Wednesday, March 10, 2010

They'll Just Let Anybody Have Kids



It is official. I'm a father. I suppose, technically, I had already been a father for nine months, but I've just recently been able to interact with my son. His name is Sawyer, by the way. The picture above is (obviously) from when he was in the hospital. It looks to me like he's posing for a sculptor who plans to immortalize him in marble and place him in some Venetian Piazza. He's a very serious young man with a lot on his mind.

I should take a moment to brag about my wife who is, without a doubt, the toughest person I know. Her labor began on Monday (February 23) night around 11pm. She managed the pain until about 5:30am, which was when we decided to go the hospital. We checked in around 6am, and she continued to proceed in labor with NO DRUGS until 8:40pm, which was when Sawyer was finally born. He weighed 8 lbs, and he clearly was not happy about the transition into the world. He had swallowed some gunk (that's what I'll call it) during delivery, so he had to spend a few hours in the NICU so they could observe him after they flushed his lungs. At about 1am, they brought him into our hospital room, which was when I learned exactly how loud a newborn baby could actually cry.

We spent the next two days in the hospital recovering, filling out paper, and not sleeping at all. I can say, without a doubt, that I have never been more sleep-deprived than I was at the end of our time in the hospital. I'm not sure why 4am was the appropriate time to have us fill out insurance forms and birth certificate information, but I guess that's just how they do things at the hospital.

I should also say that the whole doula thing turned out to be a huge success (if you don't know what I'm talking about, see earlier post entitled "Doula"). I realize most people don't use a doula, but I honestly don't think we could have done it without them (we actually ended up having two doulas due to an interesting mix of circumstances). With the amount of discomfort and movement that Caroline was subjected throughout the course of the day, it was so great to have someone in the room who could keep us focused, calm, and informed during what would otherwise be an overwhelming experience.

I don't really have any anecdotes or anything, I just felt like this was something I will have wished I had written down later on in my life. Sawyer and I are getting know each other. We've even found some activities that we can enjoy together.