at home

holden is a week old today. alicia and i look at him and we find it almost impossible to comprehend that he is our son. we look at him in our arms, in his bed, snuggled up in is blanket...it doesn't matter where he is, it still strikes us that he is actually ours.

we've actually caught him smiling, which i didn't realize was possible at a week old. there are other things i didn't realize, for example i had no idea just how many diapers something so small could consume. i've already had to go out for extras.

other things that have surprised me....1-that the words "poopy" and "diaper" would actually become frequent residents in my vocabulary that are usually used in conjunction with each other.2-that i would actually find myself happy when holden has a "poopy diaper" (because a poopy diaper is a great indication of health for those of you who are ignorant in the ways of the infant)

and finally.....that i have a son...i am a father and alicia is a mother...unbelievable. i must apologize to the few of you who are reading this, but alicia and i are convinced that holden is perfect....poopy diapers and all.

along he came

my wife is a trooper, she survived 33 hours of labor and still managed to deliver our beautiful son in amazing fashion. there was a point in time that we were both sure we were headed for a c-section, but prayers were answered and we were blessed and alicia was able to deliver the little guy sans surgery.

it is such a strange feeling to be there and actually witness the moment that you become a parent, a father....daddy. you see it coming, almost like you read it in a book and maybe even claim to know it, but you don't have a clue.

mother and child are happy and healthy. i lay here in the smallest room ever and wonder how i can ever thank God for the miracle of the life of my son.

if i continue to write here, i'll just ramble off in some pointless direction. i'm tired, we've been at the hospital for over 48 hours already and the adrenaline is wearing off.

maybe i'll slip out the door and down to the nursery to take a peek and silently give thanks for a most wonderful day.

Any day now...

Alicia came home from her baby shower this weekend. She got out of the car and the first thing she said to me was "I've been having contractions for the past 2 hours or so...." (My mind says "Whoa!!! You better get inside and get packed") The doctor told her he didn't think it was the actual beginning of labor, to get something to eat and see what happens. Sure enough, half way through dinner, Alicia looked at me and told me she was no longer having contractions. (Actually, I asked her about them about every 5 minutes until she looked at me in that way that she does and I stopped asking.)

So, today we traded some things in that we had gotten 2 of and ended up with a contraption called a "pack and play". I had no idea that something so big could be manipulated into fitting into a box so small. I told Alicia that was why there are packaging engineers. These baby contraptions are unbelievable, you pull a handle here or push a button there and the thing literally reduces to the size of a peanut and you put it in your pocket (Ok, so not literally, but you get the picture).

Anyway, so now we have a way to carry the litte guy around, a way to push him around, and a nice place for him to sleep (hopefully alot). We're almost as ready as we're gonna be I suppose. I've just spent the past 30 minutes working on a list of people to email once the little guy is here.

For those of you who don't know, he's not actually a little guy. At 34 weeks he measured between 38 & 39 and had an approximate weight of 7 1/2 pounds. I asked the doctor if we would make it to our due date and he looked at me and said "No way".

Any day now....