You know your baby was born in Austin when… January 31, 2008

Wednesday night was a total Austin experience. My parents left the hospital around dinner time to go to a place on The Drag called Veggie Heaven. It’s nearly impossible to describe the place, and if I did, you wouldn’t believe me anyway. Let’s just leave it at this: Veggie Heaven’s signature dish is called Protein 2000. Yes, Protein 2000.

So after dinner, my folks headed back up to the hospital with an order of Protein 2000 for me. I met them outside the lobby, grabbed my booty and headed back to the room, where Ashley had a visitor — a childhood friend who now fronts an Austin band called GOODNIGHT GODDESS. Michael Kolb, the childhood friend, plays a good rock star. Under a plaid fedora, he rolls with an army jacket, tattered pants and snake skin boots. Anyway, I digress…sort of.

Austin is known as the Music Capital of the World, and I think it lives up to that rep. Afterall, I was walking back to the room (carrying my Protein 2000) when I ran into Jimmy Dale Gilmore. He’s known mostly for his role in THE FLATLANDERS, but I like him best in his role as a bowler in my all-time favorite movie, The Big Lebowski.

The Spanish version:

The English version:

Barely a day old, and she’s already making straight “A’s,”…. January 31, 2008

Sometime today (sorry for not being more exact, but I’m new at this daddy gig and keeping track of time is the last thing on my mind), a pediatrician came to visit Emma. She looked her over, checked all her parts, looked at her eyes, and she said Emma looked “excellent.”

I was one happy dad.

Ashley was one happy mom.

Then, later in the evening, a nurse came to check Emma’s hearing. The machine wasn’t working right, and she kept leavinf to “fix it,” and nonchalantly said Emma’s ears had a little liquid in them, which , she said, is common in C-Section babies. I can’t lie. I was still a little tiny bit worried. But on the last try, the machine worked fine, and the nurse signed off on Emma’s hearing.

I once again was one happy dad.

Barely 24 hours old. Two tests. Two glowing reports.

Yeah! 

–Papa Josh

The long-awaited and much-anticipated slide show… January 31, 2008

OK folks, I’ve been unsuccessful in embedding the slide show on the site (something about java script security…) but if you click HERE, you can see lots of photos.

The first night… January 31, 2008

Emma stayed around with us until a bit before midnight, and then she went to the nursery for three hours so Momma and Papa could get a little sleep. She came back to us around 2 a.m. with reports that she was the hands-down favorite in the nursery. It was back and forth all night. She’d go for three hours and then come back and hang out for a bit to eat and visit with the parents.

Lather, rinse and repeat.

Emma already loves to be held my Momma and Papa, who has proved on short order that he is more than capable of changing a dirty diaper. Though Momma hasn’t said too much about it, she shows visible relief in the knowledge that Daddy knows what he’s doing…

Stay tuned…Pictures should be posted before lunch!

–Papa Josh

…..W….O….W……Seriously. January 30, 2008

At 12:58 p.m. today, Jan. 30, 2008, Emma Aubrey Baugh came into the world, weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces, 20 inches long.

It truly was amazing and left us speechless. Momma and Papa are happy as can be, Emma is loving her new environment, and the entire family is exhausted. I took tons of photos (and a tad bit of video today), but it’ll be tomorrow before I post it. Until then, I’ll leave you with one picture snapped in the nursery with my cellphone.

Everyone say a hearty heeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooo to Emma.

Eviction notice dated 1 p.m. tomorrow… January 29, 2008

That’s right, Emma Aubrey Baugh is getting served an eviction notice at 1 p.m. tomorrow. The owner of her current residence is ready to do some remodeling, which means downsizing the size of Emma’s room. It’s been a nice, cozy, dark living space for the past nine months. But it’s time for Miss Emma to stop being such a homebody. So her papers are on the way.

It’s a good thing, too. When we started this chapter nine months ago, there were concerns that Emma wouldn’t want to live in her temporary housing long enough for her to grow and develop. In the past couple months, we were convinced  Now, 39 weeks later,  we’re convinced she’ll stay in her garage apartment until we tell her it’s time to move along.

It’s just a matter of counting down the hours now.

For those of you who are keeping up with Emma’s progress through this blog, not to worry — there’s WiFi at the hospital, so before tomorrow’s over, we’ll have up photos, words (and maybe even some video) so y’all can meet Emma, virtually, at least.

Until then,

Papa Josh.

Man, the Big “S” has been good lately… January 28, 2008

I don’t know what it is, but for the last couple of nights, I’ve been sleeping like a rock, or a baby, or a log, or (choose your cliched simile…) Wish I could say the same thing for Ashley, but it’s been getting more and more uncomfortable for her.

Maybe my slumbers have been oh-so-good lately because my sleeping being knows that it’s about to end, that for the ensuing months, I’ll be waking every couple hours to care for Emma. I recently read on the blog of a friend’s friend a story about life post birth. The father in this tale was recounting the horrors of seeing his sleep-deprived face in the mirror. He could hardly believe the face — with bloated bags under the eyes — was his. But perhaps even more to his horror, he found a smudge of grape jelly next to his mouth.

The thing is, he hadn’t had grape jelly for at least four hours.

With all the joy and happiness that is to come, we know that the months ahead will also be filled with lots of nights sans slumber (at least that hearty, snoring-filled sleep that is so amazing).

So maybe these last few nights, my body is merely getting some of what it knows won’t be around for a good while…

– Papa Josh

The cycle of relationships… January 27, 2008

It’s really quite amazing how quickly life can change. Tonight we had our old roommate over (I say “our” because I’d spent so much time at the house on Monroe that I too was Sara’s roomie…) for dinner and TV. It was just like old times on SoCo. I cooked a yummy enchilada bake, cilantro-lime rice and made a salad, and the three of us sat down for the final episode of Chuck and the latest episode of Psych, both of which were a riot.

Tonight was a snapshot of what our life has always been like.

In a couple of days, Ashley and I are going to be parents. We’ll be entering a whole new chapter of our life, one that will change who we’ll forever be. Tuesday night, we’ll be Ashley and Josh, but by the next day, we’ll be a family. We’ll have a little girl completely dependent on us for absolutely everything. We’ll be parents.

I know our life has been changing over the last nine months, and we’ve been preparing for it, but there’s no escaping the reality that Wednesday is a life-changing event. We’ve always been the kids who look to our parents for help and advice, for guidance and love. Even as adults, we have maintained a hierarchical relationship with our parents — ones that won’t ever change.

But for the first time, we’ll begin a relationship that puts us on a side we’ve never experienced. And decades down the road, we will begin another new relationship, one that our parents are now finding themselves on the cusp of having — one with a grandchild.

–Papa Josh

We’re really in the home stretch now… January 25, 2008

In these last few days leading up to the birth of Emma, I find myself in a strange place, my thoughts at odds with each other. It seems as if time is dragging its merry feet, and I wonder if we’re ever going to make it to Jan. 30. But at the same time, I can hardly believe that nine months have passed already. And I’m perplexed how those two thoughts can exist simultaneously. Maybe it’s because I’m exhausted and should be asleep in there next to Momma Cash, because this day seems as if it’s never-ending. (I actually was drifting off to sleep earlier, when my phone exploded next to the bed…a late-night call from an editor asking for one more paragraph that helped paint a broader picture.) Now I’m physically in the same boat as my mind is in — simultaneously exhausted but too revved up from the call to go directly back to bed.

Sitting in the living room of our apartment, I’m finding myself hoping that our daughter will be able to sleep. Her window faces the stairs outside our little abode, and the upstairs neighbors aren’t exactly light on their feet. Sometimes I wonder if they’re seeing just how much noise they can make stomping up the stairs. The rails rattle, the painting on the wall over the sofa follows suit.

If she takes after her mother in the sleep department, Emma’s going to have it rough. But it she takes after Papa, nothing outside her window will cause a stir.

–Papa Josh

Seven days and counting… January 23, 2008

Momma Cash had her second-to-last doctor’s appointment today. She hasn’t dilated at all since her visit a week ago. Sounding somewhat despondent, she reported that Emma won’t be born any sooner than Jan. 30 — a week from today.

Emma is participating in the “Baugh Shuffle,” Ashley says, a dance of one step forward and two steps back.

When Ashley is with the Baugh family, and we collectively decide it’s time to leave the house for dinner, Momma Cash knows she doesn’t actually have to get up from the sofa for a few more minutes. My mom will visit the ladies room one last time. My father will decide to change his shoes, or secure some obscure window. We gather again, get invigorated to leave, and then as we finally get to setting the alarm and heading out, Mom heads off to the head once again and Pops disappears to double-check that obscure window he’d already secured.

Everyone will go out, pile into the car, look around and ask, “Where’s Dad?” A minute later, he exits the house, fixing his collar or tightening a belt.

That is the Baugh Shuffle.

Now, Ashley is convinced our daughter has taken to her Baugh roots, doing her namesake dance, since she seems to be quite content living in Momma’s belly.