Little miracles

COLUMBUS (OHIO) -- No matter how many times you experience childbirth either directly or vicariously through family and friends, the extraordinary miracle of life never ceases to amaze.

Charles Stewart Griffith, known as Charlie after my dad, arrived at 11:14 a.m. yesterday at Mt. Carmel East Hospital in Columbus. He's a big boy as we expected, weighing 8 pounds, 15 ounces, but he also was 22 inches long!

He arrived in this world the color of a bruise with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. But within precious minutes, the NICU nurse had him all pinked up and grunting and singing. He has masses of jet black curly hair and a ruddy complexion and looks every bit the eskimo that Jenny looked when she was born.

His feet seem very big to me and I laughed out loud when the nurse when to ink his foot for an imprint because he spread his toes very wide in exactly the same way his mom has all her life.

He had a rough entry into this world that resulted in fluid in his lungs. So Jen got a brief moment to hold her new son and he was whisked away to the NICU for tests and observations. We went to visit him later in the afternoon and he was sleeping soundly in the warmer, with only a diaper and the many probes that messure his oxygen levels, respirations and heart rate.

Nestled on his tummy with his little froggy legs and arms tucked under him he looked every bit the picture of a healthy baby. And indeed he is. As we learned from the most amazing nurses on this planet, he had a tiny hole in his lung that allowed fluid to escape into his chest wall and that's why he was grunting instead of wailing. But x-rays showed that the tiny hole was quickly closing. With luck, he will join his mom this morning.

Can't wait to hold the little guy today. There's simply nothing so sweet as the smell of a newborn baby.

But for a bit this morning I'm going to entertain Charlie's big sister, Natalie. Last night after she and her dad got home from the hospital, I took her up to her room and we danced in ourPJs to the Wiggles. We talked about Winnie the Pooh and she showed me her favorite toys and animals. She is all girl and makes me laugh.

I was in the room for Natalie's birth as well. My role was as Jen's personal cheerleader/trainer. She gets easily frustrated and I hope I helped her to focus on what she had to do. Labor and delivery is the toughest thing any woman endures, but I can see already that Jen is on the mend more quickly this time.

She's strong...and now she has two babies, and well that dynamic changes everything.