fine whine

Yesterday morning, in the wee hours*, a baby was born. Actually, I can vouch for a more than a couple babies being born yesterday morning and the night before because I could hear them crying somewhere down the hall from me - I spent the night in a Labor and Delivery room at the hospital.

Which would seem an odd choice to spend a night, except for the fact that I was there to coach my wife through having our baby daughter, Natalya Anne.

"Coach" seeming to be an odd term, since I really had no idea what it was she was supposed to be doing, and moreover physically how she could do it.But back to the room. It was a pretty nice room, though some of the chairs might have been a little more comfortable. Jessica had a nice bed, but I was stuck fending for myself in what I could piece together from what I could scrounge together.

Surprisingly we both got some rest (apparently I was actually snoring at one point) after Jessica received a much-needed epidural, though to her credit she toughed her way through a considerable amount of pain (or at least made noises like she was, and squeezed my hand rather convincingly) before having it administered.

These are the sort of battle stories mothers trade. For my part the guys compare stories of shouting and squeezing and little else.

But that's for later on. For now I'm spending some time quality time with my family, in a smaller room with considerably less (comfortable) seating. I think we're going to be here for a couple days, and nights in which other people will be more than willing to take care of our (presumably) crying baby for us. This, I have heard, is a good thing.

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* 3:48 AM to be precise, and furthermore she weighed 7 pounds, 1.5 ounces and measured 20 inches long. Why do these numbers matter so much? And not any others, like width, or volume?