The Grenable Blog

Mother and children are all off safely to bed. Zack has been a darn good baby. Only two feedings last night (mother and son were discharged Friday). Heather is recovering with amazing speed. It’s all I can do to stop her from following me around and cleaning up after me…

Allegra has taken quite well to her new little brother. As those will small children who’ve met Allie can attest, she’s quite aggressive with her affection. And it’s VERY apparent that she REALLY loves her younger sibling. To paraphrase a famous cartoon character, she was to hug him and kiss him and call him George. She is also very concerned when he starts crying.

I’ve tried to help cushion the blow of divided attention from her mother by showering her with affection. It’s working out quite well so far. But she’s also acting more and more “two” as her second birthday approaches. At one point, she slapped Heather’s hand while she was hooked up to the Lactomatic. I instructed her (somewhat harshly) to say she was sorry to her mother. Her response was to throw herself on the ground. This, of course, resulted in laughter from both father and mother.
But all-in-all, she’s been great with this huge change to her family life.

And it’s all made me remember how fortunate I am: I have a wonderful, strong, resilient wife, who has given me two beautiful children. The only thing more I could ask is that she win the lottery so we could buy an enormous house and have ten more kids. (when we watch the “Cheaper by the Dozen” films, we watch them with envy)

Anyway, here are a couple more pictures:

Here’s a rare picture of Zack with his eyes open. This was taken at the hospital on Friday when he was strapped into his car seat, awaiting the trip home.

Here’s Allegra and Zachary. Allie likes to rock the bassinet — albeit a little too vigorously. She is after all a daredevil and wants to make sure her brother is properly acclimated to adrenalin rushes, so they can engage in dangerous stunts when he’s a little older.

And finally, here’s a picture of Heather, Zachary and Allegra. Allegra and I just came home from a quick shopping trip. Allie’s trying to help Zack feed from a bottle, and Heather’s patiently making sure Allie doesn’t shove the bottle down little Zack’s throat.

That’s all for now. I LOVE BEING A DAD!!!!

Witnessing a new life emerge into the world is nothing short of humbling. The enormity of what I was witnessing didn’t even hit me until I heard my boy’s first screams of life. It’s awe-inspiring: here is this new person experiencing the entire world anew. And what’s he thinking? “What is this place, and whose big rubber hands yanked me out of that swimming pool?”

(Just a little bit of vitals: Zachary was born by Cesarean at 9:00am on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007. He weighed in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces. He’s 20 inches long. He’s got dark brown hair — just like his mother — and is very rolley-polley and fat — like his dad)

I was very reluctant to actually watch Zack being born, but the anesthesiologist kept peeking over the curtain, until he turned to me and said, “the head’s coming out soon,  get your camera. Look! Before you miss it.” I didn’t even have a second thought, as his tone said, “how many times do you think you’ll get a chance to see this?”

So I looked, camera in hand, with my digital audio recorder hanging from my neck.

Those first few pictures are not for the faint-of-heart, so I won’t post them here, but to me, they are some of the most beautiful pictures I’ve ever seen. My son being born!

But I will share a few of the photos here, as well as a snippet of audio of the moment Zachary took his first breath and cried. You have to listen carefully, as there’s plenty of noise in the ER: doctors, crying parents, machines that go “ping.” (Every time I listen to that audio, I tear up, as I’m hearing one of the two happiest moments of my life — wish I’d had that recorder when Allegra was born.)

Here’s the file of Zack’s birth.

On to the glam shots:

Here is the very first picture of Zack without a dozen people standing around him. We’re still in the operating room. He has not been weighed or measured yet. And yes, I did cut the cord.

Here is Zack finally bundled up in the recovery room, waiting for mommy to be wheeled in so she can hold him. Apart from doctors and nurses, Heather was the first person to hold him, and he instantly stopped crying when she did.

This is my very favorite picture.  Mother and child: it’s magical.

There’s Zack with Grandma.

And Grandpa.

And here’s Zack finally bundled up and sleeping in our hospital room.

And finally, here’s Allie meeting her little brother for the first time. She used words like, “baby” and “cute” to describe him. When she realizes the “cute baby” is coming home with us (and more importantly, sharing mom and dad’s attention) I imagine she’ll be a little less generous with her descriptives.

That’s it for now.