FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATE, MON, MAR 16, 2009:

3:49pm Christian reports: Berkeley (7lbs, 7oz - 20 in - 9.9 Apgar Scale) sends her love to all. She’s now feeding for the 1st time like she’s been doing it her whole life!

***

BACKSTORY:

Two and a half years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting my son, Beckett, for the first time.

As a first time father, Beckett’s arrival in our Ft. Worth, TX hospital delivery room — and his mother, Karla, who did all the heroic work that life-changing day — truly humbled me.  Trying to convey to my own mother on my cell phone a minutes later what it like to see him born and to hold him in my own arms was nearly impossible.  I simply lacked the words.  Tears replaced them as I fumbled to express myself.  Luckily, she understood and let me go back to my wife and son, telling me to give her a call later that night when time allowed me to fill her in more fully.

While photographs have allowed me to ‘remember’ those first few minutes/hours of Beckett’s young life, so much of what took place that afternoon has faded into the funky contours of the human brain, lost to the natural passing of time.  Even the entries I posted on our family blog only hit a few highlights, often written long after they took place.  The sense of the in-the-moment immediacy and wunderlust, however, was impossible to translate…

…until now.

FAST FORWARD:

Two and a half years later, my wife and I returned to the same hospital delivery unit to meet our first daughter, Berkeley.

Since Beckett’s birth, our family blog has magnified significantly from a tepid attempt to semi-privately ‘journal’ a few family moments here and there to the development of a robust hub of digital stories, photos, and videos that are now regularly shared with hundreds of family, friends, colleagues, and strangers around the world.  At last count, we’ve crossed the 2,250 blog post mark…and that was before our daughter’s birth.  We suspect a ‘few’ more will be added, too.

Additionally, we’ve added an iPhone to our tool set, not to mention dualing Facebook accounts for both parents. This means that just-in-time storytelling options have been magnified far beyond the boundaries of what a family blog can pull off.  Seems that blogging is so last status update.

It was only a matter of time before we’d put it all together, letting our family and friends grab a virtual real-time seat with us as we prepared to deliver our daughter via type-n-post Facebook status updates. something that would have been inconceivable not that long ago.

• Ever wondered how you’d tell the story of your child’s birth through the lens of 140-character Facebook status updates?
• Ever wondered what it’d be like to Facebook status update every step leading to, during, and after your child’s birth?
• Ever wonder how such a story would read, one status update at a time?

This is our story, told 140-characters (or less) at at time.

***

SUN, MARCH 15 at:

12:22am Christian thinks that sneaking off to a 10pm show of “Slumdog Millionaire” was the perfect way to have one last date night with my gal before Berkeley arrives on Monday.

I still wonder why every friend in the world suggests, “Hey, go see as many movies as you can before the birth.  Once the kid arrives, you’ll never see the inside of a theater again, unless the film rhymes with Disney.”  Seriously?  No such thing as a babysitter?

In any event, with anticipation sky-high the night before our daughter’s arrival, catching the Academy Award winning film of the year seemed like a perfect excuse to hold hands in the dark.  No regrets.  I still remember why I fell in love with her…and was the proudest guy in the entire theater.

8:03am Christian will be at the hospital this time tomorrow morning. Been waiting a long time for this…and it’s been worth every second of anticipation.

Sometimes a Facebook status update is clever.  It feels timely, edgy, semantically acrobatic.  Sometimes, however, its merely forward-facing, navel-gazing reflection that seems utterly useless in typical life situations. Expectant fathers are given a pass.  And that’s a very good thing.

9:42pm Christian knows its time to shift gears from preparing like crazy to just trusting the good spirits waiting for us in the morning. And help Karla sleep beautifully.

Trust is the center of life.  It takes a long time for a man to figure that out. Becoming a father (2x) helps a great deal.  And having a life-confirming marriage to an incredible mother and friend doesn’t hurt, either.

***

MON, MARCH 16 at:

6:55am Christian looks at the clock. Dark out, but nearly 7am. Karla & her mom have headed to the hospital. Time to take Bex to McD’s, then daycare; then join them.

When Beckett was born, I drove Karla to the hospital.  Drove slowly, in fact.  No detours.  No stops for Egg McMuffins.  Just a bee-line for the front door of the hospital.  Funny how much time — and a toddler heading to preschool — can change things.  Thankfully I have a wonderful mother-in-law who took over that morning, taking Karla to check in as I dropped junior off at his school.

7:43am Christian knows it’s a good sign when McD’s manager gives Bex a free b’fast Happy Meal (when they don’t even exist)! Good karma is a good thing today.

In the center of a wild ride, small moments can make all the difference.  While papa was on the edge of his proverbial seat, his 2.5 year old son jumped up and down with his apple slices in our McD’s booth seat, yelling, “Papa, police car! police car!”, over and over as he pointed out the window into the parking lot.  No emergency.  Just life joy.  Papa took a mental note and kissed his son on the head as the prepared to head to the hospital minutes later.

8:50am Christian is at the hospital now. K has an amazing room w/ a balcony. CEO of hosp. stopped by to say hello, too (his kids go to K’s school); great extra touch.

My wife — in addition to being an amazing mom and partner — is also a dynamite middle school principal at a local independent school that borders the hospital.  Many of the doctors’ and hospital staff’s kids go to her school.  And the kids/parents simply adore her.  That being said, we were beyond flattered that so many people at the hospital were aware that a “special guest” was arriving that morning.  Everyone treated her brilliantly from beginning to end.  I loved that.  And you also have to love a hospital room with a balcony, although we noticed that the sliding glass door was permanently locked.  Guess that makes sense.

9:28am Christian reports: “The water broke.”. All is calm: playing rummy a/ happy-mom-to-be and listening to baby’s healthy heartbeat on monitor.

Calm-schmalm.  Papa was doing back flips inside at that moment.  And while he hates card games, he agreed to sit in for a few hands to be good company.  He’s not sure how he concentrated well enough to even follow the rules.  Or win a few hands (before his very pregnant wife took over and won everything in sight).

11:37am Christian voted for ESPN Sportscenter on hospital rm TV to give daughter-to-be some ‘Prop 9′ props. Karla opted for “Bonnie Hunt Show” instead…b/c she’s contracting!

OK, ladies…feel free to push back from the laptop and grin at this one.  And shake your heads.  Made perfectly good sense at the moment when the TV seemed to be just white noise in the room as we all watched the clock tick and the contraction monitor beep.  I’m still not sure if she’ll ever watch Bonnie Hunt for a sustained period of time again, but on the kiddo’s arrival day…she is allowed anything she wants!

12:09pm Christian reports: The big needle (and the man who wields it) just arrived. While nobody likes needles, they are a very-pregnant woman’s best friend at this point.

Amen!  Enough said.

12:41pm Christian debates: hospital cafeteria or leave for a real restaurant. Mmm. All this waiting is hunger-inducing…but will it be a “birth”day foul to leave hospital now?

Since we’re being entirely honest a few days after the fact, I really contemplated leaving the hospital entirely to go grab a real lunch.  When our son was born, I left the hospital once my wife was settled in and drove all the way home to get her some magazines/CDs/snacks.   So, I figured 15 minutes in the car to grab a decent sandwich wasn’t an outlandish suggestion.  Luckily the response from multiple people who read this original Facebook status update were unanimous in suggesting that if I loved being married…I’d be wise to go for salisbury steak in the hospital cafeteria…and hustle my butt back up to the delivery room.  The “wisdom of the crowds” (as one Facebook buddy stated) is a wonderful thing, indeed!

1:09pm Christian opted to save his marriage (&social standing). Philly cheese steak & tater tots in hospital cafeteria. The things he does for love!

Actually, a fine sandwich for a nervous/anxious father.  But they could have offered me Cheez-Its and a stale roll and I’d have been fine.  And still happily married.

1:28pm Christian is contemplating renting out an entire village in 62-sq-mile Liechtenstein for Berk’s Sweet 16 party @ $500/pr/day. Wanna come?

A random moment at lunch sitting by myself reading a travel magazine I found up in the delivery unit.  Who would have known you could rent out an entire European village…or the country itself…for such a reasonable price.  And now that I have a daughter, I have to begin thinking of grand events that involve ice sculptures and custom-made invitations.

1:55pm Christian reports: In the tri-fecta of delivery signs (effacement, contractions, and ‘dropping’), 2 of 3 now fully complete. Baby is fully pointing towards daylight.

There are a lot of ways this could have been described. I think I deserve high marks for using the 140-characters in such an accurate, yet publicly appropriate, way.  Plus, that last line could be a decent rough draft poetry spark.  Mmm…

2:14pm Christian reports: watching the contractions on the monitor is akin to keeping an eye on Pacific surf reports. As of 2pm, epidural-snoozing mama and baby-to-be are doing great, while papa remains in awe of the entire process.

This falls into the hurry-up-n-wait category.  Everything is ready to go, but we’re just sitting around, waiting…waiting…waiting.  Normal things begin to take on a curious life of their own.  I began daydreaming of being a world-class surfing champion.  Or at least splashing at the beach with a pair of water wings on.  And since I wasn’t allowed to watch ESPN, what else was I going to do at that moment?

2:32pm Christian admits: if it weren’t for Facebook updates, he’d just be staring at hospital room equipment and daydreaming of rarely-watched Science Fiction films as K sleeps.

Re-reading this one, I wonder what I was thinking.  Sort of a “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ reference, for all those cable TV junkies in the mid-90’s.  Maybe.  Or just a father-to-be (again) who desperately wanted his daughter-to-be to arrive!

2:45pm Christian wonders if there is time to set up an on-line Vegas-style wagerin’ widget “Berkeley’s arrival time” guesses. Could fund her princess outfits. Or even college.

An odd Web 2.0 reference (hence “widget”).  Sorry to those of you who can’t care less about digital web site semantics/tools.  But I’m guessing that everyone at least gets the betting on the arrival time bit.  I had begun receiving countless Facebook comments where family/friends were asking to lock in certain delivery times.  I started to daydream ways to spin such requests into fame and fortune.  Or at least to off-set my daughter’s future expenses.

3:06pm Christian reports: Nurse just said, “Oh, my…she’s done and the baby is ready to come. Time to push.” [Nurse said that Berkeley could be here in 30 min!]

Wish I had a hidden camera taking snapshots of me at that moment.  Imagine Bambi.  Imagine headlights.  Imagine Bambi staring wide-eyed into said headlights.  You get the picture.

3:22pm Christian reports: Berkeley is here!

Funny.  This was complete theater.  Knowing that I’d be ‘focused’ on the actual delivery — no kiddin’! — I was at a loss as to how to keep all of my ‘friends’ tuning into these crazy ‘birth’-day Facebook updates aware of the ‘big moment’.  Then a lightbulb went off in my crazy papa-to-be (again) head.  With the iPhone, I figured I’d pre-type the message…put the phone down for the duration of the delivery process…and then hit ’send’ as soon as the moment seemed appropriate after Berkeley was born.  And you know what?  This was a brilliant use of technology and common sense.  All the rest is goofiness.

3:49pm Christian reports: Berkeley (7lbs, 7oz - 20 in - 9.9 Apgar Scale) sends her love to all. She’s now feeding for the 1st time like she’s been doing it her whole life!

I mistyped the # of ounces.  Men won’t care or notice.  Women, however, really care about the fractions of ounces the newborn weighs.  Overall, however, this was pretty accurate.  And I’m rather smitten with that final line.  Not a bad on-the-fly use of the limited Facebook character count, I think.

4:09pm Christian reports: “Oh, my…we have a baby girl! And she’s a beauty (in case anyone was curious)!”

My favorite line.  Not because of it being written well.  Just because its true.  She’s a beauty.  So is her mother.  ’nuff said.

4:20pm Christian reports that Karla just said, “Wow, she’s almost an hour old.” *** Seems like only an hour ago she was just a ‘baby’. Where does the time go?

Say what you will, but that last line was a no-brainer.

5:08pm Christian is off to Bex’ preschool. Time to introduce the prince to his baby sis. If all else fails, there’s chocolate pudding waiting for him in mama’s hospital room.

Beckett was great.  And the pudding was never necessary.

6:19pm Christian reports: Bex was a very cool older brother when he met his lil’ sis, Berkeley. Kisses and lots of curiosity. And he brought her a stuffed bunny, too.

The photo of Beckett standing at the nursery window, the stuffed bunny in hand, is one of the most priceless shots we’ve ever taken.  One day when they’re fighting in the back seat of the ‘family truckster’, I’ll pull this folded photo out of my wallet and pass it to the back seat.  They may roll their eyes, but nobody will ever be able to deny the truth of that precious moment between siblings meeting for the first time.

11:46pm Christian has this wonderfully strange sensation that he’s gonna wake up in the morning with a deep-eyed-smile on his face b/c he’ll get to see “his girls” again!

Sitting back at home later that night, trying to make sense of the fact that my wife and new daughter were both healthy back at the hospital (and my son was a nearly normal toddler sleeping soundly in  bed), the smile just never went away.  It still hasn’t…and its been 3 days since I first met Berkeley.   And I sense it never will even if no other Facebook status update is ever written about life at home where I’m fully wrapped around her little finger…and her mother’s heart.