Katherine Grace

It is our pleasure to introduce to you Katherine Grace. Katie was born today, August 21, at 11:58 a.m. She weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces and measured 19 1/2 inches long. It was a long, hard labor (unfortunately few are blessed with short, easy labors). Wife and I went to the hospital after working almost a full day on Thursday. Wife's doctor told her to come in for some measurements because she was in the early stages of labor. We fully expected to be sent home after the measurements were done; however, her water broke on its own while we were at the hospital. It turns out Wife wasn't in the early stages of labor - she spent the day at work in full-blown labor with contractions coming every three minutes (she had only been counting the "really big ones").

Without a doubt, Wife was the most polite, stoic woman I could imagine going through labor - and I think the doctors and nurses would agree. She never yelled, she never screamed, and she was always polite to the hospital staff. Though her doctor insisted that for health-reasons she take pain medications for about an hour during labor, the remainder, including the last four hours, were completed without pain medication. I contributed to this labor process by offering my hand as a squeeze toy; it was a true joint-effort.