I’m one in a million baby.

In case you haven’t heard, J.K. Rowling has a new project called Pottermore.  Pottermore is a fan site designed by JKR that will contain lots of new information about the school, houses and characters and is designed to encourage reading.  We don’t know a whole lot about the content but hopes are high that it will be awesome.  One feature that is especially tantalizing is the sorting hat.  JKR has reportedly written a very long and exhaustive sorting test that will assign you to your proper house. 

The site is scheduled to go live sometime this October however one million fans will get the opportunity to beta test the site this summer.  For the past several days the Pottermore site has put up clues that, when answered correctly, get you an early registration.  On Day 1 (July 31) I got the clue and managed (amazingly) to get my username WormwoodPixie97 (you pick your name from 5 preapproved selections and I loved this one.)  Day 1 was the only day I could commit to staying up refreshing my browser so I feel extremely fortunate to have gotten in. 

I have a new love

No this isn't a post about my son (though I do love him tremendously) this is about a love like no other.  The love of sport, of competition, of comradery and fishnet stockings.  This is about roller derby. 

St Patrick's Day

I first caught the derby bug when we were living in Long Beach in 2004.  I had heard about derby making a comeback in Texas and seen a few videos.  It was incredible.  At the time I was taking ice skating lessons and flirting with the idea of taking up speed skating so I figured it wouldn't be too hard to transfer those skills from ice to wheels.  We moved to San Diego and life just sort of took over.  Career, baby all that stuff made me just forget about roller derby for a while.  Then two things happened that changed everything.

First in 2008 we moved back to the bay area where derby is alive and well.  My job required that I go past Kezar Pavillion where the Bay City Bombers play.  I was constantly being reminded of my derby bug every time the bombers put up a banner about an upcoming bout.  Then in 2009 Whip It came out and my derby bug started to gnaw at my soul.

I was off having a baby this day

One day at the mall Kevin pointed out a small poster advertising a bout in the south bay.  It said they were looking for skaters so I wrote down the name of the team and promptly lost it.  A few months later Whip It was on cable and I was online.  It got me thinking about that poster.  So I did a quick search for derby teams near San Francisco.  This is how I found the Peninsula Roller Girls a new team that was just getting started.  They needed skaters and were willing to take on fresh meat.   All levels were welcome.


Now of course I was pregnant at the time.  But I sent in my info and told them that it would be a while before I could get on skates but I could help with other support.  That was November.


In December the team had a meeting, its first.  There were about a dozen of us there and one of the girls  brought a coach (her husband.)  We were ready to start a team.  More meetings were held in January and practices began.  Around this same time Johnathan was born.  On January 31st I attended my first off skate workout.  I strapped my 2 week old baby to my chest and started doing lunges with the rest of my team.  Two weeks later I was on skates. 

In one month I've gone from being a fidgety nervous skater that could barley stay upright, to an athlete that can do cross-overs, falls, stops and even jumps.  I've rearranged the furniture and rugs in my home so I can practice when it's raining out.  I've also gone from a size 18 to 14 and lost close to 20 pounds.  But best of all I have fallen in love with my team.  I've never had much luck making friends with women and suddenly I've got this incredible connection to 20 other girls.  Every one of these women is amazing in her own special way.  And I consider each of them a friend.

Tomorrow night I take my first skills test.  If I pass I can start participating in contact drills.   I am so far away from where I was just a month ago that it's still a bit surreal.

My birth story

Wow has it really been 2 months since I posted anything?  I guess time flies when you're having a baby.  Except of course when you're waiting for that baby to show up.  That takes for freaking EVER.

After a week and a half of false starts, stripped membranes and early morning text messages of "still nothing" we finally went in for an induction the night of January 13th (8 days past due). Our first child had to be delivered via C-section because she was breech and the placement of the placenta made turning her dangerous.  I really wanted to avoid having another surgical delivery.  Fortunately the staff at UCSF Med Center were supportive of my decision to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and were willing to spend the time needed to slowly induce me giving me the best chance of success.

The first step (after getting settled into our amazing room) was to have a foley catheter passed through my cervix and inflated to 60mL.  Then the catheter was taped to my leg to put pressure on my cervix (mimicking the baby's head.)  It was stunning how well this worked.  Within a few seconds I was having strong contractions.  Within a few minutes I was asking for drugs.  Which reminds me, Fentenyl is amazing.  It doesn't make the pain go away it just makes it so that you don't care about it anymore and it makes everything funny.

The view from my room

Once the foley came out (about an hour later) they started me on low dose pitocin.  This went on forever.  After lunch on the 14th I finally decided that I was too tired.  I couldn't sleep because of the contractions and I knew I was going to need some rest if I was going to push this kid out.  It was time for the epidural.  I ended up getting the epidural and a spinal at the same time so that I could go right to sleep.  I took a nice long nap and watched a little TV.

At 1 in the morning on the 15th the nurses told me it was time to start pushing.  I couldn't feel much on account of the epidural so I had the nurses get me a mirror.  As I pushed I could see my son's little hairy head getting bigger and bigger.  His head was getting close but still not quite crowning.  Then during one of my contractions I pushed and all the nurses yelled "STOP!!"  His head had popped out.  Kevin later said that it looked like a game of whack-a-mole.  The doc came over checked his neck for the cord and told me to push one more time. 

At 2:36 in the morning on January 15th Johnathan was born.