Monthly Archives: August 2009

Just uploaded a bunch of pictures to our Flickr page. I think the best of the bunch is the one above, taken with Bumblebee and the blanket that my boss made for her. Thanks Vicki, you’re the best!

Also, Bumblebee’s mommy is beautiful.

So, the most momentous occasion of Bumblebee’s first week on earth, besides the whole getting-pushed-out-of-her-mother’s-womb thing, was her mention in an article on CNN.com yesterday.

Twitter’s CEO’s wife had a baby yesterday, and she tweeted during her labor, which became a kind of media event. Completely overblown, in my opinion, because if you read her feed, it’s not graphic or detailed by any stretch. She posts five tweets and then is silent, until she tweets a few hours later that her husband is changing his first diaper.

Anyway, the reporter used us as another example of the phenomenon of tweeting during labor. We didn’t really tweet that much–a code tweet that the labor had started, an announcement when the baby was here, and some back and forth with individual tweeters in between.

The commenters on CNN and on other blogs are appalled that we would be using our phones during labor. But, um, we were in the hospital for 11 hours before push time came, and most of that time was spent just sitting there waiting. Corinne had an epidural, so she wasn’t suffering while I was typing away on my phone; she was on her BlackBerry texting with friends! Chatting with people outside the hospital was like having our closest friends and family in the room with us.

That said, we weren’t brave enough to do it, but someone SHOULD tweet the whole labor process. We read books about the process, but nothing would’ve been more helpful than a blow-by-blow of what really goes down.

Ada Elizabeth Monson was born at 6:37 pm yesterday, weighing 7 pounds, 2 ounces. That’s the crucial info, but for those few who want to know more details and see more pictures, keep reading!

The first quality we noticed in our little BumbleBee is her incredible sense of punctuality. Corinne’s water broke 2 minutes after midnight on her due date!

There weren’t strong contractions yet, though, so we called our doctor, who told us to come in at 6am, with or without contractions. Unfortunately, the contractions weren’t strong enough to be worth going to the hospital yet, but they were just strong enough to keep Corinne from sleeping, so we were awake that night watching The Daily Show, reading baby books, and hanging around.

We went in at 6 that morning fully expecting to be sent back home, because the contractions still weren’t very strong. To our horror, instead of being sent home to wait in comfort for a few hours, we were admitted. Blurg.

We walked around the hospital halls until around noon. The contractions still weren’t much to speak of, but Corinne’s water had broken 12 hours earlier, so the hospital staff decided to get this baby moving. Corinne was given an epidural (a fairly painless process), and then picotin to induce bigger contractions.

More waiting around, until at 5pm the doctors decided it was time to start pushing. I won’t deign to describe what Corinne went through, because I was just the guy holding her leg, but from where I stood, she looked like a Birthing Ninja, calmly going about her duties like a pro.

She was running a fever though, so after an hour and a half of pushing, Doc took this little vacuum device, stuck it on BumbleBee’s head, and tugged that little baby right out.

Corinne’s first words upon seeing her child for the first time: “Whoa, she has weird feet!”

And it’s true, she does. Her feet are an evolutionary wonder, with toes that are designed to grasp branches and swing from trees. Coupled with her large brain, she will be able to utilize those toes to make and use tools.

But enough about her toes. She was born with a full head of black hair (like Corinne was), a smushed up, asymmetrical nose that is still popping out into shape, and dark blue eyes, the color of which we’re sure is temporary.

She didn’t cry much at all yesterday, and didn’t go to sleep for a long time either. Just looked around the room and calmly took it all in. Our room is pretty cool, with a view of Times Square in the distance and the Hudson River

We hung out until 11:30pm, when I got kicked out to go home. After 40 hours without any real sleep, I had the luxury of going home to crash while Corinne had to do feedings through the night. Even now, on Thursday night, she hasn’t had more than a couple hours of sleep since waking up on Tuesday morning, but hopefully she’s getting some REM cycles right now at the hospital.

Again, I don’t want to speak for Corinne regarding an event I had next to no involvement in, but we both think she was extremely fortunate with the whole labor process. By the time the contractions were really strong, the point at which most women are screaming at their husbands and racing to the hospital, Corinne was already on her epidural, at her doctor’s insistence. The only real physical hardship during labor was the fatigue of having been awake for so long going into it. Heck, she was typing away on her BlackBerry up until the time the doctors told her to start pushing.

And on that note, thanks so much for the e-mails, the calls, the texts, the tweets, and the Facebook wall posts. The doctors probably think we’re DBs because we’re so glued to our BlackBerry and iPhone, but it’s only because we’re enjoying reading all your messages. Keep sending them to Corinne–there’s no epidural for the recovery, but a baby to cuddle with and text messages from friends and family are the next best things!