“Freedom has a scent like the top of a newborn baby’s head”

  • BoyGeeding actually arrived on his due date at 4:16 PM weighing  8.29 lbs. and 20.5 inches in length.
  • We arrived at the hospital around noon, in case you were wondering.  Actually I was half way through eating my lunch until we had to leave.  WifeGeeding wouldn’t allow me to finish it.  Oh, and she was at a six when we arrived.
  • I had a goal that I wanted lose a certain amount of weight before the delivery, and last week I hit a plateau so I thought I wasn’t going to make it.  However, yesterday morning I reached that goal by half a pound.  It was like my son was waiting for me.
  • I said “my son.”  I have a son. 🙂  That feels so surreal typing, and I only wish you could see the smile on my face as I typed that.  Heck, I was grinning ear-to-ear when I drove home last night.
  • I’m so looking forward to the day when I can throw the football with him.  The last thing I want to be is a pushy sports parent, but I just want to spend time with him playing catch.  I’ve been this way every since I lost my dad and watched this scene after his death.
  • With both kids, I recreated this scene from the movie Roots.
  • The first words spoken to both my kids were “Grace be with you ____.”  I love the word “grace”.
  • I’ll say it because I’m the father and feel like I can be honest, but this boy wasn’t as cute as when his sister was born, but he is just as lovable.  He also isn’t as dark or hairy, but I think his eyes are more Asian than his sister’s, but then again, I think her eyes started to round out the older she got.  They both are the best quarter-Asian children I know.
  • I was amazed that even though we were at the same hospital that delivered GirlGeeding, how much different the procedures were.  I guess each birth and each crew is different.
  • Going into this delivery WifeGeeding wasn’t going to get an epidural.  She changed her mind rather quickly once we got into the hospital.
  • WifeGeeding basically only pushed twice.  She gave a “practice push” as directed by the nurses, and the baby popped so far out they basically pushed him back in until the doctor arrived, which seemed like forever.  I’m thinking the doctor actually had to be there for some kind of liability issue.
  • Once again WifeGeeding’s OB was out of town.
  • The doctor didn’t even offer me the chance to cut the umbilical cord.  I didn’t get the chance to cut GirlGeeding’s because they needed to whisk her away and perform some tests, so I thought I’d get a chance this go around.  I’m just happy all parties were healthy after the event.
  • Some folks were surprised that I was rather upbeat and calm.  I guess I just take into account that humans have been doing this for a while and we are in a sterile modern facility, something I don’t think my family in Vietnam has.
  • I was having fun tweeting during this delivery, and one reply really stuck out when I learned this follower has been a BoN reader for six years.  Man, I had no idea I’ve been blogging for so long.
  • As with GirlGeeding, I had a list of U2 songs playing randomly.  BoyGeeding arrived to the Slane Castle performance of Staring at the Son.  The best line in that song is “Stuck together with God’s glue.”
  • One part of child birth I’ve always looked forward to was when and where WifeGeeding’s water would break.  Each time, at the hospital.
  • We’re thankful that WifeGeeding’s mother is visiting and helping watch over our daughter.  It’s nice watching WifeGeeding’s face seeing her mother play with this newborn.  I’ll be lying if I didn’t say I was a bit jealous.
  • Technology is great, I got to Skype with my sister right after the birth.
  • WifeGeeding actually got a steak for her hospital dinner.
  • It was a real special moment watching GirlGeeding see her brother for the first time.  She tried to give him a kiss, and then tried to give him her favorite stuffed toy.  I think I have those pictures below.
  • With WifeGeeding’s permission, she allowed me to record a time-lapse of the birth from an appropriate point of view.  Everything was going splendid until the doctor rushed in and knocked over the camera, so we missed the actual birth part, but right after the birth, I was able to straighten the camera.
  • OK, I’m dog tired and this may not be the best recap of yesterday’s events, but I wanted to give you something.  I’m looking forward to having everyone at home this Saturday, and who knows what you’ll get in terms of blogging next week.

 

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Giant coffins burning issue for German crematoriums

Crematoriums in Germany are struggling to adapt to an increasingly obese population and a boom in extra-large coffins that has led at least one to widen its oven doors.

The Schweinfurt crematorium in Bavaria had to widen the doors by 30 cm to handle larger bodies, which burn longer and hotter and now arrive around once a week, its manager said.

“We burn particularly large coffins Monday mornings when the ovens are cold,” Helmuth Schlereth said by telephone from the southern region. “There is more body fat that spreads out and has to be burned.”

Other crematoriums in the country also report an increase in the number of XXL-coffins, as Germany grapples with the growing obesity affecting many developed and emerging economies.

The trend has been fuelled in part by a high-fat national cuisine known for its sausages, pork and beer, as well as a decrease in exercise among the population, which over the years has translated into bigger corpses.

“The problem is that the deceased are getting heavier, and so the burning takes longer,” said Silke Meboldt at the Albstadt-Ebingen crematorium in the neighboring state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. It’s becoming a bigger problem.”

MSNBC.com

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Painting: The Forgotten Man

From the McNaughton Fine Art Company:

All the Presidents of the past gather around a man sitting on a park bench.  That man, with his head bowed appears distraught and hopeless as he contemplates his future.  Some of the past Presidents try to console him and look in the direction of the modern Presidents as they exclaim, “What have you done?”  Many of these modern Presidents behind Barack Obama seem to congratulate each other on their great success oblivious to the man on the bench.  In front of the man, paper trash is blowing in the dust.  Crumpled dollar bills, Amendments of the Bill of Rights and like a whisper – the U.S. Constitution beneath the foot of Barack Obama.

And he addresses the criticism.

I found it interesting that FDR was standing and clapping, not supported by crutches or in a wheel-chair.

Posted in Political, Spiritual | 6 Comments