Deserters

Just a quick comment about last night's episode of "Nightline" on ABC. I do get to catch a bit of late night television these days during Jaxon's eating times.
Anyways, the episode was about soldiers who are going AWOL (Absent Without Leave) during this time of war, which is a crime they can be sent to prison for. They interviewed several soldiers who had gone AWOL and now are in trouble. The army does not chase down deserters, they just wait until the guy or girl gets stopped for speeding and their name pops up, or (in most cases) they turn themselves in.
Only one of the soldiers is being prosecuted, the rest have just been given other- than-honorable discharges or dishonorable discharges and no benefits. The one person being prosecuted for going AWOL is hispanic, and Nightline tried to make it a racial thing that he is being prosecuted and other deserters are not. But I think that he is being prosecuted because he deserted his unit on the day they left for Iraq and delayed his unit's deployment and hindered their mission because they did not have time to replace him. Though I think racism is still very prevalent in our society I also think that way too many fingers point at race when it is probably not the cause or problem.
The other problem I had with the show was the people they interviewed. They talked to some members of an anti-war group full of Iraq war veterans. Many of these guys are deserters, and complete idiots. they talked to a guy who enlisted for the infantry in 2004! He said that he never thought he'd be going to Iraq, though he joined the army to get away from home and see the world. Anyone who has joined the army after september 11th HAD TO KNOW that they are going to be deployed. ESPECIALLY if you enlist in the INFANTRY!!!! The guy came off as a whiner. You can not enlist in the army nowadays without knowing that you are going to deploy. And NO ONE in our current military has been forced into anything. We have an ALL VOLUNTEER military and there is no excuse for desertion. If you are morally against the war there are legal, safe routes to take to get out of the military. But the counselors that were interviewed who help people get out of the military to avoid deployment said that most of the people they help are not avoiding deployment for political reasons. Most avoid deployment for reasons that you and I can all understand. Anyways, that's just some thoughts from my head. The protestors were idiots, basically is my comment.
Not much for my first political post, but there ya go.

A few more pics for ya.

This is Jaxon's favorite place to sleep; laying on my chest listening to my heartbeat. I just love how his cheeks are all squished up like that.

This is a very non-flattering picture of me soon after his birth.

This is Jaxon meeting my mom.

This is just another good picture of him at the hospital.

IT"S A BOY!!!

On Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 4:44pm Jaxon Robert Pacheco was born!

I am now officially a mother of 3. And to the shock of my entire family, we have had our first boy!!! To those of you who don't know, there were 11 grandchildren in our family so far, and all 11 are girls. Jaxon is number 12, and the first boy. Everyone thought it was impossible for any of the Pechin kids to produce boys, but we have proved them wrong! Maybe we'll start a new trend... Anyways, for those of you who are interested I am going to write out some of the details, so consider yourselves warned.

I had been having contractions for a few days prior, but nothing too intense until we went to the rodeo on Saturday night. We had a lot of fun at the rodeo, it was my first time, and the girls got to ride on a horse for the first time. But my contractions began to get a little bit painful while we were there. It wasn't real bad, but it was enough to let me know that I was finally heading into real labor. So when we got home I sent the girls off to a friends house for the night and my friend Kara Pond came over in case the time came to go to the hospital.

We decided to head in at about 2am but we were frustrated to learn that we had gone in prematurely and I got sent home. I decided right then that I would not be going in again unless I was for sure that I was in labor. It is a 30 minute drive to the hospital and I didn't want to make the trip again unless I was sure. I kept the girls over at my friends as my labor slowly progressed throughout the day on Sunday. I just stayed home by myself and tried to do all of the at-home labor techniques. Jake called several times and even helped me time my contractions for awhile. After Kara got home from church she came over and we again decided it was time to go to the hospital. Now I was for sure in labor because I could no longer talk during contractions or really focus on anything. NOTE: I have to tell you that on the way to the hospital I found the seat-heaters to be the best gadget that a car could ever have.

Anyways, we got to the hospital at 3:15 pm and I was at a 5, so the nurse was kindof taking her time setting the room up, and they had paged the anesthesiologist, but he was taking his time too. My contractions had gotten really bad to the point where I was thinking that it could not possibly get much worse. I think the nurse thought I was being a whiner when I kept asking where the anesthesiologist was, so she finally said "lets check you then, okay?" And so she checked me and then said, "we're having a baby!" and she yelled out the door that we needed the doctor and the baby was coming. I had gone from a 5 to a 10 in less than an hour.

So I ended up delivering him with not so much as a tylenol. And I have to tell ya, Childbirth really is as painful as everyone says it is.

Jake was the first to call after Jaxon was born. I had no way to call him, so he had been checking in on me periodically. He called about 20 minutes after Jaxon was born. He was so surprised and delighted about our new son he was half laughing, half crying.

I'm not sure what else to say other than that we love our new baby, and we are all adjusting here at home. The girls really love him a lot, but they are struggling with the thought that they have to share me now. But they are good at helping with him and being gentle with him and are becoming more independant, as I can no longer do everything for them.