Wednesday morning update

It's about 9:40 Wednesday morning and I am in a coffee shop on Sunset Blvd injecting as much caffeine into my system as I can handle. We had a visit from the pediatrician this am, who pronounced Jack the very picture of health, and who poo-pooed my first-time-Dad concerns in such a way as to not make me feel like a total idiot. After that I made sure G had any books etc. she needed, and left for breakfast and errands -- first stop, dropping off the last two boxes of CDs from home at our storage facility, next stop picking up Boris, then it is home for some comfort time with him and a nap for me, then back to the hospital mid-afternoon.

A lot went down when we "signed off" last night. So as Bob Murphy used to say, here's the happy recap.

At around 8:30 the pushing began, with much encouragement from Dr. Katz, Alex and myself. I have to say, Genevieve dug really deep and really defeated any doubts she had about herself. It was really inspiring to watch her reach deep for energy she no longer thought she had. As for me, to actually see your baby's face beginning to emerge is, well, there really are no words for it, just incredible. After a mere hour and 15 minutes it was definitely time, and Jack came bursting on to the scene to the musical accompaniment of "Growing Up" by Peter Gabriel on the stereo system, which was totally unplanned but just as totally appropriate. Beautifully, as they cleaned him up, "Solsbury Hill" came on next, and both Genevieve and I remembered that when we got in the limo right after our wedding ceremony, the driver turned on the radio and that was the song that started right up. Great to have music that's important to us just kind of happen in time with life-changing events. The baby squad got Jack all cleaned up while Dr. Katz attended to Genevieve.

Now, let me just say this. We all speak of how beautiful a woman is right after she has given birth. And they usually do have a certain beauty, especially to their husbands. But largely, they tend to look, understandably, as if they have been placed in a sack with an ill-tempered rhinoceros and left at the bottom of a lake for about 12 hours. I mean, they have just been through the physical equivalent of being hit by a truck after all. Well, all that said and all husbandly bias to the side, Genevieve looked marvelous. Like, if I hadn't been there to see it, I'd be amazed to hear she had just given birth. I mean she was SO together and looked absolutely FINE. I was AMAZED. And you can tell I mean it because I am writing it in ALL CAPS.

After we got our room assigned, I ran off to get Genevieve the cheeseburger she desperately craved and came back to find Jack hungrily breast-feeding away, I mean he took right to it like a duck to water and with greater enthusiasm. After some grumpy times he settled down to sleep. The quick test of his sugar levels showed low, but all the lab tests have come back fine, a little low but well within acceptable levels. I gather that it is the case with these giant babies that sugar levels can be out of whack for a while. Jack wouldn't sleep after his 4 am feeding, and was crabbing away, but Genevieve nestled him in with her and he promptly shut up and gave us each two hours of blissful sleep.

We can't say enough good things about the delivery team Dr. Katz works with at Cedars-Sinai. Totally cool, calm, collected, everything ran absolutely like clockwork. I mean, a model of absolute efficiency I have not seen the likes of outside Charlie Trotter's kitchen, and that's high praise indeed.

The picture above is of our delivery nurse Alex, who was so so so encouraging and positive; she really made it much easier for us. And Dr. Katz himself was awesome. Thank you Alex, Shara, Dr. Sanchez, Dr. Katz, tha "Baby SWAT Team" and whoever the nighttime anaesthesiologist was!!

OK, caffeine injection is done. I am going to post a few more photos while I have an online connection here at the coffeeshop. The wireless connection I was poaching off of at the hospital is not strong enough to extend to our new room, so I will only be online sporadically today and tonight, if at all, unfortunately, so if you don't hear back from me, you will, but maybe not today or tomorrow, via email anyway.

Off to get Boris...