Grant Abides

Grant Wilson Benavides was born at approximately 715 pm, Monday March 3rd 2008 AD, weighed 8 lbs 6 oz, length unknown but he's long, has dark curly hair, dark eyes, and generally handsome.

Grant had an interesting journey out of the womb. On his way out, he decided to accessorize his birthday suit with an plaid umbilical cord.

Apparently, cords, and plaid for that matter, are out of style this spring because it did not agree with him. The cord wrapped around his neck and prevented adequate blood flow during his exit from the womb. (He had one hell of a placenta, though.)

As a result, he came into the world in medical terms "depressed." Depressed, here, doesn't mean that he was concerned about the economy, or the environment, or who the next president will be, or the general state of the world. Instead, depressed meant that he'd suffered a trauma to his system. This trauma prevented him from immediately breathing when he came into the world. Scary stuff, but throughout, his heart kept beating.

A whirlwind of doctors and nurses and slapping him around, warming him, giving him oxygen, calling to ICU, prepping him to go. And off he went, out of our hands and into God's.

That night they plugged him into more machines than the back of your cable box. He had a respirator, a feeding tube, a couple of tubes in through his belly button and some other ones which I think gave him up to the minute election results. They had him restrained like hannibal lecter at a human rights rally. But our little guy just pushed through it and fought it.

By the middle of the night, most connections were out and he'd been given a reprieve from the restraints. He needed a blood transfusion, though, because the compromised cord had prevented him from getting enough blood from Mommy to his system. Nevertheless, he was strong enough to cry and push with his little fists.

By the next morning, he looked better. His pallor had cleared, he was calmer, and had begun taking food from a bottle. For any of you on meconium vigil, he got that out of the way up front.

Today, we are hopeful; he's got a heart murmur which will be examined by EKG. He's already had a good ultrasound of his head, no worries. And we hope to get him feeding from his Mom in the next 24 hours.

Mommy is great; she's strong and our rock. Last night, she visited Grant for the first time and more than two hours after his birth. Grant heard her voice and immediately calmed and turned to her. We will be fine.

Your prayers and well-wishes are appreciated and please forgive us for not giving personal updates, but Grant will make it up to you with his good looks and sensible fashion sense, now that he knows cords and plaid are out. I swear pictures will follow.