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.

9.5

The polls will close early as we are close. Here's a final pic before the money shots.

The Door

You can wait with us, but you can wait outside. Here's a picture of our labor room door! Lord, grant us the patience and strength to see our son born into the world.

You might not feel it

But you can see what a contraction looks like. See the humps on the lower graphs; those are Kelly's ouchies (euphemism).

Anesthesiologists Will Work For Food

Real-time, Showtime. For those tuning in, you're in for a treat. Live from the hospital, it's baby watch live.

We came into the hospital this morning, 6 AM. Groggy but excited, we signed in and settled into our room. Kelly got her inducement meds and we waited. And we waited.

Then, round about noon, things started to kick into gear. Up the meds a bit and Kelly's contractions intensified. How's the pain, happy face, indifferent face, frowny face, mad face? Kelly face, frowny face.

Epidural time, Dr. Hamilton. Whip bam boom (euphemisms) and Kelly says, "Isn't it great! It's amazing!" No more frowny face. Now we wait, and you wait too with us. Thanks.

The Tab

The pre-labor show is in full swing. The coach is in the locker room prepping the team. The cheerleaders are on the side lines cheering for our little baby. The mascots, Rebel and Bowie, are doing somersaults and getting the crowd revved up.

The playbook calls for a lot of trust, though. One teammate runs long, the other throws. The ball should be there. To my surprise, we don't get our baby's trust for free, right out of the womb; we've got to earn it.

One book says "From the moment of birth, children BEGIN the task of assessing IF they can trust the world they live in to meet their needs." Huh, begin, if? Haven't we as parents already begun to foster trust, by meeting his needs from day one. Baby Ethan has been plugged in the whole time, getting nutrients, warmth, cable TV. You can't buy trust either; we just ran up a $400 tab at Baby's R Us yesterday in baby gear and equipment. All to "meet his needs" and "foster trust." How much more trust does he need? The book says, "Making children feel loved is the single most important task of parenting."

By the way, how many pads does our little teammate need? He's got mattress pads, changing pads, changing pad covers, mattress covers, travel pad, crib bumbers, car seat cover...AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Our equipment guy has some work to do.

Geneticists Need Not Apply

The bun is done! 36 weeks and our baby is doing great! He kicks! He twirls! He squirms! His head is oriented in a favorable exit fashion!

He's got style! He is well educated! Last week he learned about labor and delivery in an all day marathon, parents were invited. I'll spare you the details, but did you know how many different ways a baby may exit or be exited from his womb. Many.

Apparently, too, the technology has not been updated since the 80s seeing that all the mom and dad actors are from that time period. Grunge dad, punk mom. They may be grandparents by now.

As our due date approaches the hype has hit a high. Classes are in full gear, breathe, squat and efface away! Knowledge is power and our baby Blake has it!

All except, that is, for the geneticists. Let them sit in their corners, like engineers and lawyers, and tell us the Ps and Qs about our baby. I'd rather speculate and so should you too! That's why join us in the polls that follow. The days of gestation are short and birth nigh.

My dear acquaintance it is good to know you, with joy in our hearts for the blessed new..one.