Matthew Bryant

He's here! Our little Matthew Bryant arrived on Friday, September 12. 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and 19 inches long (for those of you who require that level of detail). We are mostly grateful that he wasn't born in the car, because it was a pretty close call. Labor started at 6:00 a.m., we left for the hospital at 7:15, arrived at 7:30 or so, and Matt popped out at 7:49. So it was rather amusing, even for me.

While I insisted that we might have to pull over, Rob sped through wooded residential areas, taking sharp corners at 50 mph and running stop signs. My OB met us at the emergency room entrance with a wheelchair. I hopped in, and Rob began to wheel me down the hall. After a minute or so, my OB said, "You could push her a little faster. Actually, why don't you let me push her." And so Rob had to run behind while our doctor sped toward the labor & delivery room.

One of the frantic nurses started the triage process - as I was pushing. After Rob couldn't come up with my social security number, our doctor calmly said, "You know, let's do that part later. Right now we're going to deliver this baby." I think I actually laughed.

Now, Rob tends to panic a little bit about the whole labor process. At his request, I made him a labor & delivery binder: phone numbers, the plan for getting someone over to the house quickly to care for Ellie, where to go when we arrived at the hospital, and all the information triage would need (including my social security number, a copy of our insurance card, and our birth plan). The rest of the binder was full of prompts that Rob was supposed to give me at certain stages of labor. You know - relaxation affirmations and the like.

He left the binder in the car. With the lights on, unlocked, wallet and phone visible, blocking the emergency room entrance.

Rob wishes me to tell you that if I hadn't told him to make cookies for the nurses, delaying our departure by 15 minutes, we would have made it to the hospital in plenty of time. He also left the cookies in the car.

In any event, he's here and he's wonderful!