May 18th, 2006 – Our son is born after 9 or 10 hours of induced labor and from now on (at least as far as Jill and I are concerned) there will always be a little combined genetic spin off wandering around on the Earth. I can safely say that nothing really prepares you for what you think or feel when it happens, and I can also say that everything prepares you in some way. It was wonderful and fascinating and really it was just the start of the adventure.

He didn’t even have a name yet before he was taken away and whooshed up to the ICU where he spent the better part of the week recovering from low blood sugar brought on by his forcible entry. Doctor called it “traumatic birth” and we called it “typical.” He had decided to come out facing up, instead of down. You see, facing down is much easier on babies and mommies in delivery terms. But if you’re just starting the life adventure why not start big? Facing upward means you get to see lots more stuff when you first come out, daddy and doctors and such – plus it means mommy gets to push roughly twice as long, the doctors get to bring in forceps and baby gets to come out with a conehead twice the size of a normal head. That, folks, is much better TV.

We named him “Sullivan Carter Brown” on Tuesday the 23rd after we had a chance to get to know him (through brief visits during the NICU visiting hours.)

Now he’s a real person.

I’ll write more on the specifics of his arrival later since most folks are going to be reading this thinking “where in the world are the pictures?” Coming right up …