Tuesday, December 27, 2011

his first cold

Ethan's got a slight fever and a gross runny nose. It's about 1am and he's been up every 1-2 hours since going to bed at 7:30. All day he's had this goo running down his face and has looked pretty miserable. I guess that's pretty much what it is to be a sick kid. I'm laying in bed and I can't stop thinking about when they were just born and I was on my way back from the hospital cafeteria. I had three wrist bands on (a white one for me and a pink one and a blue one) Having all this hospital bling got me a lot of attention. It was a great moment when the lady at the register or a nurse behind me in line would congratulate me with a big smile on my new bouncing babies. I felt like the luckiest guy anywhere. On the elevator back up to the nursery there was another Dad who shared similar taste in bracelets, he had a white and two blues. We discussed our kid's names and weights and congratulated each other. We'd just joined this new Dad club x2 at the same time and were both smiling ear to ear. The only thing was, when we got off the elevator I started going right down the hallway to the nursery and he turned to go to the left... towards the NICU.

Ethan spent a night - about eight hours, really in the NICU for observation. Immediately after his birth he was breathing a little heavy and they sent him there for observation. By the time he actually arrived, whatever had concerned the doctors had passed and he just stayed out the night, grabbed his free bagels and coffee in the morning and joined Ruth and I in Mom's room. But from visiting him that night and in the morning, I saw the acute condition his roommates were in. The nurse told me Ethan would be her boring baby and that was no exaggeration. There were babies who had been born before 28 weeks all over the place, their teeny tiny bodies were attached to heat monitors, feeding tubes, IVs and who knows whats all over them. It was a sobering sight.

Turning right to go the the nursery I knew just how lucky my babies and Elissa and I were that afternoon. Here it is six months later and one of them is sick for just the first time. I'm exhausted and at 2am now have been up with Elissa countless times checking on our now two sniffly congested kids and so thankful for every second.

Ethan Bouncing

Thursday, December 22, 2011




Bottle in fairmount park




Life with babies...




Ready for battle!







Lunch time




Ethan guiding the way!




Lunch break













Fill'er up - on the way to the museum