her. I was close to crying too, I could feel the knot in my throat.
Once they were done with Carol, I gave her Anika and she held her for a couple of minutes. Then the nurses took Anika to get a more thorough check and a bath.
They noticed she had really low blood sugar and poor oxygen levels in her blood. They were worried. I was really worried. They called for the baby doctor. While we waited for him, they fed Anika some formula.
The doc said some blood test were needed and that sadly, an IV had to be placed in the back of her tiny hand. She definitely did not like that:
They bathed Anika and we waited a while for her next blood sugar and oxygen level check.
12pm. The blood sugar and oxygen levels were at an acceptable amount so we were free to go to our room. They had changed carol to another room, when I got there all our stuff was already there, not sure how. Carol’s mom was probably the one doing the hauling, she was there next to us for everything. They had ordered breakfast for me, I was starving.
The doc gave the nurses instructions to keep Carol and the baby there until Saturday and that the blood sugar had to be closely monitored on Anika.
In order to get Anika’s blood sugar to better levels, she had to be fed immediately. But she was not hungry at all! I remember I was shaking her a bit to get her to wake up and nothing. I then gave her to carol and she tickled her feet a bit, that woke her up! She took less than one ounce of formula and some colostrum from Carol, not sure how much since you can’t really measure that.
About an hour later, they tested the blood sugar and she was in normal range; we were relieved. The nurse recommended us to keep trying to feed her whenever she was awake.
Saturday April 23rd. Anika arrived home! The only strange instructions we had was to place Anika under the sun when possible because she was a little Jaundiced.
Monday April 24th. We went to the pediatrician and he said the Jaundiced issue is progressively getting better and that we should still put her under the sun if there is any, but that there’s nothing to worry about.
