I'm a bad man, I know…

…but I couldn't resist. Whilst holding Elina tonight during visiting hours (well, during the visiting half-hour!), I noticed she was getting hungry––the darting tongue, the roving head, the semi-yawn––and leaned my nose in. Bing! She took to it so well I thought milk might start coming out of my nose. Betty scolded me––it's true, I didn't sterilize my nose––but I broke the suction and gave Elina another shot. Bing!

The nurse told Betty Elina's eyeballs have a little residual yellowness in them, but she was wide awake when we got there tonight and seemed very chipper. I noticed she even had little tears in her eyes after sneezing, so I think she's much better hydrated now. I know Betty's getting very confident about her capacity to breastfeed Elina and she's got over some glandular occlusion Thursday night. We're hoping Elina's blood test will show nothing serious, and that she can go to Sanxia tomorrow at lunch or after.

Lo! A child is born unto us!

Elina "Little Greek Dragon" Bougis 帛昀臻 was born at 0944 on 13 March 2012, a ropey 57cm and weighing in at 3420g! Hallelujah!

Updates from the hospital...

After a second hit of the lidocaine, Betty is feeling golden. Her lower right side is basically numb, but the left side still has more feeling. Apparently her contractions have become nicely periodic and steady, so the doc says there's no need to induce. So, we're looking at a March 13th birth, and I'd very much like to claim St. Matilda of Nordhausen as Elina's patron saint. Matilda is a very interesting saint, and what's more, she's German! As a German major who became a Catholic, I'm tickled to imagine my daughter learning not only the Faith, but also die prächtige deutsche Sprache!

LINK: http://www.google.com.tw/search?hl=en&gl=tw&client=ms-android-htc&source=android-browser-goto&q=matilda+catholic+saint&sky=mrdr

Updates from the hospital...

We arrived around 2pm and got a standby room right away. After about an hour we learned that Betty was dilated to 3cm. About fifteen minutes ago she got the epidural and 1cc of lidocaine, feeling pleasant. I'm very opposed to a hasty induction so we're just seeing how things go. As it stands, things are going much faster than I had anticipated. Hail Mary, full of grace. ...

Florida boy, bookish jock, majored in German & philosophy, went to Taiwan & went Catholic, now happily married father of one, aspiring professor-author.