41 5/7

41 weeks and 5 days later sperm and egg make Oscar Thomas Engel. For those all important stats: 7 lbs 5 oz, 20 inches long, born 10:08 PM Wednesday Feb 13, about 22 hours of labor.

Thankfully we avoided a Valentine's Day baby. And our baby shares a birthday with friend Erik Beck. Someday they will party together - of course Erik has a couple decades on Oscar. No excuse for not remembering Erik!

Name: Last name that is the dad's. Middle name is Hannah's brother Tom. First name is Mike's maternal grandfather. He unfortunately passed away long ago. But Grandma, his wife Lena, is thrilled with the name choice.

Pictures: If I want to stay married I can't share most of them. Too much TA. A big thank you to birth assistant Susan who grabbed the camera and started taking pictures while we were otherwise occupied.
Birth was at the Madison Birth Center with the help of two birth assistants and a midwife. We are very happy with this choice. Despite the fact that the average gestation for first time mom's is 41 weeks and 1 day, had we used more traditional medical practices Hannah would have been induced into labor much earlier which has many complications. She probably also would have likely had a c-section or used an epidural in the hospital. The old natural way she fought through 22 hours of labor. In fact her strength was an issue. She tended to fight the contractions. She learned to let go and let them flow through her thus opening the birth canal. She had tremendous searing pain in her hips and thighs. Just where all those running muscles exist.

She reports early labor, the contractions, was much harder than expected. The actual pushing out of the baby is what she expected. All those muscles came in handy for the pushing. I am grateful for friends and the videos that prepared me for the whole thing. It is about what I expected. The midwifes said I was unusually calm. Part of that is the biologist in me wanting to learn. Not to mention keeping pretty busy in a support role. I felt like a real wimp this morning when Hannah was foraging for food while I was exhausted in bed. Those hormones are powerful things.

We returned home at about 5 PM today after some relaxation and baby & mother health checking. Oscar and Hannah received coaching on breast feeding. Tomorrow and Sunday we get follow up home visits. In the meantime we monitor baby vitals: blood pressure, breathing, poops, peas, and feedings. So far so good, we have much to learn especially with diaper changing. After about 3,000, I'm sure we will be experts.

And now for what you really want the pictures -