Here’s a few more photos and a short video of Edmund sleeping:

With Lalo (my father):

Update from the hospital:

Katie and Edmund are doing very well. He is feeding great. We are staying another night because Katie is getting more blood transfused, since she had lost a lot. Papa has gotten to hold Edmund a good bit, changed his diapers, burped him, cleaned his belly button/cord–he’s a happy clam!

We have been really grateful for the excellent health care we have received from this hospital, the nurses, doctors, everyone. We have anything and everything we need: diapers, gauze for wiping bottom, alcohol wipes, lanolin, pillows, beds (we even requested a couch last night that I could sleep on as the chair was not very comfortable and they brought one in, room service for Katie, on and on. My insurance (through work) will pay for all of it.

Some friends of ours had a baby in England and the health care was really stingy, only giving them one diaper for their baby, a few cottonballs to wipe, etc. and then expecting them to bring all the rest themselves because that was their “ration” from the State-run health system. I won’t say who they are because I don’t know if they want anyone to know, but suffice it to say that our experience has been diametrically opposite and much better. They were put into a room after delivery with only curtained-off areas for a lot of mamas and babies, crying all night, etc. while we have our own spacious room, bathroom sink, rolling crib, etc.

Thanks be to God for modern medicine as well; I understand why women died in childbirth so frequently in older times, without having the sanitation, biological knowledge, medicines, and equipment that we do today. I am grateful for our good health care and also for this modern science.

Thank you for your prayers! Our Lord has answered all of them, and we are very happy. We will go home tomorrow.

Before labor began!

On the economic front, the nation’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high as it becomes clear that the $787 billion stimulus package has created a total of only eight jobs, all in the field of highway-construction flagperson. Looking for solutions, the president hosts a White House “jobs summit”; attended by political, business and labor leaders, as well as 23 Portuguese tourists who got lost while trying to visit the Washington Monument and somehow penetrated White House security. Meanwhile, in what is believed to be the largest Craigslist transaction ever, California sells San Diego to Mexico.

via Dave Barry’s year in review: 2009 – Dave Barry – MiamiHerald.com.

P.S. Katie and Edmund are doing great!

Our wonderful doula, Christine, took these photos whilst helping Katie deliver Edmund. Christine was a dynamo with great wisdom and baby-delivering experience. Katie’s mom was there all the way as well offering her support and love for Katie. I tried not to get in the way and mostly succeeded.

On his paternal grandmother’s birthday! 8 lbs, 7 oz., 21 inches. Arrived 2:42 AM.

Here are the first pictures of baby and mama, who are both doing well:

Thank you all for your prayers!

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the day on which we remember all the baby boys slain by Herod’s soldiers, and my thoughts turn especially to those babies who suffer death in our culture simply because they look like baby Jesus, weak and unable to speak in their own defense.  They will one day share His glory because they share in His death, hated by the evil one because of their purity and beauty.

I think today, also, of the mothers who are so often themselves victims of a culture that gives them no other choices but the death of their child.  Their pain and guilt must be especially poignant in this Christmas season.  May their children who now sit in the lap of Jesus comfort them in a special way on this feast and lead them to forgiveness and healing.

Holy Innocents, please pray for us and for the end to the madness that is our abortion holocaust.

Father, forgive them...

Last night Katie had contractions for several hours, growing in intensity and frequency, so much so that we thought “this was the real deal,” but by late in the evening the contractions had waned in strength, so we never went to the hospital.

Today was the due date for baby Edmund, but he has not come yet, so we are still waiting, knowing that he will be coming very soon. I am faced with the mild anti-climax of unexpectedely having to return to work tomorrow. Most of my coworkers will be out, taking vacation before year’s end, so it will probably be relaxed and quiet.

Katie’s parents are in town from New Mexico, so they should be here when Edmund arrives, which is a great consolation for Katie.

Thanks for your continued prayers for Katie and Edmund!

Well, yours truly has already made out like a bandit this year with powerful theological books, most by “und German” whose name you might recognize:

"Der Haul"

Tobias with his new train (and moving his hands with ninja-like speed):

Katie has felt some stirrings, but as of yet, no baby.

Adele also got a make-up bag with some chapstick (cherry flavored so it looks like lip gloss), lotion, and a compact (mirror).

I love being a dad; now I know what my own father felt like when tonight after the children went to sleep I got out their Nuchi train set and put it together under the tree so that when they wake up in the morning they will come out and see their gift! My parents always did that: A few toys would be out under the tree on Christmas morning that Santa had brought.

We didn’t make it to Mass early enough to get seats, so we had to go to the overflow seating in the parish hall next door, where we watched the Mass on a screen and then the priests brought us all Holy Communion. The children did well, especially considering their different environs, and we got to see several friends.

Merry Christmas!

Not technically one of the O Antiphons, but still a crowd favorite. Here’s our tree before and after decorating today: