Hey, baby, what’s your sign?

We are pleased to introduce you to the new dominant blog content: Alexander Robert! Tim and I are shocked we were able to come up with such a cute baby. I swear, that isn’t just maternal bias… he really is obscenely adorable.

Here is a picture of him 14 minutes after birth…



He is just 14 minutes old, but his agent says he can play anywhere from newborn to 3 months. Here he is after getting swaddled in the latest hospital fashions:



Yarrrr!!

Anyway, here are his stats:
Birth date: Thursday August 14th , 8:15 pm
Weight: 9 lbs 15 oz (just an ounce shy of the 10 pound mark!)
Length: 20 1/2 inches
Distinguishing marks or tattoos: little cleft on his chin
Turn-ons: car rides, being rolled into a baby burrito (aka swaddling), snuggling, long walks on the beach
Turn-offs: hunger, time wasted blogging instead of snuggling

The birth wasn’t exactly what was anticipated… although I am sure almost every parent can say that. All that matters it that Alexander is extremely healthy and strong and we must have fooled the hospital staff into thinking we were competent parents because they let us take him home today.

Here is the Cliff Notes version: I was on the drugs for the induction and the anti-seizure medicine for about a day before it was determined that the contractions weren’t productive - so we went in for a c-section on Thursday night. Later in the night I began to hemorrhage quite severely. My blood pressure dropped and my hemoglobin and platelets also went down to worrying levels. For those that like medical data… the blood pressure went down to the area of 60/40 (after spiking at around 175/100 in the hours following the c-section), hemoglobin was 6 (I think they said 12 would be ‘good’), and the platelets were around 100,000 (which sounds like a lot, but I guess it isn’t as the nurse mentioned this number with some degree of alarm). Mmmm… data.

I’m thankful to have partial amnesia over what happened and I’ll certainly spare you the details of what I do remember. The bleeding was finally slowed down and I was eventually given a couple blood transfusions. After six days in the hospital, we were allowed to go home. I’m still very weak but taking lots of iron and should hopefully get my blood levels up to normal in the upcoming weeks. Now, I just wonder whose blood I have flowing through my veins? This situation has the potential for a twilight zone episode written all over it.

We may not update the blog for a little while as I am in a recovery mode (think of it as an extension of ‘load mode’). This pregnancy has been a bit of a drama magnet, so I guess it isn’t surprising that it went out with a bang. Again, all that matter’s now is our sweet little (sic) guy is here.


PS-- The kitties are quickly adjusting to the attention usurper. Bear meows in sympathy when Alexander cries. If you can’t handle ‘adorable’, you’d best stay away from our house these days.

PPS- Has anyone seen my cell phone? We think it got lost at the hospital. Oops.

PPS- Please forgive the typos and general loopiness of this post. (I have a reasonable excuse, and I’m going to use it for as long as possible.)