the beginning trials of a new dad, 2nd time over

yeah, so I'm pretty pumped about having had my second son yesterday. Awesome stuff. My wife went "all natural", which translates into no drugs and lots of pain for her. Me? The worst I got was on the last two pushes when she snagged my hand just right to squeeze my wedding ring between my middle finger and pinky. My ring finger was fine, but I was praying super hard that Benjamin came soon, because I was sure my ring was cutting through my fingers all the way to the bone. And she was gripping my hand so tightly (and rightly so, might I add - she was pushing at the time!) that I couldn't work my other hand in to take its place. Well, Benjamin was born and I quickly (almost) forgot about the pain in my hand.

In the afternoon my parents brough Keaton (my firstborn) over to see his momma and his new little brother. Of course, as soon as he saw Benjamin, he pointed and said, "Kitty." Then he proceeded to find everything in the hospital room that he wasn't supposed to play with and try to get at it. That's my boy!!!

My brilliant plan was to let him see mommy (more importantly, for mommy to see him!), and then take him home, grab dinner on the way, play with him a bit at home, and then get him to bed so he didn't have someone he wasn't used to putting him down. Lucky for Terra and I, Benjamin was born on the move-in weekend for the UNC campus, where the UNC hospital is. It took me a good half-hour to get off campus, and then the two primary interstates upon which I have to drive home were back up because of traffic (I was trying to go home at 5pm - again, brilliant plan!) and a couple of little wrecks. All in all, a drive which could take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour took almost two hours. Keaton was going nuts by the time we got home. I did (rather wisely, I might humbly add) stop and grab dinner as soon as I could, so he spent most of the trip munching on chicken nuggets and fries.

In the end, he stayed up an hour later. But I will admit, if these are the depth of my trials as a new dad (which I very much doubt), I am perfectly happy to endure. God has blessed us with two healthy, energetic young sons, and I am so privileged to be their father.

Readin' to my son

Here's a video my wife promised everyone (heh heh, I got it up first!!!) of me (attempting a) reading of a pretty clever little book.

Kiddie Camo

So my wife and I decided to start letting our son sleep through the night. You know, let him cry it out if he woke up - because he's getting to that age where kids need to learn to "self-soothe." (He's four months old...).

Well, the first night we did this my wife also decided to get him out of his sleep positioner. It was a little too much for him, and in the end us. So my wife did a little more research and decided we could let him cry it out, but we'll keep him in the swaddler (as well as the sleep positioner) for present.

That worked decent, but we both realized that since he is a little long for his age (97+ percentile on the height - way to go son!) the swaddler was becoming more and more like a restrictive kilt. I kinda thought he looked a little like a mer-man...

So we decided to finally do away with the swaddler as well as the sleep positioner - hey we figured long as we were changing stuff on him, might as well do a bunch at once! The first night things got a little interesting. My wife had found some pretty cute "sleepers" (as they're called), I think he looks perfectly manly in 'em myself. The ones she chose for that night was yellow with black stripes.

Now our crib is black - and thusly has black "bars" going up the sides (no it doesn't remind me of a jail at all...), and she had happened to have put a yellow cover on the mattress. We had taken off the bumpers because we didn't want him to suffocate himself if he rolled over and stuck his face in 'em.

This being our first child, before we go to bed, my wife is watching him sleep, worrying just a little. She motions me to come in and look at him because he's doing something cute. Well I go in there, and the lights are out like they're supposed to be, with a little night-lite on. Well, it's so stinking dark it took me a minute to find my child in his crib. And when I did find him, I couldn't figure out why it was so stinking hard to make out where his head and rear end were - when I realized he was in Camo! He was wearing a yellow sleeper with black stripes in a crib with yellow sheets and black 'bars' coming up the sides. It was stinkin' hard to make him out!

So kiddie camo...yeah...let me advise all parents out there to put their children in clothes or 'jammies that CLASH with their sleeping arrangement, that way there are no questions about where the bedding ends and the child begins!

Getting ready for baby

Yeah, Terra and I have been spending a lot of time trying to get ready for 'lil Keaton. I realized the other week that Terra was in her last trimester, so feasibly she could go into labor at any time, though we definitely want her to try to go as close to full-term as possible.

So we've been packing up even more stuff. My fiction library is now completely in storage - everything I've read and/or own fiction-wise, except for my "to read" pile is now boxed up. Next I get to tear down my most awesome sound system and box away around 275 CDs (did I mention that I like music?). Saturday is beginning to look like a fun day at the storage unit. I think I'm going to have to pull most everything out and repack it all just to try and fit all the boxes in.

The funny thing is, a year ago I think I would have fought tooth and nail to keep my sound system up and running and for me to have "my" little office space. But now 'lil Keaton has come along and I care less and less about what I want. It's almost scary to see the change - but it's good, and I embrace it.

I know I have no idea the changes this baby will bring in my life, but I can't wait to engage and embrace them. Children are a blessing from God - even though sometimes I know they make it seem like a mixed blessing. But God uses them to challenge and shape us more in his image. And I am looking forward to enabling my children to be all that God has called them to be, to equipping them to be eaven greater men (and women!) of God than I am. That's my truest challenge and one of the few that I truly desire and will consumingly pursue to fulfill.