Monday, March 16, 2009

Couple of News Items

Kendra news

We are walking around on air today because last night Kendra went to sleep at 11pm, then got up at 3am, and then again at 7am. Do you realize what that means? She only got us up once last night! We don't know what to do with all the newfound feelings of health and well-being associated with sleeping for four hours at a stretch...twice!

The secret to our success last night? A swaddling change. We have been spotty about swaddling Kendra as she goes to sleep, doing it only when we felt like it. And the receiving blankets we were using were not stretchy, which means she was able to wiggle out of them. Last night we decided to dedicate ourselves a bit more to the idea of swaddling and we used a large sized, stretchy blanket, with which we did a hardcore swaddle job. Oh...my...goodness. Such a difference. Mommy and Daddy are having a good, good day.

Non-Kendra News

Ashley alluded to the computer problems I had. Specifically, my computer suddenly became loud. I took it apart and figured out that the problem was a fan inside the power supply. Who needs that? So I took it out. Suddenly the computer was very quiet. On the downside, the next day the computer started smelling really bad, and then it blinked off and wouldn't turn on again. For future reference, power supplies need those little fans they come with. And my power supply was completely fried.

So I ordered a new power supply on the internet. Unfortunately this means at least a week of trying to share a computer with Ashley, and I went through withdrawal. It was a horrible week. The distress was compounded by the fact that power supplies often take the rest of the computer with them when they go to the grave. I have been very distressed.

Today the new power supply came. I plugged all the necessary plugs where they looked like they went. Then I turned on the computer. It was very quiet...the hard drive did not spin up. Then a lot of really stinky smoke came out. The most distressing thing was that the smoke was coming from THE NEW POWER SUPPLY! I turned it off and realized I had plugged the wrong kind of thing into the hard drive, so that fixed that problem. I turned the computer on again...smoke. I quickly turned it off and examined the location from which the smoke came. It was a wire going from the power supply into the motherboard. It had melted the plastic coating and was beginning to melt the plastic of wires near it. Bad. But then I realized that there were two cables coming out of the power supply that would both fit where that wire was going. I swapped them out, and amazingly everything started working on the computer. Success!

I find it very annoying that power supplies come with two cables that fit in the same place, one of which melts down if you plug it in. And there's no warning about that.

The lesson: be careful when modifying your computer. You can start fires. I did. Twice.

But anyway, I am back online now. I have downloaded all the pictures since the last time I posted and after some sorting and culling, I'll post a whole bunch. Sorry I've been out of commission, but I'm back and the blog will be better than ever soon!

6 comments:

Belkycita said...

Grant, you are way too funny!! yes Dave and I have been laughing at your expense.
Way to go on the 4 hours of sleep! Dave figured that out pretty soon and has become the MASTER of swaddling a baby all the way up to 9 months!!

Jacqueline said...

We are anticipating the pictures highly. I have been rewatching the 5 S's video to get my Kendra fix. Yeah for fixed computers. I think you are brave for even trying to do your own repairs on your new computer.

Danielle said...

I'm glad you're back. And thank you for posting Kendra pictures. It was about time. :P

Seth said...

One time Simeon was having a terrible night and kept wiggling out of his sheets and crying. I was getting very annoyed and grabbed a longer blanket and angrily put him into an ultra tight straight jacket (harder than I would have done if I wasn't mad).

He tried for a few seconds to break out and then he fell peacefully asleep for the rest of the night.

I guess what we would hate, sometimes babies like (as in...straightjackets)

Also, I am SO glad that the new power supply didn't fry your motherboard or something when you plugged it in wrong. Lots of badness could have happened.

Michelle said...

We used to wrap Nora up really tight and call her the Norito. Swaddling is AMAZING!!

Kristina said...

Simeon slept soooooo much better when he was swaddled. We liked using big rectancle fleecy blankets instead of the little square cotton ones. He stayed wrapped so much better.