Well that explains the heartburn...

A reference by a friend on one of my 3D animation forums to an old wives' tale about heartburn and hair got me looking for more info. And wouldn't you know it? There IS a correlation between the severity of the heartburn and the amount of hair. Specifically they state in their conclusion:

Contrary to expectations, it appears that an association between heartburn severity during pregnancy and newborn hair does exist. We propose a shared biologic mechanism involving a dual role of pregnancy hormones in both the relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter and the modulation of fetal hair growth. (See Website)

That would explain the constant, intense heartburn Stacie had to deal with every night all through the night. Oh well...

Really though, I think we know where the hair really came from.

A Change of View

When I originally started playing with the idea of starting a blog, I originally thought it would become an outlet for ideas I have on technology and such. My personal interests as it were. But here, the first post is a post detailing the newest change in my life, and I must say, I'm glad of the change in focus.

A lot of new feelings have been floating around in me all day - the biggest being overwhelmed. Yet even for all the difficulties surround the initial labor and for the difficulties that have presented themselves at the end of the first day, I find that I am re-balancing. Life has become a constantly changing thing for me these last few weeks and now that the final (so far as we know) piece has fallen into place, I find everyday a new and scary effort in trying to find the right balance.

For everyone who has already experienced something similar, I await your treasured advice. This has been such an roller-coaster ride of emotions, but I'm happy to say that I will be sleeping very well tonight knowing that all that extra energy will go towards creating a life for the three of us. Next stop... who knows? I doubt children ever stop so there may be no more stops to come. ;)

THE Gardner Update

Here are some photos of our newest addition. This is our little Samantha, born at 5:24am on 10/19/2007. Lots of hair , which was no surprise to us considering the genes involved.


This first was taken only minutes after she came into the world while she was on the table being worked on by the NICU team while they were getting the tainted amniotic fluid out of her lungs and stomach. They were incredibly fast and efficient and were so kind as to let Dad stand in while they worked on her. That's my hand with my "space suit" overall sleeve showing. Thank goodness that's the most of that outfit that ever saw the camera lens.




Here is the first bath done during the check-in to the nursery. This is probably the maddest she has gotten yet, which is saying a lot since she's already had to deal with me changing her diapers and making a muck of everything.



It's all hairbows and pink from here on out. This is what happens when the neo-natal nurses in the nursery get the chance to actually play with hair on a newborn. At this point, the two most common comments upon seeing Samantha for the first time are: She is SO cute! Look at all that hair!

Apparently, hair quantity is directly proportional to cuteness.


This is one that I just had to put in for all who really know Stacie. At the time of the pic, she has been in her recovery room for 20 minutes, about an hour after surgery. She's had Samantha sitting next to her for 3min, and yet texting the news to the world was the thing that she felt needed doing at the time. Samantha honey, welcome to our world.