January 24, 2005

Well… I’m back. And we’ll be here until Thursday morning. For those of us who want to call us, please wait another day. We’re still getting acclimated and need some time with just the three of us. Rest assured, you’ll see Hayes soon enough. In the meantime, I plan on posting more pix tomorrow when I go home for a bit to my speedier net connection.

Hayes was in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) after his birth for about 18 hours, as he was having some difficulties breathing. That, and he really wants to be a doctor, so he thought he’d get some firsthand experience. The fact is that even had he not had breathing problems, the doctors informed me, he would have been brought there, as Jen was holding a 101F temperature through about the last 24 hours of labor.

Yesterday was new grandparent day. We had both sets come in and out. The grandparents were all really excited to see him. My parents went up seperately to the NIRC to see him. At that point he was doing very well (and he still is). They wanted to release him from there earlier, but they were running a skeleton crew of nurses and doctors who had been mostly on for over 24 hours. So, needless to say, doctors to sign-off on the release were hard to come by.

Speaking of the storm, I had a chance to experience it first hand when I plowed through snowbanks in my Subaru to pick up my in-laws who were staying about 2 miles east of here in the Back Bay of Boston with my sister-in-law. I felt like I was in a Subaru commercial, passing lesser front-wheel drive cars and even a partially stuck snowplow. I honestly wonder why someone living in a snow state wouldn’t have a Subaru or, at the very least, all-wheel drive.

Anyway, Jen baby and I watched the Pats whoop some ass last night. More acurately, Jen and I watched the Pats and Hayes mostly cried and slept. I even got a couple of beers in. In a classic Eric move, though, I had to find a bottle opener to open my Singha beers because they weren’t twist-offs. As a result, I have my first bit of valuable advice for those who will be needing a beer in the hospital soon (I’m guessing that number is… uhm… me): The Hill-Rom stretcher that seems to be standard hospital bedding, is equiped with a handy-dandy rectangular hole behind the head of the bed which worked so well as an opener that I’m quite sure it was put there with the express purpose of opening beer. In fact, I bet that’s a big selling point for the hospital.

Hayes and Jen are awesome. I can’t believe I would be as lucky as I am to have both of them. Many of you know that Jen and I’ve had a lot of Pedro Matinez-type pitches rifled at us in the last 10 years. None of them thrown by either of us. I’m living proof that things have a way of working themself out. I can’t believe my great fortune.

A quick word about our hospital. I remember writing some time during Friday night/Saturday morning about how good the staff here is. I want to reiterate that. Brigham and Women’s has a reputation that preceeds them that is obviously well deserved. They worked through one of the biggest storms in State history, doing so with good humor and passion. In hindsight, even the couple of people that weren’t our personal favorites, made good decisions on our behalf, even if we couldn’t see so at the time. Thank you for putting up with us. Most of all, I hope for all of you out there who will be “making people” (Seinfeld’s words via Andrew Teman, not mine) that you are lucky enough to be in the company of such a great medical staff.

I really want to thank all of you for following along with this experiment. Many of you I don’t know and may never meet. You were really gracious. If you’re one of those people and you have a website that I have not already listed, rest assured you will be added to my list. Thank you. We are grateful. Funny story about two great stangers following our saga: Leigh (I hope I got the spelling right) via Elizabeth Kennedy dropped us a paper note last night. It seems Leigh is the cousin or Elizabeth, a nurse here at Brigham, and has been following along online. She asked Elizabeth to share her congrats. You don’t know how much it means to us to here from all of you cheering us on. It’s been tough and rewarding and we have a WONDERFUL son to show for it.

Jen is sleeping now and they plan on bringing Hayes back in here shortly after his antibiotic, so I am going to finish up. Dunno if this is where technology is going, but if it is I’m betting more people will share their experiences in realtime like I did. (Heck, shenuts blogged her own birth!) For those of you out there about to make your own people here’s my first bit of unsolicited-dad-knows-best advice: some of you will have easier stories to share, some harder. All birth are different. This just happens to be the one that is most important to me.

Oh, and pack extra underwear. I forgot to do that.

Most of all, I want to thank my wife. She is awesome.