Fatherhood’s First Stress, Part 2

On a pleasant autumn night similar to the night of our daughter’s birth, when we drove past the hospital and I started to reminisce fondly about that daughter’s planned delivery, my wife objected.  Not only was induction significantly more painful than spontaneous labor, but also she had always wanted to start labor naturally and to experience…  well, whatever

Fatherhood’s First Stress, Part 1

To effect my daughter’s birth, my wife had to be induced into labor.  The doctors used a medicine which made the birthing process even more excruciating than normal.  I know this, so I should probably also know to be careful about admitting that I prefer induction to the alternative.  If you suspect that I was actually careful though, you haven’t been reading enough of my posts.

The story starts years ago on the afternoon of my wife’s due date, a fine fall Monday which

Father Thoughts

I figure that forgetting early infancy is probably essential to human sanity. I don’t think anyone could grow up to be content and happy if he or she remembered how rocky the start was.

First you get evicted from your comfortable home and extruded into a world where people

The Day I Discovered Panic (Part 2)

My three-day old daughter and I had embarked on an adventure together into the wild jungle of pediatrics.  We faced the pressure of fashion, the conundrum of car seats, and the perils of traffic.   (They were far too perilous.)  I was already exhausted, and the bulk of the pediatrics lay ahead.

I’ll pick up the story right after the glorious episode of the medical forms.  My daughter had