Ok, so this post is just a little bit late in coming. But hey, better late than never. For those that have been following my blog, you will know that my most wonderful wife, Maggie, was due in early May to deliver our first child. Well, as she so aptly posted on her blog, that got moved up to late April. So there we were, bright and early on the morning of Saturday April 29th. Maggie was induced with some Pitocin and the journey began

She contracted for the majority of the day, but by 6 PM, she really hadn’t progressed at all. So the Dr decided that we would stay the night and we’d start again at 4 AM. So we hunkered down for the night and bright and early at 3:30 AM, Maggie went back at it again. This time, her Dr broke her water, and that started the most painful contractions to this point. Before long, it was mid morning and Maggie was really starting to feel it, but yet, wasn’t making much progress. She got an epidural, and was passed out for most of the afternoon.

5:30 PM came, and she had only dialated 5 cm. The Dr decided it was time to go to plan B, also known as C-Section. They wheeled Maggie away while I got into surgical scrubs. Finally, they came to get me to come to the operating room. I sat up by Maggie’s head while the performed the C-Section. Just before the baby was born, the Dr asked if I had a camera and if so, I better be ready to take some pictures.

At 6:11 PM on April 30th, Brenden Patrick Burleson was born, weighing in at 8 lbs 9 oz with a length of 20 inches. He was very loud coming into the world, pretty much not enjoying being yanked from the comfy confines of Maggie’s womb. But they got him all cleaned up and brought him over to us while the Dr’s patched Maggie back up. He was so beautiful. The most amazing thing I had ever seen.

After that a nurse took me and Brenden to the nursery while Maggie went to recovery. While in the nursery, the nurse took the time to point out that Brenden was born without his right hand. We’ve had him looked at by a geneticist and she’s assured us it’s a defect isolated to the hand and that Brenden appears to be very healthy otherwise. His condition is called “Terminal Traverse Acromelia of the Upper Right Extermity”. (Say that a few times really fast) We’ve had tremendous support from friends and family who know other parents of children with a similar diability and we have tons of great information about what his options might be in the future. Thank you all who’ve given us your info. We know Brenden will overcome any challenge put in front of him. I was very lucky that my employer gives 3 weeks paternity leave, and I took full advantage. We’ve been home just over 4 weeks now and it seems like a blur and like a long time at the same time. Brenden is growing like crazy (he’s now 9 lbs 14 oz and 22.5 inches) and bringing us new surprises every day as he becomes more and more aware of his environment. We’ve been very lucky that he likes to sleep, and at night will generally go at least 4 hours between feedings, letting us get that extra hour or so of rest than the usualy 3 hour regiment during the day.

Some people have been begging for some pictures, so here you go:

Our neighbors were very sweet and decorated our door for when we got home:

This is Brenden in what we call “Burrito Mode”, or our “Little Burrito”:

Again, it does seem he sleeps a lot:

We really like this sleep position, we call it “Touchdown Baby”:

Our dogs are still trying to figure out this whole baby thing, this is Sam checking Brenden out:

And finally, to show that yes, he does eventually wake up, this is Brenden playing on his Einstein mat: