The First Night

To assuage some fears I've heard, I'm happy to report that Nathan did not need any skin grafts after his exfoliating bath experience (see the video below).

The hospital we're staying at has provided us with excellent service. For the night, we opted to place Nathan in the nursery. The nursery staff would transport Nathan back to us for feeding as needed. Nathan seems to have a naturally sleepy disposition, so we got a surprising amount of rest on the first night.

This morning, I went a got a delightful breakfast at IHOP and stopped by our apartment for a shower. Afterward, I felt like a new man.

I have been changing diapers. Apparently, Nathan secrets something akin to the Canadian tar sands.

I think it should be noted for the record that the current diaper-changing count is:

Gregory:2
Sarah:0

I recognize that this will not persist. Nevertheless, I offer this to the readers as a wholly inadequate token of my commitment to participation in the custodial aspects of Nathan's care.

The whole birth experience has also given me a sense of a piece of the differences between health care in the United States and Canada. After all three of her pregnancies, my mother shared a "ward" with 3-4 other women. Sarah and I enjoy a room of our own with a full-sized husband bed. Both options have pros and cons. The Canadian model is dirt cheap by comparison, but is rather low on creature comforts. The American model is ferociously expensive, but very pleasant. It should be noted that Canada does have better infant mortality statistics, but that is a separate discussion altogether. (In my ideal world, parents could customize their standard of hospital cushiness based on how much the value such comforts. Alas, we do not live in my ideal world.)