The tale of Spencer Lee Atkinson

Wow.
As pretty much everyone who would read this blog already knows, Wifey and I became parents today.  Unfortunately, it was not NEARLY as easy as reading that sentence to bring our little man, Spencer Lee Atkinson, into the world.
So to start with some background information, Wifey took a pregnancy test at random sometime in May.  She must have taken it literally the day after she got pregnant, because it came back positive, but the hormone levels were so low that the doctors wouldn't confirm she was pregnant for another four or five days after the at-home test.  I remember sitting on the bed when Steffi comes tearing ass out of the bathroom and she looks at me and almost shouts "Brian!"  Of course, my first thought, and response to this outburst was "What did I do now?"  Well, apparently I did something, because she almost screams "I'm pregnant!" 
This was met with a huge amount of excitement, but also a great deal of sadness.  Both of our mothers had passed away in the previous five months, and it was really sad to know that they would never know the joy that we felt, and that our prospective child would never know the love that they would have received.  It makes me tear up now.  Say something.
So with Steffi being the earliest pregnant person in the history of obstetrics, we had our "initial" visit almost two months (I think) before when we ordinarily would have had it.  The doctors looked at us kinda funny, but at least we had an early medical support system, and we had a plan.  Steffi loves plans.  She even thinks that "planful" is a word.  It's not.  You know how I know?  Number one, because I'm smart, and number two, because it has the red squiggly line underneath it when I type it.
So the months pass, and we find out that we're having our little man.  The excitement for the ultrasound was something that can only be experienced, not really described.  You may feel the little person inside of your significant other, or you may know that your SO is pregnant and be as excited as you could possibly be, but it reaches a new level when you can finally put a name to that being that is inside her.  That's when it really feels real.
More months pass, and Steffi gets bigger, and Spencer starts to play soccer with her internal organs.  Then it gets borderline creepy when I can see his little fist move across her belly like something out of Alien, and we all know how much I LOVE aliens.
She starts to have Braxton-Hicks contractions sometime in late November or early December, and we think he could come early.  Then he doesn't.  Then the doctor thinks that he may be big, and that he may come late.
Then he doesn't.  Steffi's water broke at 0500 (almost on the dot) Saturday morning, 28 January.  She beats on me, waking me up from a dead sleep, telling me her water broke.  Forgetting that my toe is still not 100%, I jump out of bed like my ship is under attack.  I have absolutely no idea where I'm going or what I'm doing, but I'm up and I'm going to do it where it needs to be done.  She goes into the bathroom, and I call the doctor.  Being that Steffi was Strep B positive, as soon as her water broke we were instructed to go into the hospital, so she could be on antibiotics to protect Spencer when he finally decided to come out.  The doctor said we could shower, make sure everything was packed, and eat a light breakfast, but not to take too long in coming in.  So being the Bostonians we supposedly are, we stop at Dunkin' Donuts on the way to the hospital.  She gets a cereal of some type, and I get a bagel and a large iced coffee.  Could I BE any more of a Masshole?  Yep, brought out the Chandler voice from Friends.  Say something.
We get to the BI in Boston, get parked, and head on up to the 10th floor.  We go into triage pretty fast, even though we knew we would be staying, and Steffi got her first exams.  No dilation, and a well-meaning young resident couldn't reach Steffi's cervix, so she wasn't our favorite person in the world.  We ended up going back to our room fairly shortly after that, and prepared to get settled in for labor and the arrival of our baby boy.
Steffi's friend Karina was designated as our second support person, as the BI only lets you have two people up in L&D with you at a time, and you can't tag people in and out.  Not sure why this is, but whatever.  Karina was a great distraction when necessary, a wonderful support to Steffi and me, and the best call screener/returner we could have hoped for. 
The day progressed into night, Steffi got her epidural, and dilated to only 7 cm by 2200.  We figured that from 5 cm to 10 cm it would be quick.  Well we figured that wrong.  Thank you to Marvin (her dad), Ellen (for flying back from Palm Springs a day early), and Judy for coming and waiting, even though it was all the way down in the lobby.  Karina was our messenger, and we all tried to get some sleep before Spencer could get here.
The next exam that I remember (because it's been an EXTREMELY long day) was at 0500, where Steffi was 8 cm.  The doctors gave her some Pitocin to try to speed up the contractions, but it made Spencer's heart rate tank, so they cut it off.  She was still making progress though, and the doctors were giving us that indication, so we figured we were doing all right.  Yeah, wrong again.  The doctor, who was just about as nice as she could be, predicted that Steffi would be fully dilated by 8 or so, and ready to push.  When she did turnover, the doctor who came on suggested Pitocin again.  Ummm, no.  Daddy was NOT letting that one happen.  So the new doctor said that we'd do another exam at 0900, and come up with a plan from there.
So the 0900 exam came, and Steffi still wasn't 10 cm.  Also, a new problem came up:  Spencer's head was turned, which meant that he couldn't fit down into the place where babies come out, no matter how much pushing would have happened.  This meant that the only real solution was a Caesarian section.  Ironically enough, Steffi wanted an elective C-section in the beginning of the pregnancy, but her doctor wouldn't do it. 
So Marvin and Ellen came up, breaking the rules of the BI, and said good luck.  I put on booties, a set of coveralls, a mask, and a hair cover, and got ready for when they brought me back for the actual delivery.  I said a prayer (which I haven't done in forever, and I really need to get back to doing), grabbed my camera, and went back when they came for me.
I conspicuously avoided looking for anything I didn't want to see when I walked in, and went to Steffi's head where she was there with the anesthesiologist (spelled that right the first time!) and did my best to coach her through what was going on, even though everything was hidden by the curtain, thank God.
It's funny what you pick up on when you have to help someone else focus.  I remember hearing the Led Zeppelin song "What Is And What Should Never Be", and then hearing Bon Jovi's "Living On A Prayer".  I tried to get Steffi to focus on that song, being that she absolutely loves Bon Jovi and that we go some sort of rock lullaby CD of Bon Jovi songs.  My Little Buddy will have good musical taste.
A couple minutes later, and all of a sudden we hear a cry come from the other side of the curtain, and the doctor shows us our new baby boy.  Tears of joy came to both our eyes and, at least speaking for myself, they were a little of sadness too, knowing what our son would be missing out on by not having his grandmothers, and neither myself nor Steffi able to share what this moment meant to us with our moms. 
So Spencer Lee was born at 0947 on Sunday, 29 January 2012.  I wish this could be the end of the story, but it's not.  Spencer gets weighed and measured (7 lb 5 oz and 20" long, congratulations Judy for winning the baby weight pool), cleaned off some, wrapped up, and brought over to me.  They're sewing up Steffi, but there were some complications when Spencer came out.  Some uterine lacerations were difficult to fix, and the pain was breaking through the meds she was on, so they came to me pretty quickly and asked me if they could put her out to fix everything.  This meant that I would have to leave the OR, and I really didn't want to for Steffi's sake, but I also wanted her to be as comfortable as possible and to be fixed as rapidly and effectively as possible.  I gave the OK, and was ushered out more quickly than I would have anticipated.  Was I scared shitless?  You betcha.  Do I care if anyone is offended by that language?  Nope.
While I was doing a controlled freak out in the recovery room waiting for Steffi, they wheeled Spencer in to me in his wheeled crib they have here at the hospital.  I had never seen a sight in my entire life so beautiful as when I peered down into the crib and saw him open his eyes at me.  Tears flowed yet again, and if you had the same things happen and you didn't cry, I'd call you a liar.  I had the opportunity to hold him, talk to him about a number of things like the Rocky movies (although I almost spoiled the endings for him), how I like the Washington Redskins and that "Hail To The Redskins" would be the first song he'd learn to sing, and how I thought he looked like his mama.  I even got to feed him for the very first time, and he ate.  Not too much, but enough to make him sleepy.  He dozed off in my arms, and I put him back into the wheeled crib so they could take him downstairs to the nursery.  The doctor came out, told me what was going on and what had happened, and that everything was going to be fine.  I wouldn't be happy till I saw Steffi safe and sound, but it reduced my freak-out level.
After a while they wheeled Steffi into the recovery room, where she was snoring like a sawmill.  She was in quite a bit of pain, but she was able to fall asleep every now and again.  We finally...
Well guess who fell asleep in the middle of writing his blog?  Where the hell was I?
Oh yeah... we finally came down to the 5th floor around 3 or so, and started our family bonding time.  Steffi unfortunately has been in and out of sleep from the painkillers all day and all yesterday, but considering everything she's gone through, I don't blame her at all.
We're now a family, and it's the most amazing feeling in the world.  Hopefully we'll all live happily ever after.

Why I don't like Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, the former governor of the Communistwealth- I mean, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is running again for President.  While my views upon the operations and policies of Massachusetts are not the point of this blog post, they do have a fair amount to do with my views of Mitt Romney.

Massachusetts has Romneycare, which is the blueprint of Obamacare.  Mitt Romney pushed through Romneycare, which is a government mandate to have health insurance, and if you can’t afford it, then taxpayer funds are used to subsidize health insurance for you.  This taxpayer subsidy is a transfer of wealth from those who have it to those who don’t, which is a Socialist principle.  Which candidate, on 12 October 2008, stated that “… I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody”?  The very same person who is the President now, Barack Hussein Obama.  Why would Conservatives want to elect a candidate who enacts policies that correlate with the failing principles of his prospective opponent in a general election?

I will concede that Romney has said that his plan works on the state level and would not be appropriate for a national program.  That does not answer the question as to why a program like that is necessary in the first place.  One cannot call themselves a conservative and not embody the principles of conservatism.

I also hold Mitt Romney’s flipping on issues against him.  He will say anything to appeal to his perceived electorate to get elected.  He flipped on support for Obama’s stimulus package, he flipped from pro-choice to pro-life, and he flipped on supporting the policies of Ronald Reagan, whom many consider to be the icon of Conservative and one of the greatest Presidents to ever have been elected.  He flipped on his support for Obamacare, and he flipped on his support for an assault weapons ban.  Now I certainly don’t see a need for someone to go hunting with an M-16 or AK-47, but the Second Amendment to the Constitution clearly states that “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”  If someone wants to put 15 rounds into a moose from 300 yards, that’s their right.  And being that moose are pretty big, it might take that kind of firepower to bring it down.

I will also concede that, in looking at Mitt Romney’s website, he says a lot of the right things on the issues.  He says he believes in lower taxes, smaller government, less regulations, and a strong national defense to further our foreign policy objectives.  These are all good, conservative principles.  But how do we know if he will actually follow what he says?

If Mitt Romney stays true to the conservative beliefs and policies he’s putting out now, then he would be an effective candidate, and a very effective President.  However, he has shown to say whatever is politically helpful at the time, and will do something else when his feet are put to the fire.  I don’t trust Mitt Romney, and therefore my assessment is that he wouldn’t be a good candidate.

The first political blog I've ever done

I’ll be doing my assessment of the remaining candidates (now that Michele Bachmann dropped out of the campaign) over the next few days, so please read my entire sequence.   I’d appreciate everyone keeping the torches and pitchforks to themselves for the moment until you read the entire thing.

By now, everyone has heard that Mitt Romney won the Iowa Caucuses by 8 votes over Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul finished a relatively close third.  Newt Gingrich finished a distant fourth, and Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman probably should have stayed home.

I see a lot of people, specifically young people and military members supporting Ron Paul.  While I may tend to agree with a fair amount of his Libertarian principles, he does advocate some things that scare me a great deal.

1.    He wants to pull all our servicemembers out from forward-deployed locations and station them within the United States.  This sounds good in theory, but the theory-to-practice will not work.  First of all, it’s better to take the fight to the enemy than to have the enemy bring the fight to you.  Remember Pearl Harbor?  Then we went out, took the fight to Japan, and cleaned their clocks.  Remember 9-11?  Then we went out, took the fight to the terrorists, and haven’t had a terrorist attack on American soil in 10 years, 3 months, and 25 days.  There’s a reason for that.  Also, we keep servicemembers in forward-deployed locations like Japan and Italy to make sure that if we have to take the fight to China or Russia, we can do it quickly.  To remove that ability greatly compromises our national security.

Many servicemembers support Paul’s policy on this, but because they want to come home.  I’ve been there, and I agree, it sucks to have to be away from home.  It’s dangerous, and far too many of my brothers and sisters in uniform have been wounded or worse.  Far too many families have been broken by the wars in which this country has participated.  However, the wars have kept us safe.  Additionally, everyone who puts on a uniform knows what can happen.  If you don’t want to take on the risks and hardships that being in the military entails, then don’t enlist, or get out.  

2.     He wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and put us back on the gold standard.  If you don’t know what the gold standard is, it’s basically where a certain amount of money buys a fixed amount of gold.  But for a gold standard to work effectively, a country has to have a significant gold reserve to be able to convert currency to physical gold.  While the United States is reported to have the largest gold reserves in the world, the actual amount of gold held by the government cannot, and will not, be confirmed.  In fact, the last President to have visually inspected the gold in Fort Knox was Ronald Reagan.  Many people question whether or not we have any gold reserves within the United States at all.  My point is that because we don’t have positive control over our gold, then we would be subjected to the whims of third-world countries or hostile nations that do hold significant gold reserves, and the American dollar would be worse off than it already is. 

Again, let me state that the gold standard is a good idea.  We just can’t peg our currency to a commodity of which we don’t have a verifiable significant supply under our control.  Ron Paul wants to audit the Federal Reserve (great idea), then abolish it, but can’t confirm that we have the gold to get back on the gold standard.  This is dangerously short-sighted.

My assessment of Ron Paul is that he has some good ideas, but just like communism, it looks good on paper and won’t work in the real world.  This will come across a bit harsh, but it seems to me that most of the people who support Ron Paul haven’t examined his policies that closely, and haven’t thought through to the end of what his policies would do.  It’s a mentality of “throw the bums out”, only substantially increased in intensity.