Hello, Asim!

Well, Asim is now about 12 days old. He was born at 5:39 on October 5th. According to the census bureau (or someone), Oct. 5th is the day that more Americans are born on. May 22nd is the one with the fewest birthdays. So he's got that going for him, which is pretty interesting. I'm guessing this has something to do with New Year's parties, but it's hard to tell.

Anyway, Maria was in labor for about 19 hours when we decided that a c-section was the way to go. Asim was a big baby, too. About nine and a half pounds. They all said he was big, anyway. I didn't really know what that meant until I saw him in the nursery with the other kids. The way someone at work put it to me -- "yeah, he's two pounds more than the regular kid." Two pounds. That's a lot when you're only nine.

My parents came about two days before Asim was born, so they didn't have to wait too long for his arrival. Since the c-section thing happened, I wasn't answering the phone after about 3 p.m. that day. They called a few times, got concerned and headed on over. By the time they came, Asim was already with us.

A word about the c-section. Many people have asked me if I was in the room when it happened. Yes, of course I was. Did I see them make the cut? No. Did I see them pull him out? Oh yes. And I watched a bit afterward, when they were stitching Maria up. But very, very surprisingly, none of this fazed me. One bit. Granted, I did pound a Diet Coke right before going in, but I wasn't even close to passing out.

The epidural, however, nearly got me. And I didn't see anything. Nothing. Not the needle, not the tube, not the prick, nothing.