Up at 12:30am with a cranky baby, sitting on the couch trying to rock him to sleep, I realize the remote control is within reach. I flip on the TV and immediately stab the mute button, not wanting the results of my hours of rocking and soothing torn asunder by three seconds of Beijing Opera. Knowing that Chinese TV — even with sound — isn’t the most entertaining, I decide to head for an old standby that, through years of insomnia, has never let me down — sports.

Flipping to CCTV-5, or CCTV Olympics as it’s called now, I’m treated to a rousing match of…

Go.

Goddamn it.

June 24, 2008

In no particular order:

  • 2.5 hours of sleep is starting to feel like it’s enough
  • I now know exactly how far to put the bottle’s nipple into Will’s mouth to facilitate optimum feeding
  • The terror of picking him up has subsided
  • My hands constantly smell like wet wipes
  • I know the difference between “something’s wrong and I’m uncomfortable” crying and “come here and pick me up you heartless bastard” crying

This being a dad thing is going to work out just fine.

June 21, 2008

At just a little after 6am this morning (after just three hours of labor!) my wife gave birth to our first child, William Jeffrey Biesnecker (???), a 2.95kg (6.5lb) baby boy. While we weren’t expecting him to pop out quite so soon (the due date was July 13), both baby and mommy are doing fine. The nurses say he’s an eater — he goes through those 20ml milk meals like they were appetizers for the main course — and he’s barely cried even once (though we’ll see how he does tonight).

The delivery went smoothly, and my wife is expecting to stay in the hospital until Monday or maybe Tuesday. Her parents are staying with her during the day, and I’m going to be there at night.

The photo is of Will taken about 3 hours after delivery — he takes after his mom which, I think we can all agree, is a good thing given the options :) Thanks to everyone for their e-mailed, twittered, SMSed, and Facebooked well-wishes!