Gallagher Christmas Shoot!

Tis' the season to be jolly, fa lalalala, lalalala!!

Happy Hallow-thanks-mas.

That's what happens when you don't blog in the fall -- you end up having a funny title because so much happens this time of year. Well we've been enjoying all the firsts with baby Daniel, clearly as you can see here by his first Halloween. He was Rambo for part of the night and a bunny for the rest of it. I'm sure you can figure out which parent had their influence on costumes. :) 

Then there was Thanksgiving. We had three all together which was a lot of fun. And when I say "fun" I mean "turkey". But Thanksgiving has always been my absolutely favorite holiday, even more so than Christmas. It's a time to reflect on how much we are truly blessed in this life, a time give, a time to eat yummy food, a time before everyone starts to commercialize Christmas and definitely a time before people stomp walmart clerks to death to get a good deal on a flat screen. Makes me sick just thinking about it. Anyways, it was great to spend time with family and friends and that's exactly what we did. 

And now it's December. We just celebrated Daniel's 27th birthday (crazy) and we are loving our nice little twelve foot christmas tree we had plucked out of the Lassen National Forest yesterday with other friends. You just can't beat a ten dollar 12 foot Christmas tree!! And of course it's been fun to decorate the house with all the appropriate decor. We had the huge honor of our friends Lyn and Jesse hook us up with a photo shoot which I will soon post pictures of. Until then, hope you have a very merry christmas. 

-mg

How quickly summer days have come and gone. Well, actually in Redding it is more like summer days have come and are still coming. All I can really remember is trying not to breath in the smoke from the fires surrounding our quaint little town. Or wondering why Costco had to repave the whole parking lot in the hottest month of the year and watch as cars left turn marks and they drove off before their kirkland super premium vanilla ice cream melted. No doubt it was a classic Redding summer. But there were good things that came from this summer too. Like going to my little brothers swim meets, taking the baby to his first swimming lessons, working a few shifts at the MAC counter and being able to hang out with the girls, going to the lake with Daniel and having lots of bbq's with friends. Yes it has been a great summer indeed. 

Daniel's work schedule is much more consistent these days as well which is a huge relief. Baby Daniel is crawling like a champ and is ready to walk just as soon as his legs figure it out! I am branching out and starting to freelance on my own as a makeup artist and with the help of our friends, The Rostens, I am beginning to work on my makeup repertoire/portfolio. 

All in all, we are one happy family and we look forward to the next season and what it brings!

-mg

Finally sailed...

And I am hooked. Some of you know, and some of you may have heard from Michelle about my obsession with sailing. I don't remember when it started exactly, all I know is that it is always there.

I am a waterdog. Some of my fondest memories are all involving water, and of course some of my scariest memories also involve water. No matter the memory, scary or fond, they all have great stories to go along. Yesterday was no exception.

When Michelle and moved to the Bay Area for my job, I got all excited when I realized there was a sailing school about ten minutes from our apartment. I figured I would save my pennies and attend all the classes I could before the end of our "tour" in the Bay. But money has a way of slipping through my fingers rather quickly and soon we were planning to move back to Redding. So I turned my eyes towards smaller, lake-type, sailing vessels. Once again driving Michelle mad with my plans for yet another hobby. Sorry babe.

One day while I was working with one of my supervisors, he mentioned how he would rather be out on his boat on such a hot day. The mention of a boat immediately peaked my attention and I asked him what type of boat he had. "An older 34' sail boat". I explained my obsession of sailing to him and he shocked me again with the news that he was an instructor for a sailing school in Berkely for a long time. I offered my manual labor services and expressed my willingness to scrub the deck, scrape barnacles, and retrieve anchors released to the dirty depths of the bay... ok, maybe not the last one.

We made arrangements and I finally got to go for a sail on an honest to goodness sailboat. It was great. We motored out of the marina and onto the bay south of the San Mateo bridge. As we cruised along the windspeed starting picking up and soon we were in full on 30 knot winds. Sitting along the windward side, staring straight down into the water, I asked how fast of winds the races were usually held in. "15-20 knots" my supervisor replied, "actually right now we are sailing when most people won't, the small-craft advisory is at 25 knots". He glanced back over his shoulder with a border line maniacal grin as another five gallons of seawater sprayed over us. It was great.

I'm hooked, I want to sail more. I don't need a boat yet, but I would like to go get all my certificates so I can charter boats. I sense good adventures ahead!

- dg

Thinking.

Howdy internet world. Michelle told me she posted a new blog and it reminded me that we had one. Then I had to ask what the web address was, yeah, it's that bad!

I have been spending a lot of my time sitting at various Starbucks around the penninsula, watching people and waiting for work to come around again. So maybe with this spare time I can post a few more blogs. Reading would be fun too. Who knows, hopefully I can be slightly productive and increase my knowledge in a subject or practice my literacy.

Having this much time to yourself can be scary. There are all kinds of decisions you are forced to make. For example, what do you want to do? It does make you exercise your brain a lot more. More time to think, less time to be distracted by 30 second commercials and distracting video games. Although the distractions are nice every now and then. In my line of work, I make decisions all day long, so a little time with no thinking at all is a nice break. But then the brain synapses start working again and I begin thinking. So back to thinking...


-dg

Happy to just be...

Hi Friends! Just wanted to show you some of the pictures from our wonderful shoot by Heather Armstrong here in Redding this past month. It's so great to have pictures of all of us together... as a family. Usually I'm the one behind the camera! Heather was just amazing! Seriously. You'll have to check out her website to see the rest of her work. HeatherArmstrongPhotography.com 

I'm still waiting to hear back from the M.A.C. counter to see if they need any extra coverage. If they do, I'm their "go to" girl and will be happy to help out! I should find out more next month. For now, I'm perfectly happy sitting down friends and them letting me practice on their faces! If you are interested let me know. The more the better!

Daniel is doing great. He still commutes and we still miss him like heck when he's gone!! He is always wonderful with the baby. There is never a time when he's not willing to help out so I can get a little break when he's here! 

Alright, well I hope you are all well. Daniel and I will be celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary very soon and we're planning on seeing the 4th of July fireworks in San Francisco this year! Should be fun. All for now.

-mg

A New Kind Of Redding.

Ah, so we made it to Redding in one piece! It will be almost a month since we moved up. The drive up was great, baby slept the whole way in a very packed car while Doug (my father in law) and Paul (my brother in law) followed close behind in a moving truck. Ps. I cannot thank those two enough for helping with the move and for everyone else who helped unpack once we were here! Thank you Lord for family! 

For now, we are renting a big beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house off of Shasta View that we were so blessed to find. We love it, and it's about $800 cheaper than the tiny apartment we had in Redwood City. It's pretty empty feeling since we've never had a lot of furniture but that will come eventually. :)

I spent my very first Mother's Day with my family. It's so nice to be close to my mother and sisters, they have been a big help (especially my youngest sister Carissa) when Daniel is gone for the week. I don't really like being alone in the house so she keeps me company and helps with the baby. My youngest brother is here with me ever so often too. It's very sweet of them.

I'm still an on call/freelance artist for M.A.C. and I hope to work a few shifts here and there at the counter again if they need the help. Daniel is amazing. I am so thankful for him and everything he does to take care of his family. He is still on grave yards and is having a good time with it. I'm looking into getting our first family portraits taken by the amazing Heather Armstrong so if that happens I will let you know where you can view the latest pictures of us! 

-mg

Homeward Bound

It's official - we are moving home!! The California Highway Patrol has concurred with keeping the twelve hour shifts which is enough for Daniel and I to make the decision to move back to Redding. Daniel's work schedule will be more consistent with working the 12's being four days on, three days off and vice versa. He will commute down to Redwood City every week until a spot opens up closer to home. We are just thrilled at the thought of being back in Redding mainly because we will be looking to buy a home, raising baby Daniel close to family and friends and really start to get ahead in life. It will be easier for me to go back to work too and also try to build relationships and work with people in the similar field of make-up artistry, media and the general public. We look forward to seeing you all very soon!

-mg

Smiles and Gas-x.

I love when babies react to your cooing! I love it even more when MY baby starts smiling after I say his name or talk to him. He's just started doing that. When he's happy he is SO funny. All smily when we talk to him and then he starts talking back. He can almost click his tongue after every single time we do and he can stick out his tongue now every time after us. He's laughed twice in his sleep (BUT IT COUNTS!!) and it makes my heart melt. I love his smell. I could kiss him all day, and I usually do. I went to go see 'The Other Boleyn Girl' yesterday with a girl

friend (who also had her newborn son) for our first movie/hang out time minus our babies and the big pregnant bellies and it was great. But I'm not gonna lie, I was really excited to see my boys by the time the movie got out! 

Anyways, life is awesome. I'm getting ready for my family to come visit us next week! I can't wait to see you guys! Plus we're planning on bringing baby Daniel to meet his Great-Grandpa too so it should be good. 

Oh, and the gas-x comment refers to us having to pump his legs up to his chest at least a million times a day to help the poor boy out! I want to die laughing after every "Pooooooofffffffff" we hear and then him coo like he's saying, "YES, THANK YOU!" 

Here's a picture of baby at one week old and then the most recent picture of him in the same pose at eight weeks. Yep, we've officially arrived to "smily town"!!

-mg

"They grow up so fast!"

That statement doesn't sound like it packs much of a punch coming from a mother of a seven week old baby but it's so true! He has changed so much in so many different ways it's amazing. Baby Daniel is so much more alert now and showing a lot of emotion in his daily life. We know what cries mean what, what his different facial expressions mean, when he's concentrating on something really hard (like trying to imitate the face that dad makes when he's sticks his tongue out), and when he's perfectly happy just staring at something weather it be your face or a book you're reading to him, or a blank wall! He is just amazing and we are having a lot of fun with him. 

Baby and I have finally nailed down breast feeding (PRAISE THE LORD!!) so now it doesn't feel like I'm feeding a shark anymore. Daniel is about to start his second week of work and he is loving working graveyards. It has been interesting though with both Daniel's sleeping schedules because the hours Daniel is at work are exactly the hours we are trying to flip flop baby Daniel to sleep. And then once baby and I make it through a night and it's morning time Daniel gets home from work ready to sleep for the next six hours. Oh well. Baby Daniel has been gracious enough to sleep a good 5 1/2 hours during the night so I'll feed him at midnight and won't wake up to feed him again until 5:30 the next morning. 

We have discovered many wonderful things this past month. Visiting family and friends and seeing them pour out their love on baby Daniel... the value of good sleep, the baby smiling when he's happy (or pooping), how much Daniel and I love each other, and most recently: Safeway.com!!! They deliver!!! AMEN. 

-mg

Feels like home.

Wow, what an adjustment it has been to having a baby around the house! So far everything has been good. We are learning what works for us and what doesn't and to be honest it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Baby Daniel is so chill for the most part - sleeping lots during the day and most awake during the wee hours of the night! We're still working with him on his sleeping pattern but you just can't get mad at this little face! 

So again, lots of sleeping during the day time but

putting him on a strict eating schedule is slowly helping him stay up a little bit better during the day time. As for now, Daniel and I are enjoying our time off work and our little guy! (Even though baby Daniel ROCKED daddy's world last night when all daddy wanted to do was sleep and baby Daniel didn't!!) 

-mg

FREEDOM!!!

Finally!

Michelle, Daniel Braden, and myself our free of the hospital.  Don't get me wrong, the hospital staff was really good and I would recommend anyone who is looking for a hospital to check out that one.  

Unfortunately hospitals are not the best places to get rest in.  I know that everyone is thinking, "Duh Daniel, you have a brand new baby, you aren't going to get rest anywhere!"  So let me explain.  Baby Daniel sleeps for about 3-4 hours at a time.  If you are efficient, you can knock out all the baby business, feeding, burping, changing, pretty quickly and therefore have about 2-3 hours or more of sleep at a time.  Not so at the hospital.  As soon as you think you have a good routine going, a nurse comes in to check vitals and pass out pills.  She is usually followed by food service people who leave the door open behind them, then housekeeping, lactation consultants, dieticians, phlebotomists, pediatricians, gynocologists and just when they all clear out, food services shows up to take your food tray away.

They are just doing their jobs, and they do their jobs very well.  The timing of it all just seems to be orchestrated so perfectly wrong that you are constantly teased by the thought that you just might finally get some rest.  Oh yeah, and to top it off the nurse comes back in and tells you, "just try to get some sleep, you need it!"  

So finally, we are home, in our own beds, getting as much rest as possible.  Yes I'll wake up in another three hours and change a dirty diaper, I'll probably wake up in 45 minutes and freak out thinking that my son isn't breathing, but at least I am in my own bed and if anyone walks into my room they are leaving with a freaking bullet hole!!!!  6 and a half days in a hospital will make a guy go crazy.

I think I am going to walk around the house naked now just cause I'm home.

-dg

The Moment We've Been Waiting For...

Hey everyone, the moment we have been waiting for finally happened on Tuesday night the 22nd at 10:47 pm.  Daniel Braden Gallagher was pried from his mommy's uterus...

So we went back to the hospital on the 19th for more blood testing on Michelle.  The results came back and her blood platelet count had dropped again.  The good news was that we were able to go home, but the other, umm, ok news was that we had to come  back on sunday the 20th for another blood test and the good possibility of being admitted.  So the nurse gave us instructions to bring our bags and all the stuff we needed for having a baby and sent us on our way to one last night of rest in our own bed. 

Sunday the 20th we arrived at the hospital at about 10:50 am, with no coffee mind you, and headed up to the maternity ward to get some blood tests done.  When the results came up they started all the paperwork and basically told us to settle in.  I made a bunch of phone calls and the inducing began.  The doctor had Michelle put on a small dose of Patocin to stress test the baby and her. She began to have mild contractions and the baby's heart-rate did fine.  Sunday night they turned off the Patocin and used another medication, I believe it was called Cytocin, to soften her cervix and help her body get ready for labor.  

Monday was pretty much the same, but they gradually increased the Patocin from about 2 mls/hour to 10 mls/hour.  The results of another blood test showed Michelle's platelet count had dropped again, but she was making forward progress and the baby seemed fine so the doctor decided to give it another day.  Our doctor was really hoping that Michelle would 

be able to deliver the baby the "Old-fashion" way and was trying to avoid an unnecessary C-section which I really appreciated.

Tuesday is when things really started to get exciting, Dr. O'Callahan (Killer name by the way!) promised Michelle the baby would be out by day's end.  Michelle was started on Patocin and the waiting game began.  Each time she was checked she was a little more dialated.  Around 1:30 pm she really started to go into intense labor and went for about 2 hours of straight up hard-core contractions.  At about 3:30 she had dialated to about 5-6 and was ready for an epidural!  

Our biggest concern about the epidural was that it would slow and possibly stop labor.  Not so with Michelle!  She gradually progressed to about 8 centimeter and the doctor had her push once to see if it would move things along. Because Michelle had progressed so good the doctor gave her an hour to see if anything would change.  During that hour the baby took a turn for the better and it looked like everything was going to move forward.  Dr. O'Callahan checked again and Michelle was at 9 centimeters and really close to full dialation.  So the doctor gave us another hour to progress, but she wanted Michelle to start pushing with every contraction.  

When the doctor came back, Michelle was doing good, but the baby's heart rate decelerated at the end of every contraction.  Michelle was fully dialated but the baby was still really high and we couldn't really figure out why.  The doctor had Michelle push for a while, but the baby's heart rate began to take longer and longer to recover after the contractions.  The doctor decided it was time for the c-section.

The c-section went really good, I believe most of it was caught on video, and we disco

vered why baby Daniel was struggling to come out.  He was huge!!!  Dr. O'Callahan exclaimed, "You're having a three month old!" and another doctor laughed and said, "That's not a baby, that's a toddler!"  I watched a good portion of the surgery through a reflection and when they pulled Daniel Braden out, I was shocked at how big he looked!!!  Everyone took bets on how much he weighed, but most were conservative around the 9 and a half pound mark.  He weighed in at 9lbs 14 oz!  

Everything has been great so far, he is very healthy, just a mild case of jaundus and Michelle is recovering wonderfully. We will be at the hospital until Saturday so I am not sure if we will get another chance to blog until then.  I'm off back to the hospital to go take care of my family.

-dg 

Happy Almost Birthday?!

So here's a picture of me today strapped to some machines at Sequoia Hospital to monitor the baby and my blood pressure. No need to worry, I wasn't in any pain... or feeling sickly... I just wasn't wearing any make-up! HA! Let me back up...

We had a doctors appointment today and my blood pressure was higher then usual (again) so my Doctor sent Daniel and I across the street to the hospital to get some blood work done and so they could monitor the baby and I while they processed the tests. And the baby is doing GREAT - he's happier than a tornado in a trailer park! Sorry, I couldn't help myself. We are mainly concerned about me and my body vs. the pre-eclampsia that's trying to creep its way into the picture. So I had my blood drawn in the hospitals lab, then we went up to the maternity wing and they set me up in a room for about an hour, then I got sent down to radiology to get an ultrasound to measure my amniotic fluid, and then went back up to the maternity wing again to rest, and then we were giving the thumbs up to go home. 

My doctor was going to have us do the same thing again on Monday with a good possibility of being induced that night but instead of going in Monday I'll be going in tomorrow. So, I'm not really sure if I'm just doing the tests or getting the tests and getting induced tomorrow! I guess it will all depend on how those tests come back! 

All for now folks... Wish me luck!

-mg

Quick update!

I am officially done with work now! I was scheduled to work twice this week, which would have been my last two days but when I went to my doctors appointment last week I was on the boarder line of having pre-eclampsia so everyone (including Daniel) felt it would be better to just get those shifts covered and be done with it. So now I'm trying to take it easy yet still be somewhat productive considering we've only got about three weeks left until our due date! 

I feel like baby Daniel gets a little bigger everyday. At this point I believe he's "good to go" and considered a full term baby if he decided to be born now which is cool. He's doing great by the way. Still moving around and kicking my ribs all the time! I'm posting a picture of what I see when I look down these days - which isn't much other then the tips of my toes IF THAT! 

Anyways, just wanted to keep ya'll in the loop!

-mg

It hurts so good...

I joined a gym.  As a Christmas gift to myself I marched my rear down to Granite Planet and signed up.  Granite Planet is a rock climbing gym that has all the weight machines, free weights and cardio machines you could ask for.  Oh yeah and there are some bitchin' climbing walls!!!  

I've spent the last two days climbing around in one of the two bouldering rooms and feeling the burn in my forums.  I was proud of myself the first day.  I climbed all of the routes rated V0 and most of the V1's... V1=pansy, V=wilting pansy.  Then today I was determined to complete all the V1 routes in the room only to be embarrassed by a 17 year old girl making the V4's and V5's look like they were escalators, V4=badass, V5=spiderman.  So I hung my head in shame and headed to the locker room.  Suddenly a voice calling for more rope caught my attention about 25 feet above me.  I raised my head only to see a 14 year old girl rapidly climbing a wall that was rated at 5.10 (I think 5.10 also = spiderman) and she was doing the hardcore "leading" thingy.  That means that she was attaching the safety rope to anchors on the way up.  For us newbies they have ropes that hang down from ceiling so we don't kill ourselves.

I got a long way to go, but I couldn't be happier!!!!

-dg