Erin and I were sitting and talking last night and we realized something very very cool. Sophia is the result of Erin and I making love at a specific time on a specific day...Neither of us could have made her with another person and if we had done the deed at a different time she would be completely different...she might have even turned out to be a he. It's really amazing if you think about it. Very cosmic...It's was I like to call the "Holy Crap" factor that often shows itself in our lives. The kind of thing that makes your head explode from the sheer "WOW" of the situation.

Anyway...

Erin, Sophia and I are almost through our first week as a family. Everyone is happy and healthy. This whole fatherhood thing is very amazing. It really snaps your priorities into focus and you begin to realize how much of the stuff you've been carrying around is just bullshit and you're forced to focus on what really matters. All I need to be concerned with is my wife and my daughter. Everything else is insignificant. Burn it all to the ground for all I care. We focus our lives on the small stuff so often that we lose sight of what is truly important. I don't need to drive a BMW or live in a 2500 square foot house to be happy. As long as my family is provided for and is able to experience life as intended by the Creator I can call myself a success as a father and husband.

- Jeremy

I was wondering what kinds of things happened in history on Sophia's birthday...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_22

She has lots of really neat connections. Here is a couple of fun ones...

Events
1963 - John F. Kennedy assassination
1968 - The Beatles release the double-album The White Album.
1986 - Mike Tyson becomes the youngest world heavyweight champion

Births
1921 - Rodney Dangerfield
1940 - Terry Gilliam
1958 - Jamie Lee Curtis

Deaths
1718 - Blackbeard
1916 - Jack London
1955 - Shemp Howard

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In other news...

We are all doing fine. Sophia is happy and healthy. I promise that I'll be posting more pictures soon. I just haven't had much time...getting to know my little Pee Wee is more important.

- Jeremy

I recieved these in an email forward today...I normally hate mass forwards, but these are hilarious...

New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for Classmates.com! There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 years. Because you don't particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days: mowing my lawn.

New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards.

New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.

New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That's your flavored water.

New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the asshole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one sweet-n'-Low and one NutraSweet," ooh, you're a huge asshole.

New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.

New Rule: I don't need a bigger mega M&M. If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two.

New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.

New Rule:...and this one is long overdue: No more bathroom attendants. After I zip up, some guy is offering me a towel and a mint like I just had sex with George Michael. I can't even tell if he's supposed to be there, or just some freak with a fetish. I don't want to be on your web cam, dude. I just want to wash my hands.

New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese.

- Jeremy

...I have proof!



...and...



Guard this information closely...we don't want them to figure out that we're on to them!

- Jeremy

...and so it is that one journey ends and another begins.



Sophia Jennifer Thompson
Born November 22, 2005
at 11:02 am
Weight: 7 pounds 4 onces
Length: 20 inches

Click Here for more pictures.

This whole birthing odyssey began this past Friday afternoon. Erin called me at work to let me know that she had been having contractions for a little while and they were coming pretty regularly. Needless to say, I raced home. Thank GOD for 200 horsepower! I probably drove a bit faster than I should have, but I felt the need to get home...and FAST!

I walked in the door and there was Erin, holding her tummy and grinning...We knew it was time! We called the doctor and were told to wait until the contractions were the standard 1 minute long 5 minutes apart for 1 hour. We waited...and waited...and waited. Finally they were coming just like the doctor wanted so we called and in a flurry of phone calls to friends and parents we were off to Highland Hospital for what we thought was going to be our little girl’s journey into the outside world.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be. As soon as Erin got prepped and put on the monitor her contractions stalled out. They sent us home disappointed and babyless. It was the beginning of what was to be a very rough weekend physically and emotionally.

There were a few random contractions on Saturday but nothing regular enough to be cause for going back to the hospital. Sunday was different. Erin started contractions in the afternoon and several hours later we found ourselves at the hospital in the same triage bed. The nurse and the residents checked her over and the contractions didn't stop. So we walked the maternity floor for an hour to see if things would progress. They did, or so we thought. According to the resident we went from 3 cm dilated to 3.5 and then to 4 after another session of walking. We were admitted to the hospital and given a birthing room for our stay. By 10 o'clock that night Erin hadn't progressed past 4 cm and was wiped out completely. The Doctor on-call made the decision to give her morphine to stop the contractions so she could sleep and then they would induce her in the morning. We slept...well, I should say that Erin slept. I, however, was given a big fold out chair that while very comfy when set up as a chair it was like laying on two very hard and uneven pieces of plywood when folded out into a bed. Alas, I was not the one having the baby...I have no business complaining.

Monday morning we woke up early and I headed home to grab a shower and a change of clothes while Erin showered and was given breakfast. I hadn't been home long when I found out that Erin was being sent home...AGAIN! She was devastated. Apparently when the on-call doctor came in and checked her she wasn't at 4 cm, she was still at 3. No progression meant no chance of inducing and, again, we were sent home with no baby.

Monday was not a good day. I didn't go into work and Erin and I stayed at home. These are the kinds of things that will test a marriage and it sure tested ours. The day over, we went to bed.

At 4:45 AM Erin awoke with a start. She yelled for me and woke me up. She had felt a hard kick and then something popped. I sat her up in bed and we discovered very quickly what had happened as amniotic fluid began to flow out onto the bed. With her water broken we called the doctor and we were told to wait until the contractions started. 15 minutes later the contractions were hitting hard and fast. We called the doctor again and with no phone calls this time we were off to the hospital. When we arrived we were immediately admitted and given a birthing room. This was it. This time there was no way in hell we were being sent home babyless again.

I won't get into the gory details...I think Erin would thank me for that. A little over 6 hours after we started Sophia was born. Erin has solidified her place as the queen of my f'ing universe. She was amazing. Yes, she did get an epidural, but she wasn't wimping out. Once the pushing started she was truly showing the world what giving birth is all about. I'm not going to complain about being in pain EVER AGAIN!!!

So she is here. What do I think? How do I feel?

Seeing her for the first time is forever burned into my brain. When I close my eyes I can still see that little angel face looking up at me and I can hear her little noises even when I'm not near her. She has taken her place next Erin as the center of my universe and I will never forget these last two days that I have spent getting to know her.

To My Little Girl:
Daddy loves you, Sophia. I promise to be the best daddy that I can.

To My Lovely Wife:
I love you, Erin. You truly are the only woman that I want to be the mother of my children.

- Jeremy