First week of dad-dom

From the number of pictures I've posted to Facebook, most of you probably already know that Keely gave birth to our first child over a week ago, Kieran Murray Finkelstein.  Since I'm not stuck in Europe due to ash, there's no excuse for ignoring the blog...

Our baby's due date was April 4th, so by April 5th when he still hadn't arrived, our doctor decided we should get induced, but we would have to wait a week, until the 12th.  As late as the afternoon of the 10th, it seemed like it would take an induction to get the party started.  But, after dinner on the 10th (at Cheddars, so I don't think any spicy foods were in play), Keely started feeling some regular contractions, but still at 6-7 minutes apart.  Our doctor told us not to come to the hospital until they were 3-5 minutes apart, so we watched a movie (well, me and Jolene, Keely's mom did, I think Keely was pretty distracted).  After the movie Keely and I finished packing our bag for the hospital, but by 2am, things hadn't changed much, so we went to bed.

I woke up at 6am, and saw that Keely was in the bathroom.  I checked her phone (which we were using to time contractions - I think Apple needs to use this as one of their "there's an app for that" commercials), and saw that her last few contractions had been 2:30 apart!  I decided it was well past time to go to the hospital, so we gathered everything up and drove the 10 minutes to St. Joseph's Regional Health Center, in Bryan, TX, arriving at 7am.

The emergency room was empty, so it wasn't long before our nurse had Keely examined and admitted to a labor and delivery room.  Thats when the real waiting began.  From 7am to 1:30pm, Keely only dilated an additional 2cm to 6 total.  At that time, our doctor decided to help speed things along by breaking the water.  This made the contractions more intense, which was also more difficult for Keely since she was doing all this without any pain meds!  Eventually, by 4:15 pm, she was far enough along to be allowed to push, and at 4:48pm, our baby boy was born.  It wasn't without complication - because things proceeded so fast at the end, he dropped down quickly and ended up having the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck two times, so he came out blue.  But he quickly turned pink (really quickly, only 10 seconds or so), I cut the cord, and within minutes, he was safely resting on Keely.

He went to get measured, and we found out that he was 7 lb 9 oz (average or so) and 21.25" (very tall!).  We spent two nights in the hospital, and Keely was allowed to come home on April 12th, where Keely's mom and my parents helped us care for Kieran, and more importantly made Keely and I food.  I had the stomach flu for the next two days (not fun), so I wasn't too much help, but as of now, we're all doing great.  We could still use some more sleep, but he is on average sleeping 2.5-3 hours at a time, so thats doable.

As he does more interesting things, I'll write some more posts.  Right now all he does is eat, sleep, cry (not too much), pee on his own head (on average once per day) and poop (not on his own head, but there's still time).

iPad!!!

Yes, so I got an iPad. Is anyone really surprised? After apple had their press conference introducing it a few months ago, i was disappointed, since i thought that the could do so much more. But after spending a few hours with it, I definitely get it. It's not something anyone (or most people) would ever need, but it definitely fills a niche between phone and laptop. I am most excited about the apps on it, specifically Papers, which i already use to organize my journal articles on my Mac. Ok, now time to walk around with my iPad and pretend that I'm on Star Trek.

Random Musings - Edition 1

- When you're flying alone, and you get on the plane early, how much attention do you pay to who sits next to you?  I'm like a hawk - I screen each and every person and give them a grade, from A-F, about whether I want them to sit next to me.  Things that impact the grade include:  do they look smelly?  Will they take my legroom?  Crying baby?  Talkative grandma?  Medium to small size person wearing headphones is an A+.

- I really hope Washington makes the NCAA Tournament.  But, if they don't, I think it will help my bracket, because then I won't lost because I have them winning the whole thing.

- I have not been in a Toy's R Us for something like six years.  In the last two months, I have been in one like ten times.

- I am excited for baseball season to start. I  have a hard time getting excited for spring training games now that I'm not in Arizona, but I think that on opening day something in my brain flips on and I become super interested in every pitch.

- It was Bella's third birthday yesterday.  We got her a rubber toy, which Jasmine promptly stole, and this stuffed animal thing, which was destroyed within minutes.  I think that next time I'll just buy her a bag of cotton balls.

- I'm excited to be a dad.  Tonight I was remembering how like five years ago, we tied a dog toy to a string and tied it to the ceiling fan to tease Jasmine.  How will my kid not do dumb stuff like that?  I guess I'll just have to make sure he doesn't watch me do anything ever.  I remember my first car accident - I was backing out of my parents driveway (I was only 15, with my learner's permit, so my mom was with me), and rather than brake to put it in drive, I decided to go into neutral partway back, and then go into drive to get it moving forward.  It was something I had seen my dad do countless times, and I thought it was what all "cool" drivers did.  Instead, I backed into the neighbors car across the street, and lost the $1000 I had saved up for my own car.   My kid is screwed.

- I went to Hawaii last weekend and did not go to a beach.  Thats weird.

- Playing trombone in high school was so much fun.  People wonder why trombone players are so immature.  Well, anytime you let a 15 year old kid call himself a boner, or play an instrument that used to be called a sackbut, you shouldn't be surprised.