He's HEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRREEEEEE!!

Thursday was the induction day and the nurse told Julia to have one last big meal. We decided Texas Roadhouse would have the most ample amount of food to suit Julia's strict 2-for-1 policy. We arrived and ate a feast fit for a king, queen, and a small baby. We ate, put our luggage in the car and sped away. Even though Julia was not in labor yet, and I was driving on a suspended license (long story, don't ask), I buried the needle on the speedometer all the way to 55...on highway 370 no less!!

So we were basically breaking the sound barrier as one would expect at such a speed when we arrived at Bergan Mercy Hospital and hung out for a while as they set up our room. Bergan Mercy is opening a new maternity wing with all new suites. Leather couches, plasma TVs, bear skin rugs, baby-delivering robots, the works!! Unfortunately for us, the wing doesn't open until January and we were left to the old-school rooms. Everything was still really nice, maybe the next baby will be delivered by a bearskin rug-dressed robot as I have always dreamt.

A short while after she started the examination, the doctor concluded that Julia was in fact pregnant. We had our suspicions before, but that was relieving to know for sure. Unfortunately, the doctor said that her eyes weren't dialated or something... I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention. I played the part of the diligent, long suffering husband and was fast asleep before the lights were out as they gave Julia pills to get the baby-delivering magic going. Julia told me, however, that she was subjected to test after test. I can only imagine that she did pretty well at the math tests, but I don't know how well she would have done on the others with all pain she was in.

In the morning, the nurse checked and saw that Julia wasn't dialated hardly at all, but when she came back an hour and a half later after we were both snoozing, she told us that Julia was a "ten". I of course knew this all along from the day I met her. It felt good to hear it from someone else, though! Somehow that compliment was all Julia needed to hear to get her spirits up to push the baby out. So, the great delivery began.

Julia was doing her best, but that baby was enjoying his little cocoon too much, because he wasn't budging at all. The doctor suggested that we do something drastic: Have a Caesar Selection. I told them to hold the anchovies on my salad but that whatever Julia wanted was fine by me. Apparently this salad was a really messy one though, because they gave me some really fancy green pajamas and a hair net to wear before we went down to the salad bar. Julia had been in suitable salad-eating clothes all night so I think she was a little more prepared for the Caesar than me.

Julia and the nurses then wheeled off while they left me to watch TV, presumably so I wouldn't kung fu all the doctors when I saw them slicing up my wife's stomach and sticking needles into her. I don't stand for that crap. Luckily for them, when I walked into the room, I saw that they were using my arch-enemy against me; Lots and lots of blood. :( They knew I was powerless at the sight of anything that looks even remotely like blood.

I sat down along side my wife, who was being as brave as possible for someone who has a person sticking their hands inside her stomach. I held her hand and she squeezed the crap out of mine while I caught peeks at the butchering going on out of Julia's sight. She kept whistling a pretty cool tune and I thought it was pretty catchy, too, until I realized the music was coming from a doctor playing Julia's stomach muscles like a stand-up bass.

Mere moments later, they pulled Graham out from the location of the jazz music. I had no idea that a child could be a musical prodigy from so young, but there he was. He was as purple as a bruise and spouting baby obscenities as the nurses cleaned him up and weighed and measured him.

Seven Pounds, 11 Ounces. 21 inches long. He is pretty lanky and has blond hair and grayish-blue eyes. As you can tell from the pictures, he is ridiculously good looking.

I left with the baby to take him to the nursery where they started giving him his shots and doing all of his tests on him while I went back to see how Julia was doing. She looked like she had just had a baby through her stomach, but was otherwise in good spirits. She asked me what the heck I was doing there and not being with the baby, so I went to go spy on Graham from outside the nursery while he weathered the tests performed on him. They got Julia all sewn up and moved to a recovery room where I joined her to help out while they made sure she was doing alright. Not the most pleasant Caeser salad she had ever had, but definitely the most rewarding. :)

We moved into our temporary residence and have been taking it easy for the past couple days. Graham has already shown the doctors how advanced he is and will be. He is eating like a champ, to the point of two separate nurses telling us they had never seen a baby gulp down as much as he did in so little time. He only cries when he is REALLY REALLY hungry or whenever someone refers to him as a "baby." He prefers the term little person.

Julia walked a lap around the hospital and is feeling a lot better, although still a little weak and woozy. She took a nap today while Graham and I watched the Huskers beat Kansas St. I spent most of the game staring in awe of how amazingly beautiful he is and how deep his knowledge of the Husker's new "22" Offense already is. The kid is going to show us all something, I believe.

Julia has been amazing through all of this. Strong willed, patient, and determined to making sure that Graham is well taken care of and it really shows. She amazes me and I know that I am incredibly blessed to have such a humble and strong woman as this in my life. The Lord has blessed me with an eternal family of my own and I have felt immensely blessed every moment of these past few days and I know that the Lord is looking out for my family. I love my wife and my new baby boy, Graham! I want to live every day to provide for them both spiritually and temporally. I hope I can help Julia raise this child as successfully as my parents raised me. They did a pretty good job and hopefully that translates into the love I feel for my own family now.