A child is born

Hi all,

I interupt this blog to introduce you to David Victor Gammichia.
He was born Saturday morning at 4:50am. 7lbs 12oz, 21 inches. Brown eyes, brown hair on his head and his back.
He is the cutest little thing. And you know what is great is he has really got that crying thing down pat.
Okay here is how it happened. Friday afternoon I was coming home from work and Hilda says she started to bleed. I decided not to run my errands and started home.
She calls me 2 minutes later saying, "Not to worry the Dr. said to just get off your feet".
So I went to the bank and I off to the running store and I got a call.
"My water just broke."
Back to the car and hauled-butt home.
I get home and my wife is hunched over the sink in the kitchen....DOING THE DISHES.
I said, "What are you doing?"
She said, "These dishes are driving me crazy."
I start into her, "Did you get your bag?"....NO.
"Did you get someone to watch the kids?"....NO.
"Did you...? NO. Did you...? NO"
You are going to have this baby in the back of my truck and you are not going to have any clothes to wear but at least the dishes will be clean.

So off we went to the hospital. 5 o'clock traffic and I am freaking out.
We get to the hospital and the only way to park at this hospital is to valet. It is $5. Between my wife and I we had $0.
So we drive up and there and the guy looks at me and I tell him I don't have any money. He tells me that there is an ATM inside. I went to the ATM while my wife is having a baby in the parking lot but they needed their $5.
The ATM was temporary out of service.
I said you guys are either going to have to leave it here or park it but I am not going to deal with this now.
We went in the hospital and were triaged. My wife said to the admission person, "I have had the flu all week."
You would have thought she said, "I have a bomb."
Because as you might know the swine flu is affecting pregnant woman and in Orlando two woman have died in their later stages of pregnancy. And we were at Winnie Palmer hospital which is a hospital for woman and children.
So for the next three days in the hospital it was like constant HAZMAT.
That was Friday night and David was born on Saturday morning at 4:50am.
When he was born it was everything I could do not to flat out bawl. I was so close to losing it about 50 times this weekend.
You go 9 months worried that everything is going to be alright and when it finally is alright...you just are too spent to celebrate so you cry.

It was a long night.

At about 2am she was tested for the swine flu and it came back negative but my son was diagnosed with the swine flu on Friday morning. So since she was in contact with Noah she couldn't hold the baby. She couldn't be next to the baby. See there is no medicine for babies with swine flu.
But the weird thing was I was able to do and go where ever I wanted. I could got into the nursery and hold the baby, I could feed the baby. I could go into Hilda's room and hang out with Hilda.
Hilda couldn't even leave the room.
So they sent her tests off for tests and the next day it came back positive for swine flu.
So for her to be able to touch David she had to be on the meds for 48 hours. Luckily she had started the meds before we went to the hospital (she was feeling so crappy she had just went to the doctor that afternoon). So Sunday all the stars were aligned and the staff let little David come into the room for the mother/son reunion.
Well, I don't think he has stopped crying since.
I don't care how many kids you have and I don't care how "with it" you think you are. You never get use to that cry.
When you hear that cry your blood pressure goes up.
So you go through the checklist.
Diaper change...check.
Has he slept....check.
Did you feed him...check
Then if you go through all that and he is still crying you are soooo up a creek.
So you try the swing. Now it has been almost 6 years since we have had a swing and let me tell you these swings really swing. You crank that baby up to 9 out of 10 and he is swinging so hard he can't cry.
Now if he still cries, refer to handout that says.....DON'T SHAKE YOUR BABY.

So it is so surreal at my house. I am trying to just not screw-up. I know, I know I have had 9 months to prepare.
You are doing homework with the older kids and you hear this blood curling cry. We are eating dinner and the baby cries.
I think about how great three kids were and I think when all the hard stuff is over (man those first three weeks are hard) it is going to be great. I am so excited about his first smile, when he sits up, his first real belly laugh, his crawling, when he first says, “Daddy”, when he crawls, his first swimming lesson. When he tells me he loves me for the first time.
It is great having kids…I don’t care what they are going to be like in high school, it is great right now and that is all I care about.