Recently in Parenting Category

Tate made his appearance at 4:25 a.m. on Tuesday Wednesday, March 21, 2007. He weighed seven pounds and one ounce and was 20 inches long. A few photos have been uploaded.

Cole's Photo Album continues to be updated. If you have just been looking here for the updates, you have been missing out. Nat suggested this pointer to his album.

more photos of cole

Yesterday, Nat kicked me into semiconsciousness around 5:00a to let me know she was having contractions.

"Cool," I thought, "no work and a bit of a sleep in." I staggered out of bed and turned off the alarm clock.

By 8:00a, however, her contractions had stopped and Nat told me to go to work. I was at the office for all of an hour of work when I received a phone call from her saying the contractions were back and really bad. I asked how far apart her they were. She didn't know but offered to ring back directly. A few minutes later she informed me she was at six minute intervals.

The one thing iterated to us over and over ad nauseum during our six weeks of Babies for Idiots classes was not to show up to the hospital until Nat had been contracting at a three to five minute intervals for over an hour. I began the intentional dragging of feet before leaving work. I managed to stall for a half hour, told Rita I was off to try to have the baby, filled the car up with gasoline on my way home and bought Nat a slushie at the QuickieMart.

Twenty minutes later we were waiting for parking at the hospital. Nat let herself out of the car and waddled off to labor and delivery. I eventually followed with her bags.

When I arrived, she was already in a room and events had shifted into a kind of fast forward. Nurses flowed in and out. It turned out she was fully dilated and birth was happening soon. The anesthesiologist arrived directly and quickly became Nat's favorite person. Dr. Pieper appeared in short order and Cole was born at 1:45p MDT.

At the time of birth, Cole was 19.5 inches long, 6 pounds 11 ounces. As promised, tacky, sentimental, poorly framed, badly lit photos of the chap. As a bonus, constant reader, photos of the completed nursery.

Cole Hattaway arrived this afternoon at 1:45p MDT. He was nineteen and one half inches long and weighed six pounds eleven ounces. All fingers and toes appeared to have been in place and Nat is doing quite well. Tacky, sentimental, crappy pictures, the story of how it all happened and more tomorrow. Or, the next day. :)

Am I a real adult now?

Friday brought the happy news that all appears well with The Chap. We also learned The Chap is a chap and not a chapette. His feet are about one inch long, and his body is about 9 inches in total length. Nat informed me we are halfway through.

Though I was looking forward to ballet practice, I suppose I'll have to make do with soccer practice.

Stills and video from the ultrasound are in the normal bat place.

I've scanned the four prints we have been given and digitized the sonogram video from Nat's visits to LDS Hospital. I've not heard the baby's heartbeat yet, but I've seen it fluttering away. I am awed.

Earlier this evening, we had one of the monthly family hostage situations associated with Nat's family's birthdays. Nat has been a trooper keeping our secret even though I know it has been killing her to do so. She has had to use misdirection when acne and the other associated tell tale signs have come up in conversation, and she has not been keen on keeping up the illusion. We chatted briefly before we left for Mel's house and agreed tonight was a good time to let her Mom, siblings and their families know about our chap.

Nat had a copy of one of the sonogram pictures made and framed for her mother. We gave it to her wrapped and had her open it. She must have thought we had given her a picture frame for Valentine's because she was really nonplussed by what she saw. Val, however, saw the print and yelped with excitement. Nat suggested the use of LaRayne's reading glasses. Her response was much improved once she was able to see what Nat was showing her. It was a happy few minutes sharing our exciting news.

My December 18th entry went live moments ago along with December 22nd and January 26th. I've left them unmolested, to include comments to myself about the draft nature of the entries while they remained in hiding.

It's cold outside. It's dark when I go to work in the morning and when I come home in the evening. I'm on my early morning schedule, warming up for my last season in the purgatory of art school. This morning, Nat picks me up at 8:20a to pop a few blocks down from the University to an IHC clinic where her obstetrician practices. I am a bit standoffish. This will be a new experience for me and I have no real clue what to think about it.

We arrive, enter the building and ride the escalator up to the second floor. Nat checks in. I pull out my pda and pick up where I've left of in "Wolves of the Calla." The wait is not long and we are ushered back to a room by a nurse who pauses to get Nat's weight. We have an even briefer wait before Dr. Pipper pops in for the first phase of the visit. She is perky, upbeat and on top of her game. I can see why Nat has selected her for her doctor. After some pleasantries, Dr. Pipper instructs Nat to get in the hospital gown and excuses herself.

Prior to this visit, if you had asked me about having Nat strip for me someplace semi-public, I'd have likely said it would be very nice. If you had asked what I thought about Nat, naked and stirrups in the same sentence before today, my train of thought would likely not be considered very "nice" by proper folks. There is something off putting about this office and this visit, however, and I find the situation much less desirable than I'd initially imagined it would be.

Dr. Pipper comes back. Nat is poked, prodded, examined and sampled. I have never been more glad to be a guy in my life. I've got my PDA out, more as a security blanket than anything else. Dr. Pipper turns from the exam and asks if I'm taking pictures. I am so uncomfortable I cannot even laugh, though I find the idea hilarious. Finally, the poking/prodding part of the exam is over the doctor rolls over her "toy" sonogram machine. She lubes up the scanner and rolls it across Nat's stomach. The grainy black and white image begins to pulse as the scanner is moved down past Nat's at capacity bladder. Here, in glorious two bit color, is the addition to our family. As psychologically uncomfortable as the exam has been for me, seeing our developing child via the sonogram's display is really quite amazing. I almost wish I had a camera with me to grab an image of our chap.