Daniel Thomas Tanigawa

picture
Danny, born 2/18/99

About Danny

Since the beginning, he's seemed very alert. He is doing many physical things very well, though some of that has to do with the fact that he was late and developing some in utero. So far (not quite four weeks) he's reminded us of many of the difficulties of having babies: Little sleep, loud cries, little sleep, lack of non-crying communication, little sleep, need to modify Mom's diet, little sleep ...

End of May (3 months) observances

It would appear, and we are not joking, that Danny likes baseball, at least on the tv. He's generally pretty indifferent to the tv when it's on, but when there's a baseball game he'll turn his head and stare at the screen. He's even gurgled happily when a commercial ended and the baseball game came back on. Generally, he'll get indifferent again when the tv cuts away to a commercial. We haven't noticed this effect with other tv or sports. But any baseball, not just the Mariners (so it's not their announcers) he acts like this.

Danny also seems to be growing a lot, lengthwise. He's still a pretty happy and aware baby but he's also still a lot of hard work.

June 3, 1999

Last week, I thought that Danny was making motions that were close to the beginnings of crawling. Mary said, "No way. He lacks the necessary spine control."

Last night, June 2, Danny started doing almost-but-not-quite crawling. He lifts and holds his back straight, and he pushes with his feet. The only thing he doesn't do is lift his head and push with his hands, so that his head is "dragged" along the bed/floor/whatever. But he moves. Pretty slowly, but he moves a good two-three feet in a minute. We are very scared!

Pictures

More PICTURES of Danny.
More 1999 Pictures to view.
A nice comparison page of Danny and Amanda.

Danny's Birth (incomplete)

Here are a few notes about what happened. I suspect that Mary will write up a better account of her experiences later on and will make those available somewhere.

January 14-16, 1999

  • Danny is very active. Mary believes he was OP and turned himself OT, then settled down.

    January 28, 1999

  • Danny's official due date passes without much incident. My co-workers tease me about being ready to go at any time.

    January 29 - February 10, 1999

  • Mary has lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions, but not much else of interest takes place. Co-workers, friends, and family all start hounding us mercilessly.

    February 11 - 16, 1999

  • Mary starts a series of prostaglandin gel insertions. She gets the first one on Thursday the 11th. It's really strong and she thinks it's doing something. In fact, it was so strong that they didn't want to give her the 2nd treatment for the day and just sent us home. But the contractions petered out later on that evening.
  • Mary gets a 2nd and then a 3rd gel. Again, both times she only gets one and they don't want to give her the 2nd. Mary says these had less effect than the previous, and the contractions always petered out after a few hours. After the last gel on the 15th if labor doesn't start we're scheduled to check in for pitocin induction early on the 17th.

    February 17

  • After a pretty sleepless night, we get up really early and drop Amanda off at a friend's house. We get to the hospital by about 7:30. There are lots of rooms available, and we get a really nice and big corner room. The pitocin starts about 10 a.m. after the iv is started and baselines are established. Not much happens in the early part of the day. In late afternoon, some good contractions start. Mary is starting to think that something is happening. At 7, she is checked, and she hasn't progressed much though, so they decide to stop and restart again in the morning. Mary thinks I should go home and get a more restful night at home. (Amanda is back at the house with her Uncle Chris since late afternoon. She's glad to see me when I get back).

    February 18

    Take the secret elevator back to the homepage, follow the cable back to my leisure activities.