Summertime

As close to a smile as we're gonna get.

Great-Grandma Shue

You've had a busy first month and a half little boy!  When you were just 10 days old, we took you to the Colorado Renaissance Festival.  I carried you around in a snuggly pack, and we managed to make it through the day.  You are such a patient baby.  We also took you to your first drive in movie.  We saw The Green Lantern. You and I actually slept through most of it.  We visited friends in Broomfield on the 3rd of July, and then your Grandpa Bill and Grandma Dona stopped by to see you.  We drove down to Pueblo to meet your Great-Grandma Shue and then a few days later Grandpa and Grandma Powell and Uncle Kevin came to visit you for a week. We went to Greeley to pick Caleb up from his summer camp (that was your first night in a hotel). Our traveling isn't done yet this summer, so I'm glad you're an easy guy

Out for a Stroll with Grandpa Powell

Uncle Kevin thinks you're pretty cool, for a baby.

Grandpa and Grandma Powell can't get enough of your sweet face!

At Caleb's summer camp

exhausted after all that visiting.

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From dad: first entry

07/13/11
On Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 your mom went in for her weekly check-up.  I had been telling people she was prepared to take Dr. Uyemura by the lapels and threaten his life if he didn’t induce by the following day.  Your mom says she didn’t have to convince him at all, that he wanted to induce that day, but whatever happened in office I got a call around 10 o’clock that day from your mom saying she was being induced.

We talked a bit about what I should do, if I should continue working or head over to the hospital right then.  We decided it might be some time before the drugs even took effect, let alone when you’d actually arrive, so I finished out the work day.  Grandma Judy was contacted and immediately headed to our house.

It wasn’t until 4:30 pm that the Dr. said your mom “entered” into labor; I arrived shortly after labor begun then.  So then we waited; we watched TV, I did my best to make sure your mom got anything she needed, the nurses did the same (arguably better) including getting the room ready for your inevitable arrival.  For the next 5 hours we waited patiently and at around 10:00 pm your big sister, Charity, got there where we waited a couple more hours.  Between Charity getting there and the epidural, the Dr. broke your mom’s water.

At around midnight the epidural dude arrived and 20 minutes later you mom started feeling tired and was pain free enough to get some sleep.  It was suggested by everyone that we all try our best to follow suite.  The room had a chair that could pull out into a bed of sorts; I thought it was best for Charity to have that since it fit her better than myself.  I headed down to the end of the hall where there was a family lounge that had a too-small couch.

Some time shortly after 3:00 am, Charity walked in and woke me up.  She says she was very surprised by how immediately awake I was.  We headed back to your mom’s room where she’s fully awake and experiencing some much more intense contractions.  The Dr. had been called but he was still about 15~20 minutes from arriving.  After about 15 minutes after my arrival, your mom announced that she felt like she had to push.

It seemed like she held off a little bit since the Dr. wasn’t there, but 2 minutes later she couldn’t hold it anymore.  Right then the Dr. walked in, quickly assessed the situation, your mom said she had to push, the Dr. said, “All right, then push, let’s get this baby out.”  A new look came on your mother’s face; I had been watching her go through bouts of pain for the past 11  hours, the worst being when her water was broken.  But this look, this was new, and probably a look I’ll never see again.  It could be a look God reserved specifically for birth.  It’s indescribable and it scared me a little only because it was a look I had never seen.

Your mom is the only one who can tell you whether the breaking of the water or pushing you out hurt more, but based on her face and the sounds she made, giving birth was at the very least a unique pain.  She didn’t scream, I would say she wailed.  Of course, I’ve never really heard her scream before either; I’ve hear her “yell” at your siblings (as you’ve probably witnessed first hand by now ;-) ), but not scream.  So maybe a mommy scream is what I call a wail, I don’t know.

But it took three or four good pushes and at 3:41 am 06/16/2011 you were out.  From the time Charity woke me up to the time you arrived was less than 30 minutes, so it happened pretty quickly.  The nurses didn’t even have time to properly break down the bead to make way for a proper catching.  The Dr. pulled you out and used the aspirator to clear your airway.  You gave a little cry, just letting us know that “yeah yeah, I’m here, can you get some clothes on me or something?”  They took you over to the warming table and cleaned you up, the whole time you were very quiet.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find out your part reptile; the whole time you were on the warming bed and regularly for the next week or so, you stuck out your tongue a lot as if you were smelling the air with it or something.  There’s video of this, so if you haven’t seen it already, be prepared to be embarrassed by it in front of your wife or something.

I was fully prepared for you to be ugly.  I don’t mean an ugly baby, as some baby’s are, I mean I was ready for you to be this gooey, deformed, wriggly mass of bones, blood, and flesh.  But you were surprisingly clean, other than some stuff I call cheese, and the only thing about you was that you had a bit of an Alien head.  I’m talking about James Cameron’s Alien; it tapered in the back.  So much so, we had a hard time keeping a hat on you, it would just slide off very easily.  One of the things I really loved about you was the sound you made when you did your tongue thing.  Don’t ask me, it was just a pleasing sound.

Hopefully, by the time you read this, one thing you’ve learned about your dad is that I’m fairly easy going.  I know I may harp on you from time to time, but it’s only because I want you to be the best person you can be; much better than me at least.  Also, if we hadn’t already mentioned at some point in your life, we didn’t have any Lamaze classes.  The most we had was a 1 day class encompassing everything about childbirth.  Your mom indicated to me shortly before I started writing this that she noticed how quiet I was during your birth; A) as you should already know, I’m pretty quiet as it is, 2) this was her 4th time and my first so I was somewhat at a disadvantage, III) the nurses were awesome.  I’m saying all this because mainly I don’t want you thinking I wasn’t excited for you to join us out here.  I pray you’ve already come to realize that I tend to show my love mostly through works (providing you with a  good home, taking you to places, letting you do the things you enjoy, etc.) and to a lesser extend giving you gifts.  I’m sure I’ve told you I love you from time to time, but I hope I’ve more than shown you that.

Over the next few weeks, your mother and siblings have said many things; you like this, you don’t like that.  I get the impression that your mom thinks you cry more than average, I don’t know what’s average so I don’t know.  She seems to think you’re hungry ALL THE TIME, I think it’s just kind of what babies do.  I’ve seen some smiles from time to time, but they don’t seem to be on purpose; I’ve seen you roll over from your stomach three times, but every time could be attributed to you being on an incline.

You seem to have a really good grip; I can almost pick you up just from you holding onto my fingers.  Your legs are strong enough to hold your own weight; particularly when you cry, you straighten your legs and if I put you vertical, you actually stand up (though you have no balance).  I was impressed by how soon you were picking your head up, but for all I know that’s normal.

There are a lot of things that your mom and siblings are attributing that I’m not comfortable doing yet.  You always cry when you take a bath... but you’re always crying before you start.  Your mom says you just like to be around us, that you start crying when we put you down.  But you’ve screamed your head off while we’re holding you, and you’ve been quiet as a mouse when we put you down.  Your mom feels like you’re hungry all the time, I’m open to it being any number of things (e.g. gas, allergies, ready to poop, etc); I think feeding you either takes your mind off those other things or at the very least suppresses them.  Either way, it doesn’t change that you might be crying for something other than you want to eat.  But, your mom is around you 24/7, and I’m gone for 9 hours out of the day, plus she’s done this three times before, so what do I know.