I've been out for a bit on family and paternity leave. Many have already sent congratulations - thanks a million!

I often joke with Dale that we do things the hard way: custom wedding dresses, bicycles I build by hand in the garage, and so on. Having Kellan turned out to be no joke. Here's the play by play of the five days surrounding Ava's surgery and his birth:

Friday, December 4

Ava (our two-year-old daughter) wakes up vomiting at 5:05AM. Over the next 12 hours, she has a pediatrician's visit, is sent to the ER, then has an X-ray, ultrasound, tube down her hose, contrast X-ray, and emergency surgery (laproscopic).

The surgeon examines her gut and organs and determines nothing is wrong and that it must be a stomach virus. I spend the night in the pediatric ICU with Ava while Dale sleeps in a sleep room for parents.

Saturday, December 5

Ava's under observation all day. After determining that she's keeping down liquids and isn't in undo pain, she's discharged and we get her home just after dark. Family has dinner ready for us, and we eat then all collapse into bed.

Sunday, December 6

Ava plays with grandparents. I ride a bike. Being due in 9 days, Dale is uncomfortably pregnant and does whatever very pregnant women do.

Monday, December 7

At 6:00AM, I prove Ava had a stomach virus by contracting it. I don't keep any anything down all day. At 5:00PM, our doctor injects me with a strong anti-nausea agent - burns so badly that I pass out. Dale drives me home and I crawl into bed until 11:00PM, when I wake up very thirsty. Wired, I stay up until 1:00AM.

Tuesday, December 8 (The Big Day!)

At 5:00AM, Dale wakes me up from a phynergan-induced sleep to tell me her water broke. I get stuff ready to go to the hospital, our doula arrives, and Dale's mother has Ava under control.

Dale proves she's the best wife ever by telling me to go take a nap :). I slept for a few hours while she went badass-mother-in-labor and took a few walks around our block.

We go to the hospital at 10:30AM. Dale's handling labor like a pro, moving between positions, breathing slowly and deeply, and telling us whenever she needs us to do something. Acupressure seems to help during the contractions. If nothing else, me squeezing the point between her thumb and forefinger as hard as I can must be a distraction.

At 12:15, we go from triage to the delivery room. The OB checks in, thinks we have a bit, and steps out to eat lunch - she had just done a complicated c-section.

At 12:26, Dale starts pushing.

At 12:32, the OB comes running back in after being paged. The poor lady sprinted from the cafeteria. The nurse basically throws a gown and gloves on her and she delivers Kellan Douglas Rinehart, coming in at 7lb 15oz and just under 20 inches long.

My wife amazes me. While in labor, she took care of her half-sick husband, went for a walk, and played a bit with our toddler. In the hospital, she had no medication (not even an IV), no epidural, and pushed for a whopping 13 minutes.

Last but not least, after delivering, she refused to use a wheelchair to go to our hospital room. The amazing lady stood up (by herself!) off the delivery chair and walked the hundred odd feet to our room.

I've done some physically hard things, but she just makes my jaw drop.

Hell of a five days at the Rinehart house.