Malaki at the Farm

Look Mom! Look at them animals!

OOOO! I want to touch him!

And him too!!

I love the Farm!!

Look what I found in the road!!!

Scott went to the bank earlier this week. As he was pulling out he saw the strangest thing. There was a small turtle running into the road. Scott put the car in neutral and set the e-brake and dashed out in the road to save the little guy. Luckly neither Scott nor the turtle got hurt. Scott sent messages to Nicole and Mandy to see what he should do with it. He was pretty sure it was not native to the area.

Mandy ended up wanting him. Latter that day, Mandy took him to the pet store and found out that he is a painted turtle. He lives in the water and on the land. He eats fish. Mandy named him Atibon Legba.

Final Multi Engine Blog

Well, tomorrow is the last day of Multi Engine ground school. I took my end of course oral test today and did well. I take my final for the ground school tomorrow, and then if weather is good take my end of course flight Wednesday.

I have loved the Multi Engine Rating. This is the first time that I have ever read an entire text book. Although Kennedy is partially to credit for me actually finishing the text book. Over the course of my class, I have learned alot. I am assigned to blog about 2 things that I have learned. I'm sitting here trying to think of the two things that had the most impact on me.

One thing that we have talked about in this class that I have learned alot from is situational learning. As you learn to fly aircraft, you find out that there are alot of grey areas, and you as a pilot have a lot of responsiblity. A light twin airplane brings even more grey areas. Do I take off when I have less runway available then my accelerate and stop distance? How about an IFR flight with a MEA above my single engie absolute cieling? Learning the procedures and how to fly the aircraft is only part of the big picture. Taking time to think about each situation and evaluating it is a real skill that must be developed as a pilot.

Another thing that I have learned to think about in the class is engine failure emergencies. I came into this class with the ignorant opnion that multi engine aircraft were safer, because they had two engines. A real eye opener to me was that having two engines just doubles the chance of an engine failure and doubles the chance of an emergancy. With this in mind, you need to almost be twice as ready for an emergancy in a twin engine aircraft. It is always on my mind when I fly. What will I do if I lose an engine in this stage of flight?

My favorite part of the class was the sim session that we did in the Frasca. It was fun. It was also really great to help salidify the engine out procedures. I was great to fail the engine right after lift of and see what would happen without having to put myself and others at risk by actually doing that in the real airplane. Loved it.

The trip to actually look at the Seminole was great as well. I was glad that Frank had removed the floor panels and that we could take a look at so much stuff that you usually can't see. I was great for helping me retain the information as well as gain new insights on things like the flaps and hydraulic system.

I have enjoyed the blogging portion of our class as well. I have to apologize to Nicoles friends who keep checking our blog hopeing to see cute pictures of the kids and instead finding all this aviation stuff. It's helpful to sit and write down you thoughts and really contemplate a subject.

Cute Baby + Mutant Cat = True Love

I (scott) was laying down the other day with Malaki. Toby decieded that we looked comfortable and jumped up on the couch to join us. He layed right next to Malaki and snuggled in close. Malaki was thrilled. He was giggling and laughing. Malaki even put his arm around Toby. They layed there for about 5 minutes. Both Toby and Malaki enjoyed it very much. Malaki loves the cats so much that we think his first word is going to be Kitty.
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Malaki's Potty!

I have to admit, a couple months ago when Nicole was looking for little potties online to buy for Malaki, I thought she had gone off the deep end. At the time he could barely hold his head up, let alone use a potty! Well, I was greatly mistaken.

Malaki has been usuing his potty for about a month now. Everyday he uses it. He loves to use it in the morning. Nicole will set him on it and say, "go potty", and he goes! I was amazed. Nicole tells him, "good boy!", after he goes and Malaki gets so excited. He is very proud of himself. He doesn't use only the potty, he still goes in his diaper, and he is NOT potty trained, but it does save us a lot of diapers and keeps his little bum from getting rashes. And besides, we think it is cute.

Multi Engine Observation Flight

Flight training can coast a ton. Especially learning how to fly a multi engine aircraft. Flight observations however are free!! That's why I love 'em. For multi engine ground school, our teacher has required us to go on another students training flight and blog about our experience.

Kyle was kind enough to let me tag along on his flight to Ogden today with his instructor, Brad. During the pre-flight, Brad showed me the "poor mans hydraulics" on the rudder and Adam taught me about the purpose of the mass balance horn attached to the ailerons.

To begin the flight we took off from Salt Lake. On takeoff roll, Brad killed one of the engines and the plane violently yawed to the left. Kyle was quick with his reflexes and immediately closed the throttles and maintained directional control of the plane. Kyle seemed as if he practiced this several times because it was as if he didn't have to think about it at all, it was just reflex.

After we climbed out, Brad put Kyle under the hood for instrument flight. Kyle had wanted to tune in his nav equipment and set up his GPS while on the ground, and Brad had told him that although that is a good idea, and should do that if he was really flying IFR, he wanted Kyles workload to be increased for the purpose of the training flight.

Kyle began to tune in VOR's and set up the GPS, get ATIS information, and brief the approach, all while talking on the radios and maintaining altitude and heading. It seemed like we were getting vectors for the ILS in no time because the Seminole is so fast. So fast infact that Kyle really had to work hard to stay ahead of the airplane. While we were approaching wolfe intersection at 150 kts, Brad suggested to Kyle that he slow the airplane down. This would allow more time to be ready for the approach, get before landing checklists done and be at a manageable airspeed for the final. I found this tip to be extremely valuable. I am going to try to remember to slow the aircraft down to insure that I can stay ahead of the airplane. During my instrument training , I was so used to throttle full forward for everything except for after the final approach fix. Even with full throttle in the Alarus, we were lucky to get airspeeds of 90 kts. In the Seminole, if you are not managing airspeed, things come at you twice as fast.

Runway 3 in Ogden was closed, so we circled for a touch and go. It was interesting to see a circle to land and give you an idea of what the challenge would be like if it was IMC weather. Because we were circling to land, Kyle used only one notch of flaps and used some throttle to maintain altitude as we circled.

After the first touch and go, Kyle entered the traffic pattern again to do a short field landing. The short field landing in the Seminole seems to be a bid easier than short field landings in the Arrow. Because of induced lift, when you reduce the throttles, the Seminole can really come down. Also, I assume because of the weight, the Seminole floats very little. Kyle was impressive as he touched down about 10 feet past his point.

After the landings, we headed straight for the VOR. Once again, Brad pointed out how fast the Seminole can fly, and you may need to slow it down so that you will have time to enter a hold properly, or prepare for an approach. Kyle played with power setting and found that 20" map and 2500 RPM gave him a manageable airspeed for setting up for the hold and approach.

Kyle flew the VOR RWY 7 approach with the north arc. Flying the arc helped remind me about how to set up an arc. Turn, time, twist, talk, and throttle. Good stuff. We flew the approach and went missed to hold at the VOR and then headed home.

The lessons that I went away with today is that the Seminole is MUCH faster than what I flown IFR in the past. You need to stay ahead of the aircraft. I want to have the before landing checklist done before my final approach fix. Slowing the airplane down is a good idea to help you have time to set up for the approach as well as help to not shock cool the engines. It was a great flight and I'm glad that Kyle and Brad let me tag along.

Multi Blog #3: Aspen at night

For the third blog post for multi engine ground school we were given an article about at accident at Aspen Colorado. You can read the article here: Aspen Arrival.

Assignment: Read the accident report on Landmark Accidents: Aspen Arrival. Blog about what you thought of the accident. What ere the contributing factors? Where was the error chain? What should they have done differently? How would you deal with a passenger if your job was on the line?

Answer:
Honestly, I was expecting more from this article. Especially from the setup. You had demanding passengers and late departure into bad weather, and the accident boiled down to descending below minimums at night in mountainous terrain. Seriously. If I was in the aircraft, I would not have been comfortable descending below minimums at an airport like that. I understand that there were a lot of contributing factors, however, I think the real important thing on this error chain was simply going below minimums. If they would have flown the approach as published, then everything would have been fine. Shoot the approach, go missed, and head to the other airport. You can always refuel and try Aspen after the snow has passed.

Considering the error chain, the first mistake was the timing. Late passengers showing up, as well as no grace period for bad weather really put the pilots in a pressured situation. I would hope that when charters such as these are scheduled, that the customer is informed that this is flight is not a guaranteed thing. Weather and maintenance can de-rail plans. I would hope that we would have learned this lesson from back in the airmail days.

Allowing the passenger in the cockpit at such a crucial point in the flight was also part of the error chain. Hearing this was like nails on a chalk board! If I was going to shoot one the most difficult approaches in the country in the snow, I would prefer a sterile cockpit!

What would I do differently? Honestly, I probably would have taken off late. I would have taken grief from the passengers, and I would have probably shot the approach. However, I am fairly confident in saying, I would not have gone below minimums and I would have gone missed at the missed approach point when I was not certain to have the runway in site. The article is a bit confusing on what had happened. I am not sure why the first officer said the runway was in sight, when he obviously didn't see it. As the Captain, I would want to see the runway before I continued down. After going missed, I would head to the other airport. I could refuel and possible deliver my passengers later that night if weather clears.

I would attempt to deal with the passengers in as professional way as possible. I would try and educate them on the risks that there "boss" was proposing. I would tell them what the regulations state, and inform them that I will put safety and there lives first, and then dinner parties second. If they didn't want to hear it, I would not argue, however, I would not give in and fly dangerously. I never want to have a job that encourages me to break regulations and take risks. If my boss was saying, "you WILL fly to Aspen," I would be looking for another job.

Take that cat out for a walk!

Such a lovely night for a walk. Scott and I sure thought so. Well appearently, we weren't the only ones! Nicole put the sleepywrap on and got Malaki all snuggled up and hunkered down. As we started on our walk, we noticed that both Zero and Toby were following us. This wasn't too surprising because they usually will follow us for the first 100 yards or so. Well today they just kept on trooting along on the side walk right behind us. We got to the point where we kept coaxing them on so they would come back home with us. They seemed pretty happy to be coming along for the most part, but by the time we were just past the half way point they started to get a little spooked. They were walking up closer to the yards and sniffing bushes. Anytime a car would drive by or a stick would snap they'd get all low to the ground and look around. Zero even made the crying noise cats tend to make in cars at one point. But that did not last long, because they soon recognized where they were and started leading the way home! We were so proud of them trusting us, that we gave them a can of tuna as a reward! We don't know how much they enjoy the walk, they were extremely exhausted once we got in the yard, but we had a great time! We hope they join us more often!

Would you fly single pilot IFR?

This is the second of 5 blogging assignments for my multi engine ground school. For this blog I had to read an article by AOPA safety foundation, "Single Pilot IFR". IFR is Instrument Flight Rules, which is flying off the instruments, not off of reference to the ground. Which can be really tricky. Imagine driving your car without being able to see the road. That's kind of like what IFR flight is like, plus a 3rd axis, plus talking to ATC, etc... This post will contain a lot of aviation jargon, so I'll start by defining a few things.

VFR - visual flight rules - type of flight by flying "visually" with reference to the ground.
IFR - instrument flight rules -- type of flight by flying in clouds with out reference to the ground. Flying off of your flight instruments.

VMC -- visual meteorological conditions - Weather conditions that allow visual flight

IMC -- instrument flight rules - weather conditions prohibit visual flight (fog, clouds, ect..)

When you fly, you are either VFR or IFR. You can fly IFR in both VMC and IMC, however, you may only fly VFR in VMC.

Assignment:
Read the article "Single Pilot IFR." Blog about whether or not you would consider flying single pilot IFR? Why or why not? Blog about at least 1 tip you gained from reading the article.

Would I consider flying single pilot IFR? I have flown single pilot IFR. Well, at least I have filed single pilot IFR, but never in instrument conditions. When I was working on my commercial, we would file IFR for some of the cross countries, but the weather was always above IMC. In fact, my personal minimums were above VFR minimums. I was instrument rated, but I never felt proficient. Considering that I only have .2 or so of actually flying through the clouds. So, yea, I would consider flying single pilot IFR, but I would need to have weather minimums that I could cancel IFR and for VFR if I needed to.

IFR is a challenging thing. Two IFR flights can vary quite greatly in skill needed. It's one thing to say, yea I could fly single pilot IFR on a flight that's familiar in good weather, and it's another thing all together to fly single pilot IFR in an unfamiliar area in icing or turbulence. I hear stories about people flying cargo at night single pilot IFR through icing and terrible weather. That is far from my comfort zone now. I really love to fly IFR, so I think that I will in the future file IFR, however, I am going to make sure that weather is great. The more I fly IFR, the more comfortable I believe I would become. However, I don't fly IFR very often, and never in IMC, so I don't see my comfort level rising anytime soon.

Why? The first reason is Murphy's Law. Flying is one of those things that I just don't feel comfortable taking risks with. If something can go wrong, it very well might. Sure, I could fly a lot of single pilot IFR flights and be just fine. However, there could be that time that I start picking up ice and ATC is asking me to do a challenging hold, and I can't find the right approach plate and my attitude indicator fails and I'm running out of gas and the airport is near minimums. I never want to be in that situation, especially not alone. Flying in IMC straight and level can be tricky enough. Trying to find things, brief approaches or tune radios can make it even harder. Having a second pilot makes a world of difference. Also, it gives you protection because it gives you someone to catch your mistakes, and another mind to help with situational awareness.

Another big factor is aircraft and it's instrumentation. Do you have auto pilot and GPS? Do you know how to use them? Is the aircraft simple or complex? All of this can factor into weather or not you would want to fly single pilot IFR.

The tip in the article that I enjoyed the most was about bringing a handheld com radio. Especially if it can use the aircraft antenna. It's a good idea to save money by getting clearance and listening to atis with out having to turn on the aircraft, but it is even better if you have an electrical failure or com failure.

BYU beats Oklahoma

BYU takes down #3 Oklahoma! I remember reading a Salt Lake Tribune article from earlier in the week talking about how BYU was absolutly crazy for scheduling Oklahoma. The article said that BYU would have been better off playing the Cinncinatti Bangals. BYU did it though. They scheduled OU and they beat them. It wasn't luck either. BYU simply out played them. In fact, BYU made quite a few mistakes. Mistakes that I thought would have killed them. Fumbling on the goal line, silly delay of game taking away a field goal. BYU didn't even have Unga. The defense saved the day. I don't think anyone is questioning BYU's defense now.

It's seems like just a little while ago, Nicole and I were walking away from Sam Boyd stadium with our heads hung thinking what happened? Honestly, I didn't think they were going to pull off a win yesterday. After what Oklahoma did last year, it just didn't seem possible. You never know how a team is going to look until they play a game though. BYU looks good. They played with confidence and passion. It was fun to watch.

The best part of the game for us was watching the defense play. Nicole and I were talking about how in 2006, if BYU's offense fell short, we just knew the defense would stop them and possibly get us the ball.

It was also great to see how well Kariya played for Unga. I know the stats don't show it, but he ran hard and he broke tackles. At one point he carried 4 Oklahoma guys on his back for 5 extra yards.

Now we will have to see how the rest of the season goes. All of thier tough games are at home. BYU has a defense! BYU has a great offense. GO COUGARS!

Multi Engine Blog Post #1

For fall semester, I have enrolled in Multi Engine ground school and flight lab! It is going to be tons of fun. Just like my CFI ground school, I have been assigned to make some blog posts. Enjoy.

Assignment: Blog about what you want to get out of the class. Your expectations, and anything specific you would like to learn. Also blog about what your expectations are for blogging and what prior experience you have.

When I first started flying, I wanted to be a crop duster. I imagined my life living in some rural town barnstorming all over the farms. It sounded quit lovely. However, family life can change your goals. Between trying to keep Kennedy in SLC, Nicole wanting to stay close to Salt Lake, and the idea of having flight benefits, my goals have shifted. My goals now involve me gaining a multi engine rating as well as becoming a multi engine instructor.

Currently I have two goals that I am working on. One, getting a great CFI job, and two flying with SkyWest. In order to fly for SkyWest you must have a certain amount of flight hours and being a CFI is a great way to obtain them. However, I have been leaning to the idea that I might prefer to flight instruct as a career. I love teaching. Today, I was helping Militza with her homework, and she told Diana that I should become a teacher. I told her I was, I just didn't have a job yet. My concern about flight instructing as a career is being able to make enough money so that Nicole doesn't have to work and we don't have to live in poverty (although, we have become quite good at it). If I could find a flight instructing job in which I could afford a humble home, food and be able to pay the medical bills, I think I would prefer that. I would be able to be home most evenings. I love flying the small planes.

So anyway, back to the Multi Engine thing. If I am ever going to get a CFI job in which I would be able to make a decent living I would most likely need to be a multi engine instructor as well. Also, If I am ever going to fly for SkyWest, yup, need to have those Multi hours. So with the multi class, that's goal #1. Learn how to fly these multi engine aircraft. I want to know them inside and out. I would like to gain the knowledge and skill from this class so that I may quickly become a Multi Engine instructor.

I expect this class to be alot like my other ground schools. I expect that I am going to have to do alot of reading from the text book and the Seminole Information Manual (that's kind of like a owners manual for a car except about 20 times more in depth). I expect to show up to class and have activities and lessons to help me retain what I have read and to understand it. I think that I am going to learn alot about systems and emergencies. I have heard once that training in a multi engine aircraft you rarely actually fly with both engines. I imagine that I will do a lot of stuff with one engine shut down.

During my CFI I enjoyed my blogging assignments. It's kind of like writing in a journal. I just sit down and express myself. I kind of stepped out of what was asked for this assignment, but I find it nice to write down my thoughts. Obviously I have blogged before. The rest of my blog kind of speaks to that.

Kennedy Through the Years!

I scanned in all of Kennedy's school pictures today. I thought I would share them. I love to look at pictures and see how she has changed. It's fun. Enjoy!

Scott is now a CFI

The day has finally come! I have finally become a CFI. I have been working on this for way to long. I took my test on Monday the 17 of August. I packed a lunch, brought 3 bags stuffed with books, and carried my enormous binder of lesson plans into the Flight Standards District Office. I had my test (in aviation we call it a check ride) with Burney Connolly.

The first part of the check ride was on the ground. He asked me lots of questions and I also taught him lessons as if he was a student. We then went to the airplane were I showed him how to do a preflight check and he quizzed me airplane systems. The flight was almost two hours and I taught him several maneuvers and he pretend to be a student flying and I had to critique him and point out the common student errors.

The check ride turned out to be a lot of fun. I did really well, and believe that I was VERY prepared. I did really bad on my end of course test at Westminster. I think the end of course went bad because I got really uptight and stressed. On my check ride I relaxed and tried to have fun. Nicole told me not to worry about passing or failing, but to just be a good flight instructor and enjoy teaching. So, that's what I did and I passed!

Now it's off to find a job and start putting all this training to use! I am so excited to be a CFI! I think it is going to be so fun to teach people how to fly!

Remembering Malaki's First 2 Months

Malaki is now 12 weeks old and we have a TON of pictures. Here are various pictures from June & July. Hope you enjoy! Kennedy has been an awesome big sister! She gives him lots of snuggles, sings him songs, reads him stories and can even calm him when he is upset. She is an excellent "shhhhh"er. Malaki definately loves his big sister, when ever she talks to him he automatically smiles. Sometimes they just lay in bed next to eachother and giggle.

Bath time has been interesting! It is always a surprise when the water first touches his skin. He gets this look on his face that exclaims "...I don't know about this..!" Whenever we sprinkle the water on him he gets pretty intense. For the first few weeks Malaki thought that bath time was a great time for potty time! But now he is getting the hang of things (& so are we!) and it has gone much smoother..and cleaner. He usually is pretty calm during the actual bath. He lays there and looks around, kicks his feet and munches on his fingers. He loves to just lay around and giggle in his towel. He very much likes to be without his clothes. He squiles and yipes, and says things like "aroo, and geeee!!" Even when he just needs a change, he loves to lay on his changing table and talk to Mom and Dad about all sorts of things. These are some of our favorite times with Malaki. Malaki already loves to learn! He constantly studies his surroundings. Within the first week he had a favorite book and a favorite page. The moment we would lay him down he'd look for his lion. He and this lion had some wonderful conversations together! He loves to study pictures and look at flash cards. Mom even had to go out and find "ready for school" preschool flash cards to keep him entertained! At this rate he will be reading in no time!

The best place to study and learn about new things is out side! There are so many colors and sounds. The best part are the bright green leaves against the blue sky. Malaki loves to be out side and loves to be moving! Our sleepy wrap is the best thing to keep him comfy and give him what he wants, lots of walks. There are many days that we would go out 3 or 4 times! June had been abnormally WET! It rained almost EVERY day after Malaki was born for 3 weeks straight! The wrap was very useful for protecting him from the sudden rain showers that we would wait out under a near by tree. The sleepy wrap is also great because it gives Scott the sensation of being pregnant, which has been fun for Nicole! He says he even gets a little indigestion.

Life at home has been pleasant, but Mom was itching to get out after 3 weeks at home. Grandpa Nolan had a specail trip to the Zoo planned for him and Kennedy, so we decided to see if we could tag along. Mom had a great time look at all the animals, and Malaki enjoyed the movement and the sleep!
We even went on Vacation! We atteneded the Atkin annual family reunion, "The Atkinder" at Bear Lake from July 11-14. Malaki and Mom mostly stayed in doors eating and sleeping and trying to relax. Malaki got to met a lot of his relatives for the first time and enjoyed socializing. He was the youngest to attend. Here are some pictures from that weekend:

Malaki thinks his Mom is really funny. Somes he'd rather laugh at her then eat. He will even try to laugh at her WHILE eating. The above is a picture of him taking a break from dinner to laugh.
Malaki loves his Dad. He already takes him on lots of adventures. We have gone up Big Cottonwood Caynon to roast hot dogs and marshmellows, went to Bear Lake and explored Minnitonka Cave. The picture above is of Scott and Malaki playing in St. Charles Canyon. Scott keeps saying he can't wait until Malaki is old enough to ride in the bike trailer and go on the bus. When Scott and Malaki are together, Scott never stops singing. He makes up songs about everything and anything. Malaki seems to enjoy it.

Malaki was very pleased to find out his aunt Mandy and cousin katy would be coming with us to the reunion. His aunt Mandy can always get him smiling! He loves to play with her and tell her stories.

Just Right Already!

Here I am sitting here with SO many things in my head wanting to come out. There are so many stories to tell, so many things to share. So I open up a new post, and start typing. I write two or three sentances, stop, go back and read over everything and decide that it's all wrong. That it doesn't convay what I want it to say. I erase it all and try again. No, still not right. I sit there. Think awhile. And then there it is. I am stuck. Well, looks like I am done for today! And thats it. What is stopping me from writing? My overwhelming need for perfection? Possibly. But I know I will never be perfect. And really, is there such a thing as perfect? Do I want to believe in perfect?
No.

...So what is imporant to me?
I want a record of my family's life. I want to document all of the burnt muffins, basketball injuries, kid quotes and animal stories. I want to be able to look back at the pictures and have the REAL story that goes with them. I want to remember how bueatiful and perfect my life is. I want to see how blessed I am and share that with others. I want to laugh at my mistakes and learn from them. I want to be write about being right in my imperfections. So when times like this come around I can remind myself of how insane it is to not get what I really want because I am too busying being right.

So here's where I am. I am going to take time each week to create a new post. Share pictures and stories, or even just nonsence. But I am going to write. And it is NOT going to be perfect. And there are going to be errors and it is not going to flow. It is going to be messy.
And it will be perfect.

The Olsens are ready for Fall!!

Last night there was a brilliant thunderstorm that lasted through this morning. It was actually cool enough for me to mix up a long awaited steaming cup of pumpkin spice hot chocolate! Today had the crisp smell and great feeling of Fall. Fall is definitely my favorite season. Fall's crisp cool air means hot soup, hot chocolate, warm hoodies, snuggling in blankets, sitting by the fire, thunderstorms, the changing leaves... all things I love! With fall comes Halloween and Thanksgiving, two of my favorite holidays! But the one thing that is dominating my Fall Fantasies is FOOTBALL!! I am WAY too excited for BYU football this year. I love to go to the games and even watch them on TV all the while yelling things like "Rip his head off!!" The thrill of a good run, a tackle that levels the guy, the unbelievable catch, and of course a touch down is something I look forward to all week. Now some of you may have assumed this is Scott who is writing this post. And you could be correct, because Scott is always thinking about BYU football, that is a given. But today my friend, you are wrong. Nicole is now officially a die hard BYU Football fan.

Nicole worked extra hard getting the whole family ready for football season this year, here's the picture:

Posting in CHUNKS

This is a quick post to let you know that we are posting in Chunks. What does that mean for you? Well, every time you log on, make sure you scroll down to the last post you read and go up! That way you won't miss anything. We apologize for the illogical order.. is that even a word? Either way, we know it is a mess. But the mess is worth it to get all of it in! So.. read on.

...Also.. we LOVE comments on our posts! Please feel free to comment anything you like on as many posts as you wish.. even if it is nonsense. Especially if it is nonsense!

Malaki's Birthday!

Now that Malaki is a month old, we decided to write about the day of his birth. Or maybe, now we just have time!

As you may have read in an earlier post, we had been waiting "patiently" for Malaki for what felt like quite some time. The day before his birth, we got to the point where we figured he was going to come when he was ready, no matter what we did. So that night we figured he wasn't coming anytime soon. Scott went to play basketball and Nicole watched a movie at the church and had a lovely walk.

Scott got home from basketball at like 11:30. Usually Nicole and Scott go straight to bed, but for some reason this night they decided to stay up late and ended up watching a movie about compost. At 1 am, they finally wondered what on earth they were doing, turned the movie off and went to bed.

After a long rest of 1 hour and 30 minutes, Nicole woke up in labor. However, she was tired enough that she was confused went to the bathroom and went back to bed. At 3:20 am Nicole woke up again when she couldn't quite get comfortable in bed. She thought that maybe she needed to go to the bathroom again. After 20 minutes of first confusion, then pacing and timing she had finally realized that it was go time. During this time, she discovered that her contractions were less than 3 minutes apart lasting about 1 minute. Malaki was finally ready!

After a phone call to the doula and midwife and 20 minutes of Nicole grabbing random fruits and and things to take with them they headed out to the birth and family center. Running red lights (not because they were in a hurry, but because it was 4 am!) and telling the hypnobabies lady on the ipod to shut up along the way.

We arrived at the birth center at 4:45 with Nicole dialated to a 5. Nicole spent time in lots of different positions. The whole time Nicole had an amazing attitude. She was loving every bit of labor. She was very focused and breathed like a pro! She refused to get frustrated and did a fabulous job of allowing the midwives and doula to give suggestions.

When Nicole was in transition, she commented after a contraction that it didn't even hurt and that it was just intense. She kept telling everyone how grateful she was and how she loved everyone! She told us how labor was beautiful. This is much better than the cussing that Nicole's mom had assured us would come. However, Nicole never cussed, never said anything negative, and enjoyed her birth! It was a truly amazing experience.

At 9:37 am., after about a half an hour of real pushing and some rope pullling, Malaki was born. He was pink and healthy. He had lots of long hair, and it looked really curly. Nicole's mom was pleased to announce that she thought that his hair looked African American.

Nicole says that Scott did really well during the birth as well. She says he was incredibly supportive and made all the difference. I think she is just being nice to him. How can Scott not be supportive when Nicole had such a great attitude? What should he say, No Nicole, this isn't beautiful, birth is hard! Ok. So, Scott did hold the barf bowl. That was a little traumatizing. Scott's favorite thing he did to help was pressurizing Nicole's hips when she was on the birth ball. He enjoyed that because in between contractions, he was asleep on Nicole's back. He always woke up when the next contraction came and Nicole said, "pressure!"

Malakis birth was a splendid event. It was terrific. YES SIR REE!!

Malaki is now 1 month old!