The Unsung Hero

It has been a wild two weeks around here. Between absurd sleep schedules, an intermittently crying/screaming baby, living the shut-in lifestyle and meals with no theme or regularity, it would be forgiven to adopt a negative attitude from time to time.

Carrie and I have both, at times, succumbed to the intense conditions of caring for a newborn. You know who hasn't?

This guy.

Between hours of exhaustion bouncing from place to place while we were in the hospital:

Transitioning from weary


to done.

Owen has been amazing. He has not shown one bit of negative energy during this entire fiasco.

From insisting that he be the "third" person to hold Wyatt


To being in the best spirits when the unplanned, "Owen we need you to watch the baby" happens at any given hour.

Day


or night.

I frequently make a point to tell Owen that if I could hand-pick a son out of any boy in the world, I would absolutely pick him without hesitation.

It looks like that goes for hand-picking a big brother as well.

The Look

There's a look that people give to a newborn baby. It's a look that replenishes my faith in humanity. It seems to combine the recognition that currently you are infinitely helpless, but you also have infinite possibilities in front of you. I've seen the look quite a few times lately.

Grandpas have the look.



Grandmas sure have the look.




Cousins can have the look.


Dads definitely have the look.


But there is nothing that compares to a mother seeing her baby for the first time.

Oh Yeah, We Had a Baby!

Come to think of it, we did put the cart before the horse here. On the 16th of December we checked in to St. Joe's at 10:00AM for a scheduled C-section at 1:00. Fun fact: right before you have a baby 3 hours actually feels like 15 minutes.

We were on the 14th floor, and we had a view of Mt. Rainier, the Tacoma dome, the E. 21st St. bridge, all that good Tacoma stuff. Our nurse was kind enough to snap our photo right before we went into the operating room.


This was actually a pretty serene moment. The doctors and nurses made a real point to keep the mood light and jovial. When we went to the operating room, the anesthesiologist was cracking jokes and playing music (everything from Ed Sheeran to the Beegees). He even acted as our photographer.

 
After about an hour in the OR, here we have little Wyatt, in the (slightly purple) flesh.


He seemed mixed on the situation at first: rapidly running out of room on the inside vs. what the hell is all this on the outside. I want to say he's come to terms with the outcome.


I think part of that has to do with who was waiting for him on the outside.

Wyatt Archer Wilhelme: 9lbs. 5oz. (exactly the same as Owen) 20.5 inches. Welcome to the world; you are loved.

A Christmas to Remember (Vaguely)

We predicted this Christmas was going to be a sleep deprived, baby-fueled extravaganza and boy did it live up to expectations. It's interesting having people meet the baby as they're celebrating Christmas. I believe it's said that progress is made at the intersection of Holy Crap This is New and These are Our Traditions. We'll see where we end up next year, but so far:

Wyatt had his first Christmas (he slept through most of it):



And Grandparents had their first Christmas with Wyatt:







Even uncle C.J. and Nicole got in on the Christmas baby action:



All told, it has been a wonderful experience. Everyone has been exceptionally supportive and accommodating to those changes in tradition. At the end of the day traditions exist because they are how you express your love for those in your life.  This is a good (if chaotic) start.

We're Back Baby!

In the words of the illustrious Bender R. Rodriguez when Netflix so very improbably revived the Fox series Futurama after years spent in limbo:


Yes; it's been a few years since we've contributed to this blog and truthfully we never really expected to contribute to it again. We have cherished looking back at it periodically. A few times a year we realize we have spent the last two hours scrolling down memory lane and decide we had better get going on something productive.

Owen recently has really begun to appreciate the persona we crafted for him, even quoting the blog every once in a while: Ahh, my brain, the one place I didn't expected an ambush! Additionally, as a father, I'm moved that he can look at the work we put into this blog and appreciate the craft. In an aside, Owen said to Carrie, "Dad's a really good writer." I don't know why this of all things has made the whole endeavor which ended years ago worthwhile.

Which brings us to Bender R. Rodriguez. With perhaps a touch of hubris, I want to give this gift to Wyatt as well. So, we're going to fire this blog up again and see if we can't rekindle some of the fun we had with it the first time around. Let's see how it goes.