2010 would bring us earth trembling news and earth trembling changes so it was appropriate that the year started with the earth trembling literally as Cayman experienced an Earthquake in just the third week of the year. It was no where near the intensity of the Haiti quake a few weeks earlier and in fact Katie and I didn't even know it had happened as we were out on walk and you only felt it if you were in a structure. We later learned that at the college the whole building shook but to us it was just another sunny morning. January was Katie's first month as just a consultant for the college and once she finished graduation during the first week of the year she ended her full time work as Registrar and went to part time data entry work and teaching. It was also a somber month as one of our students was killed in a car wreck. Less significant but an omen of the year to come for my college football obsession, my beloved Horns lost a heart breaker in the National Championship game when their starting quarterback was knocked out of the game on their first offensive possession. The Horns actually had the ball and a chance to win with 4 minutes to play in the game but couldn't complete the miracle comeback.
For our personal lives this would be a life altering year. We had made the decision over Christmas to start trying to get pregnant and January saw us beginning the process of what we termed Baby 2010. In mid-January I had a trip to Orlando for an accreditation workshop as ICCI started the process of its self study and application for new grant of accreditation. This would be a huge project throughout the year and would take up a substantial part of my work time this year. While in Orlando I got to see Kevin and his family for a quick visit. Katie would continue her work on her Masters through the University of Denver on line and we decided to step it up in the spring term so that if we did get pregnant she would have most if not all of her degree done by the time the baby came.
For our personal lives this would be a life altering year. We had made the decision over Christmas to start trying to get pregnant and January saw us beginning the process of what we termed Baby 2010. In mid-January I had a trip to Orlando for an accreditation workshop as ICCI started the process of its self study and application for new grant of accreditation. This would be a huge project throughout the year and would take up a substantial part of my work time this year. While in Orlando I got to see Kevin and his family for a quick visit. Katie would continue her work on her Masters through the University of Denver on line and we decided to step it up in the spring term so that if we did get pregnant she would have most if not all of her degree done by the time the baby came.
February would actually be the month of conception though we wouldn't know it until March. Another trip to Miami for the Winter seminar was the only trip off-island and the biggest news of the month besides that we were still working on the baby 2010 project was our sighting of a flying gurnard fish off the Eden Rock dive site and the learning how to post video's on our blog which we began to do with a flourish. March brought the news that would change our world forever. Katie suspected early on that she was pregnant but we agreed to wait to do a home pregnancy test until we were more than a few days late. In spite of our agreement Katie couldn't wait and did the test early one evening while I was at work. We had decided on a lark several years earlier to buy a baby longhorn DVD and Katie had told me that when she was pregnant she would break the news to me by playing that video. That night when I got home she suggested watching an episode of whatever show we were on at that time and when I hit play and saw the baby longhorn come up I knew that she was pregnant. A week and a half later the home test was confirmed by our visit to Dr. Richter and we would start our journey to parenthood in earnest.
With Baby 2010 now a reality, Katie would start the baby blog a series of letters to our future child. We also made an important decision. We are both on the government health insurance here (CINICO) because none of the private insurers would insure us because we are considered health impaired (me for high blood pressure and Katie for variety of reasons). With the government insurance we could only use the government doctors and they only see pregnant mothers after 20 weeks of pregnancy and then sporadically thereafter. There are also only two ultrasounds for non high risk pregnancies. I had spoken to one of the instructors at ICCI who also had CINICO and he mentioned that he and his wife had paid themselves out of pocket for a private doctor. It had run him about Eight Thousand CI dollars (about 10k in US money). Katie and I talked about it and realized that we wanted to go the same route. We knew this would mean cutting out trips home and other things we might have wanted to do but we also knew that we would never once regret the money spent and would blame ourselves forever if something bad happened. So we adjusted our budget and started the appointments with Dr. Richter.
With Baby 2010 now a reality, Katie would start the baby blog a series of letters to our future child. We also made an important decision. We are both on the government health insurance here (CINICO) because none of the private insurers would insure us because we are considered health impaired (me for high blood pressure and Katie for variety of reasons). With the government insurance we could only use the government doctors and they only see pregnant mothers after 20 weeks of pregnancy and then sporadically thereafter. There are also only two ultrasounds for non high risk pregnancies. I had spoken to one of the instructors at ICCI who also had CINICO and he mentioned that he and his wife had paid themselves out of pocket for a private doctor. It had run him about Eight Thousand CI dollars (about 10k in US money). Katie and I talked about it and realized that we wanted to go the same route. We knew this would mean cutting out trips home and other things we might have wanted to do but we also knew that we would never once regret the money spent and would blame ourselves forever if something bad happened. So we adjusted our budget and started the appointments with Dr. Richter.
The first trimester would be a rough one for Katie who would lose over ten pounds. April saw us marking time and trying to help Katie stay healthy as she lost that weight during the first part of her pregnancy because of all the nausea. She had been on a weight loss regime prior to getting pregnant so this new weight loss actually got her back to her pre-wedding weight which was the silver lining to it all. April also saw Katie come back to ICCI in a more structured part time role as she stepped into the Director of Admissions role while we looked for a replacement. She would hold the job a little over two months which kept her distracted and gave us a little extra money. We did a lot of walking and with both of us teaching the month of April went by quickly.
May saw Katie go to the Bahamas with her sisters on a sister vacation and Scott go to Atlanta to teach the spring term seminar and as a result get to spend time with his brother Kevin. We both picked up baby items on our trips and any trip off-Island as well as visits from relatives became ways to get baby stuff at the cheaper US prices (thanks especially to my dad who came down several times for college business and never failed to bring more baby related stuff from the breast pump to clothes and other accessories). We also welcomed my God Son Zachary Alexander to the world as he was born up in Naperville, Illinois to my sister Johanna and her husband Brent. In mid- May we hit the end of the first trimester and Katie started gaining weight again which was a good sign that the nausea and other issues were finally ending.
May saw Katie go to the Bahamas with her sisters on a sister vacation and Scott go to Atlanta to teach the spring term seminar and as a result get to spend time with his brother Kevin. We both picked up baby items on our trips and any trip off-Island as well as visits from relatives became ways to get baby stuff at the cheaper US prices (thanks especially to my dad who came down several times for college business and never failed to bring more baby related stuff from the breast pump to clothes and other accessories). We also welcomed my God Son Zachary Alexander to the world as he was born up in Naperville, Illinois to my sister Johanna and her husband Brent. In mid- May we hit the end of the first trimester and Katie started gaining weight again which was a good sign that the nausea and other issues were finally ending.
June was the mid point for our year and the first full month of our second trimester. We had planned early in the year to do a getaway vacation to Jamaica and that became our "babymoon" once we learned of the coming of Baby "C" as we had taken to calling our youngster. We had a great time in Jamaica and it helped focus us on what was to come over the next six months of 2010. Katie finished her run as admissions director at ICCI and would begin teaching her last class of the year for the summer term in June. June also saw the World Cup and if you ever get to experience a world cup overseas we strongly encourage it. the entire country shuts down during the matches and national pride is at all time peaks for those countries competing. We got to see matches in both Jamaica and Cayman and even though futbol is a distant second to cricket in popularity both nations had World Cup fever. We had a little car trouble with a busted window and the storm season came in with a bang as tropical storm Alex, the first of the year dumped a bunch of rain on the island. I was completely paranoid about storms and put all kinds of contingency plans in place to get Katie off island if any storm bigger than category two threatened Cayman.
In many ways the first six months of 2010 were prologue to what was to come. We both questioned whether we were prepared to be parents and Katie at least spent a ton of time reading every book she could find on pregnancy and birth as well as raising kids. This gave me a sense of security as I knew that whatever I didn't know, most likely Katie did. As June closed the end of the first half of the year for us the best was really yet to come.
