Well, it’s been a busy 46 hours or so since E was born. And, I have much to relate. It’s been a happy, exciting, stressful, emotional, overwhelming, joyful, and thankful time — which I think covers about the first 15 minutes of her life!

Anyway, I’m too tired to write in detail now, but I have kept careful notes on my iPhone that I’ll transcribe and post.

I always figured I’d be a “modern father” type. Indeed, I don’t really “get” men who aren’t actively involved in the care of the children (including the feeding and bathing). But, since L has been recovering from her surgery, I’ve really had to step up. I think I’ve done pretty well so far as a rookie.

Heck, I’m practically a breast by now.

More to follow. Thanks for all of the good wishes and congratulations!

For tonight, I’ll leave you with a photo of my girls…

Tags: Infant

Here is her first ‘official’ portrait:

And, for those of you not easily grossed out… some awesome (if I say so myself) photos of her C-section birth.

More to follow later… along with the “rest of the story.”

Tags: Birth

I’ll fill you all in on the details later, but I’m pleased to announce that Emerson was born at 12:52 this morning via c-section. I’ll also post some pictures later this morning. It’s now 4ish and we’re all a bit tired. But, I won’t to post this quick update via the iPhone.

Tags: Birth

L’s water broke at 3:30pm this afternoon. We were at the grocery store! Good times.

We were at the hospital by 4:30. And they started inducing her by 5:30.

So far, no contractions.

More updates (probably after E arrives) later!

Tags: Pregnancy

We’re still in a holding pattern just waiting for E to make her grand debut.

As the days tick by, it looks like we’ll be headed more and more for the induction on the 9th. I’m not really worried or concerned about what lies ahead. I’m actually feeling pretty calm.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this previously, but long before we started TTC (and had any idea about IF), I had a lot of apprehensions about the whole ‘getting pregnant’ thing. I just sort of had this sense that we were jumping into the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim or having any of those little inflatable ‘floaties’ on our arms.

I pretty much despaired over the entire process.

After a while, I came to hate TTC naturally when month after month yielded no results. Good grief, I felt like the prize stallion at the Irish National Stud Farm. When we finally went to the reproductive medicine clinic, I worried about the implications of finding out something was ‘wrong’ with one of us or (possibly worse) finding ‘nothing wrong’ as a case of unexplained infertility.

I think I only came into my own when then the shit hit the proverbial fan and we had a clear diagnosis. Finally! I had something we could do something about. Blocked tubes, who knew?

From that point forward, I’ve become increasingly sanguine about the whole thing. My sense of foreboding has entirely cleared. I’m no longer worried.

Was I somehow psychic and sensed the infertility problems?

Perhaps, I’ve had the first known case of ‘mantuition’ (male intuition)?

I don’t know. I just know that I’m feeling quite contented waiting to meet our daughter.

Tags: men and infertility, Pregnancy