hannah and caroline and me
(part one)


whew!!! what a week! the fall softball season started with a whimper. the braves began what looks to be their slide out of playoff contention even though they rid themselves of the cancer that was bob wickman. i had my physical person threatened by an about-to-be ex-employee of pet supplies "plus" and, let's see, what else...oh, yeah...we had a baby!!!

that's right, folks! caroline lilla o'kelley (20 and 1/2 inches long, 7 lb. 9 oz.) joined this world on august 23rd at 10:26 p.m. thursday was pretty much going according to normal (outside of the physical threatening part) up until sarah got home from tuscaloosa suffering from "back" pains. turns out those back pains were, in fact, labor pains. hannah and i ate a quick dinner, took a quicker bath and we were off. we made it to the hospital around 800. sarah got her drugs and things calmed down around 915. the nurse checked sarah around 945 and things ramped up again when the nurse looked at me and said, "we are going to have a baby in a few minutes." i jumped into action as the dad, which entailed not much more than rubbing sarah's forehead and pulling her left leg back when instructed by the nurse. the whole birthing process went really fast as sarah pushed for all of 15 minutes and caroline was here. as kiker so eloquently put it, "with the second one, the tracks are already greased." ahhh, kiker. it was fun that it happened fast enough that hannah was still hanging around with maine in the waiting room. she and grandmother got to come in and meet the new addition before they went home for the evening. shortly after the initial meet and greet, the weekend took a turn for the somewhat unexpected.

as hannah tried to fight off sleep on the car ride home, she threw up. then, when she woke up friday morning, she threw up again. we are no doctors, but this told us something must be wrong. so, i went home and cleaned up, picked up puny hannah and we came back to the hospital. after some short notice help from amy, i took hannah to the doctor along with a poop sample (yes, you read that right. amy and i fished hannah poop out of the toilet to take it to the doctor for them to test and make sure that she didn't have a disease that i only heard of two weeks ago and still have no idea what is. thankfully, we found out this morning she doesn't have the "shigella". she just had a stomach virus...edit - as of monday afternoon, hannah is now POSITIVE for shigella and out of school for a week. amy, i am going to need you back here around wed. for another stool sample gathering. :(), we came back to the hospital, finished the day one visits and came home for the night. sarah and caroline stayed at the hospital alone, which kind of made a daddy sad, but things are going to be different the second time around. it's only taken two days for that to become very apparent.

day two and this morning were very smooth and calm. hannah turned the corner and became herself again. sarah began breast feeding and already feels better about this go-around as compared to her and hannah's experience. several people have commented that caroline favors me, which i don't really know if that's the case of if they are just trying to make me feel better. hannah still looks so much like her mommy that i am now certain that all of my dna got beat up by sarah's mean, bully dna. caroline, on the other hand, came out with product on her big, head full of hair self which led to several "you and caroline have the same haircut" type jokes. no matter. i'll take what i can get.

and so, the adventure has begun. caroline has been, thus far, very respectful of my priorities. her timing will not interfere with the fantasy draft tomorrow night or week two of softball. what a good girl she is. hannah and i are going to be spending a lot of time together the next few weeks, what with mommy's driving restrictions and the whole thing about her being the baby's only source of nutrition. this should work out fine for me. i'll let you know when hannah starts getting sick of the daddy/daughter time. as for sarah and me, i have no idea when we will ever see each other or talk again. there seems to be so much to do and take care of. sure, we are in the same room, but so are (now) two other girls that very much need attention. this is going to take some getting used to. i can feel it. but it's just another challenge. a mental one for sure. but a physical one too, and those were always my preferred choice anyway. i think we'll be fine.

so, here we are. o'kelley, party of four, reporting for duty. let's light this candle!!!