Despite being sick I took him outside when I got home today. He had been cooped up for too long. He wanted to take the dogs for a walk, something he’s never done before and, to my knowledge, hasn’t seen us do more than once or twice. So I bundled him up like an Eskimo and let him take Bock’s leash. I took Honey’s.

It was the cutest thing ever. The first quarter of the walk Bock was practically dragging Ashton behind him and they were running the whole way. Toddler’s even run cute. The next quarter of the walk Bock got tired and Ashton didn’t. So the tables turned and Bock had to try to keep up with Ashton.

The second half of the walk was calmer. Everybody had gotten their respective bursts of energy out of their systems and we proceeded at a more normal speed. The best part of pairing Bock and Ashton together is that anytime one of them would get distracted I could just say “Come on!” and the other one would drag the first one along.

Ashton got tired near the end so I picked him up and carried him while walking both dogs. You’d think that would be difficult but everybody behaved and it was surprisingly easy.

Today is Ashton’s one month birthday. He’s changed so much in a month. He’s grown. He’s gained weight. He’s lost hair. And he is curious about the world. Looking back over the last month, it breaks down pretty much like this:

• Week 1: This breathing thing is new. And the food goes in where?
• Week 2: Wait, the food comes out??
• Week 3: How?
• Week 4: Okay, I’m starting to get the hang of me. What’s with the hairy guy?
• Week 5: Hey, he’s kind of funny.

He stares at everything now. He tries to reach out and grab things. He is awake all day, which means he actually sleeps part of each night. Karina is jealous because Ashton wants to play with daddy — he smiles when I talk to him — but I’m just the “play” parent right now. She’s the Bringer of Life. He looks to her for sustenance and comfort. He won’t sleep for me. We don’t nap together. When Ashton is with his daddy, he expects this monkey to dance.

And that’s cool with me.

Baby does the following and only the following: sleeps, pees, poops, feeds, cries. That’s it. You’re on his schedule and not the other way around. I think most people know this beforehand but it is hard to understand the impact it will have on you. Sleep is a luxury. Eating is a necessity, but the quality of the food is a luxury. You eat what you can, when you can.

We’re stuck in the hospital for at least another day. Maybe two. The room is tiny and with my cot folded out there is barely room to move around in it. Sitting on a cot doesn’t provide much back support. We’re both feeling the pain in our lower backs. It’s overcast so there isn’t much light coming through the window. With little interaction with the outside world, the odd hours we’re keeping, and the lack of sunlight, it’s really hard to keep track of the time…or even the day.

When Ashton smiles the whole world lights up, but at two days old, he mostly just stares at me or sleeps. When he sleeps one of us sleeps too. He’s having a lot of problems with gas, so he cries and screams through most of the night. It’s hard to take a turn sleeping when he is screaming. Not because of the noise but he’s suffering and you don’t want him to suffer.

We’ve posted some more pictures to Flickr and we’ll continue to post pictures there as we take them. (The updated iPhoto plugin lets us go from camera to Flickr in two quick steps–which is nice.)

I’ll try to post again later.

It’s been a long day. Karina’s contractions started last night. Around 3:30 AM this morning they reached a point where we could get admitted to the hospital. Things were going well for a little while but then the labor stalled. And stalled. And stalled. The doctor tried to jumpstart things with Potocin but it just wasn’t happening. A little after two the decision was made to do a C-Section.

Little Ashton was born at 3:11 PM CST.

He weighs 7lbs 11oz, is 19.5″ long, and has a 14″ diameter head. With that head the C-section was a foregone conclusion but none of us knew that at the time.

We’ve had a chance to take some photos and you can see those here.

We’re going to try to get a little bit of sleep now.

Monday she started getting contractions at around 9 AM. They were stronger than the ones she had all last week, more consistent, and the pain from them went from her back through to the rest of her body. The contractions lasted all day and into the night. It was okay though because she was finally ready.

We went to the doctor’s office at 1 PM but there were no doctors. They were all off delivering babies. There were no nurse practitioners. They were all off delivering babies. In fact, there was nobody to do an exam. The nurses hooked Karina up to a fetal monitor and recorded the contractions and baby’s heartrate then sent us home. We were to report back a few hours later. Then again today.

After all those trips back and forth, the verdict is in: the prisoner will not be parolled. Karina hasn’t progressed at all since our appointment last Thursday.

Neither of us have slept much the last two days. We’re both tired and a little frustrated, but we know we’re going to be a lot more tired once baby arrives. Hopefully we’ll get some sleep tonight. The excitement and worry both wore off a bit with the news that today was not going to be the day.