Please bear with me, I'm still trying to catch up with the events from last week, hopefully one or two more posts, and I'll be back to living in the present.

February 18th, 2004

I woke up this morning to the sound of our nurse coughing in our room; it was unbelievably already 8:30am, meaning that I had spent my first night as a dad raking in at least 5 hours of sleep. I couldn’t believe it. Rhiannon asked if I had heard the baby’s cries from the previous night, I replied that I hadn’t, and how stoked I was about our well behaved boy. Much to my surprise she informed me that Landon had been up for close to an hour wailing away between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. She said I didn’t budge the whole time. I asked her why she didn’t wake me up, and she said she didn’t think she could. I quickly jumped to the surfer’s ear defense. I have a pretty bad case of surfer’s ear, especially in my left ear – surfer’s ear is the growth of calcareous nodules in your ear canal as the body responds to cold air and water from the outside world – conditions one would likely find sitting on a surfboard in mid January, something I’ve done since my adolescence. Anyway, if I sleep on my right ear, with only my left ear exposed, I really don’t hear much at all, I don’t hear our dog Dakota bark, I don’t hear the phone ring, and apparently I don’t hear our baby cry. The fact that the previous day had been such a whopper probably didn’t help much either.

Today was a chance for the family to come and see the baby – and they did, here is a list of when and who visited, just to give an idea of the enormity of it all:

10:00 – 2:00 Aunt Andrea
10:30 – 12:30 Cousin Heather
11:00 – 2:00 Great Grandparents Sharp
11:30 – 2:00 Grandma Sharp
12:30 – 1:30 Jenna Schoen
3:00 – 4:00 Carlene Corpus
6:00 – 8:00 Grandparents Sharp
7:00 – 8:30 Grandmom Buhr
7:30 – 8:00 Great Aunt Mary

And chances are good I’ve forgotten somebody. Don’t get me wrong, it was great to share Landon with everybody, but it was a little overwhelming at times. Rhiannon’s grandparents were especially excited; they have no male grandchildren, and all of their grandkids are girls, so the fact that their first great-grandson was a boy increased their elation ten-fold.

During a break in the action in the afternoon, I crawled into the hospital bed with Rhiannon and Landon, and together we read our son his first story. It was entitled “On the Day You Were Born” by Debra Frasier. Up to this point I had kept most of my emotions in check, but for some reason, this event brought on the water works. I had to stop reading several times to wipe the tears off my face, I was glad to look over and see Rhiannon going through the same thing. I think more than anything it was a momentous wave of reality that hit me, realizing that here I was holding my wife, holding our son. The previous day wasn’t a dream after all.

It rained most of the day today. I showed Landon the raindrops and told him they were good for trout streams. He might have smiled.

Our nurse that evening was Comala. She was an incredibly tall Indian woman, with long salt and pepper hair and a thick accent. I think Rhiannon and I were both a little wary of her at first, but she ended up being a tremendous nurse. Landon had a pretty tough evening, so her support was definitely needed. Between the late afternoon and early evening Landon received his first shot (a Hepatitis B vaccination), PKU tests (where they basically bleed the heck out of his little heel to test for several diseases), and got his unit cut on (circumcision). He is a remarkably resilient baby, after each of these potentially traumatizing experiences he rebounded quickly and was back off to dreamland in a matter of minutes. Through it all Comala was there to explain everything, and to reassure us what a perfect little baby boy we had. She also helped Rhiannon with some nursing tips, answered questions we had about the circumcision and its care, and in general really seemed to take great pleasure in assisting us.

Embarrassed as I am to admit it, we ended the night falling asleep watching the O.C.

February 19th, 2004

This morning Rhiannon received a visit from Dr. Fiorentino, and Landon received a visit from one of the pediatricians in his doctor’s practice. Both patients received clean bills of health. We got our walking papers, and after probably the most eventful 48 hours of our lives, we were discharged from the hospital and free to go home.

I was definitely pumped at the idea of getting back to the comfortable and quiet walls of our home, but I must acknowledge that I did leave the hospital with some trepidation. At St. Joseph’s we had a fully trained staff of medical professionals to assist us, if the baby wasn’t eating – push the magic button, if the baby hiccupped for what seemed like forever – push the magic button, if something that suddenly appeared in the baby’s diapers looked a little strange – push the magic button. I left the hospital feeling pretty sure that we hadn’t gotten around to installing a magic button at home. It made this whole parenting experience take on a far more responsibility laden slant. Rhiannon and I were now completely responsible for our son’s health and well being, it seemed like such an ominous burden.

Once home, we had Rhiannon’s Mom bring back over our dog, we were pretty nervous figuring that Dakota's response to our family’s new addition was a completely unknown variable. Her response was unexpected. Dakota came through the door, tail wagging, briefly she said hello to Rhiannon and I, gave one quick lick to Landon’s face, and then went about her normal routine, eventually crawling under our bed upstairs.

Rhiannon's sister Andrea ordered an eight foot high stork to be delivered to the outside of our house that would announce Landon's arrival. I wasn't exactly sure how gawky or obnoxious it might be, but it turned out to be pretty cool. Not only did it help delivery men find where to take the cookie bouquets and baby presents, but it also served as a sign, a large, impossible to miss sign, that the Buhr's had a new addition to their family.

It felt great to sleep in our room that night, listening to Landon’s little gurgles floating out of the bassinette at the side of the bed.