Word Gets Around

Between family and friends, we've had a lot of visitors over the last 3 weeks. The gifts (for Ben), food (for me), and general support (lots for Caryn) have been amazing and Caryn and I are truly thankful. In addition, I am still surprised to hear about people reading the blog. I'm not surprised when friends say they check up on it. However, hearing someone say their co-workers check it every now and then or that the parents of one of my friends are "religiously addicted" makes my ego swell to new record proportions (props to the Harris family, never met you but Stacey said this would make you laugh). This blog started as a way to show my brother and sister in California the sonogram pics. I think it will be pretty cool to show this to Ben one day. He might get pissed for the pic of his "lead singer" in utero but let's face it, you only have one senior prom.

Local Color

We took Ben out for the first time today. As a true Pennsylvanian, we figured the best way to acclimate him to the local customs was to eat at the Hometown Diner down the street. Hear colorful Pennsylvania Dutch phrases like "Dont'cha know" and "goin fishin down there to the crick there"(sounds like a mix of German and English). Eat new foods like "scrapple". It's not quite a sausage patty, not quite hash browns, but it comes floating in its own grease puddle and includes a coupon for a cholesterol screening. Ben, can you say cardiac infarction?

It was really nice to get out of the house and eat bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Ben slept the entire time. I'm hoping that is a habit, not an exception. Still waiting for that umbilical cord to fall off...which strangely looks very similar to scrapple...

A Lot Can Happen In Two Weeks

When I look at what has happened over the last 2 weeks, I am at a loss for words. For comparison, it once took me 2 weeks to write a computer program that would calculate the day of the week for whatever date you wanted to know and display it in a nice calendar. In sales, I've done a 2 week "blitz" where I get in front of as many doctors as possible and deliver a precise message (sounds dumb, I know, but I get a free car). Hell, I once spent 2 straight weeks drunk during my senior year just for something to do...maybe it was 2 days...or months...was that senior year?...did I even go to college?...my brain hurts...who is Pythagoras?
Getting back to my point, all those accomplishments, regardless of how cool, were quite small compared to what I've seen and learned in just 14 days. Here's a few things
1. Skin is INCREDIBLY elastic.
2. The "5 S's" of a newborn. Sleep, shit, scream, suck, stare. Listed from most often to least, those are the only 5 things a newborn does, literally.
3. Baby farts are WAY funnier than grown-up farts...and more socially acceptable.
4. We all know hot water burn baby. However, warm water still makes them cry.
5. A woman can give birth to a baby, go through the most intense pain of her life, then be scared of a spider the next day.
6. Poop from breast milk may look gross but it doesn't really smell.
7. Babies bounce...
8. Just kidding...they don't bounce at all.
9. Still kidding, Ben has yet to meet the same fate as Edgar the stuffed rabbit (see "just practicing" blog entry)
10. Visit your parents, give them a hug, and thank them for everything.

Young Pythagoras

The sum of the squares of the two sides of a right triangle are equal to the square of the opposite side!

The Stink Eye

We've been calling Ben "One-eye stink eye" since day one. People ask where nicknames come from. Now we know.

For The Future Dads

Ok, Caryn is asleep and Ben is in a serious food coma. I wanted to give a little info to the clueless men out there who may father a child someday. First off, there is nothing disgusting about child birth. It is truly the most amazing event I have ever witnessed. Most of us have seen "The Miracle of Life" video. I agree, it's pretty gross. However, it is a completely different experience when it's your wife and your baby. There are details I will leave out of this very public blog however. Child birth is an incredibly intimate process to be shared by a mother, father, and baby...and the OBGYN, 2 nurses, a 7 member NIC-U team, 3 residents, an anaesthesiologist, a few techs, and a partridge in a pear tree. That's it. Having said that, my advice is to take take in as much as possible during the delivery.

Remember, although they haven't met face to face, your baby momma has known this baby for the last 9 months. There's a strong intimate bond between the two of them that you don't really feel yet. Even with the delivery, future mom goes through all the work, pain, and struggle to bring him into the world. The bond for me started as soon as I could see the top of the head coming out of her "hey now." To watch this kid come out is to experience the last 9 months in fast forward. You don't feel the pain directly but you see it on her face, by the way she squeezes your hand, by the look of "holy shit" on your newborn child's face. Men are visual people. We need to see something to understand the feeling behind it. Sleep at the hospital in that uncomfortable chair, wake up at night to watch your baby feed, do as much as possible. Unfortunately, one of the few jobs you can do is change dirty diapers. (the first diaper Caryn changed was on the day I had to go back to work). The good news is that the poo doesn't really smell...yet. In a strange way, you get excited that your son has just blasted out one of the loudest farts you've ever heard; and I lived in a Frat house for 2 years!

The last thing I want to mention is the sleep deprivation. Hands down, the single piece of advice I was given before Bennet arrived was "get your sleep now." We all know what it feels like to be sleep deprived. Whether it was all nighters in college, 24 hour parties, or a stressful job, you all know what I'm talking about. However, think of how you feel after only 2 hours of sleep. Then do it again the next night. Then, for 8 days straight, never sleep for longer than 2.5 hours at any given time. You lose track of what day it is, forget to eat, start talking to shower curtains. To this day, Caryn still wakes up every 2-3 hours to feed Ben...EVERY NIGHT. Women are amazing creatures. I have a new found respect for Caryn and all women in general after this. Remember, if men had to deliver babies and breast feed, there would be no more babies.

I Screwed Up

Caryn and I had been pretty much set on the name Bennet for a while. However, we NEVER talked about the spelling. When I sent out the first email announcing his arrival, I spelled it Bennett. When it came time to fill out the official paperwork, we both thought Bennet looked better, maybe a little more symmetrical or Feng Shui. Anyway, I wanted to make clear that according to the US Government Social Security Offices, my son's name is Bennet James. I was a little too anxious to tell everyone he was here and it's caused a lot of confusion. Besides, judging by his reaction, I think Bennet prefers "Poop Ferguson" or "One-eye Stink Eye" anyway. Here's a pic.

The Sponge Bath

Bennet has his hand up here as if he's about to say "Dad, stop taking pictures of me naked, enough already." Because Ben still has the umbilical cord and it can't get wet, we can only give him a sponge bath. Usually, the sponge bath is reserved for quadriplegics and dare devils who came up just short of that last school bus. Newborns have this benefit but seem to hate it. These 2 pics are just before and just after the bath. I didn't include a pic of the actual sponge bath because the look on Ben's face says "Call Family Services, save me!"

Buddha Baby

I am on a spiritual plane only attainable by Buddhist Monks... ohmmm ohmmm ohmmm

Natural Mom

Look how fast Caryn moves around little Ben. She's amazing! Ben is feeding better and better. He gets into the cutest food coma afterwards. His eyes kind of cross and although they're open, they're completely glassed over. He coos a little bit as if to say, "mmmmmm."

Introducing Bennet James Bronfenbrenner

Caryn and I would like to introduce you all to Bennet James. He was born at 3:12PM on January 9th. He weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. He's perfect, Caryn and Ben are doing very well, and we're all a little tired. More details later, just wanted to post a few pics to appease the masses. Sleep Ben, it's been a long 72 hours.

We're Not Getting Any Younger

Since getting back to work after New Years, Caryn has been frantically trying to get midterms made and papers in order so she can hand off the duties to her long term substitute teacher. Although trying to wrap everything up at the last minute is keeping Caryn's mind off of delivery, it's also getting us extremely anxious. Yes, procrastination seems to be genetic. The doctors and nurses keep telling us any day now but Fee is determined to stay in there until the last minute. Stubborn little bugger.