Sleepless in North Minneapolis

This is a little late, but big congratulations are in order for my friend Dustin and his wife, Angelique, who gave birth last Monday (the 9th) to their daughter Kara. She was born at 10:41am and weighed 8 lbs. 3oz., which, I was informed, is more than I weighed when I was born. There were no major complications, and both mother and daughter are fine. I went to visit the family in the hospital the next day, and was glad to find that Kara is indeed as cute and Dustin told me she was. It was a long couple of days for the new parents, as I found out when Dustin called to tell me the news at 6pm on Monday. I wondered why he sounded happy but not energized. I found out that neither of them had been asleep when Angelique went into labor at midnight, and he had subsequently been awake since Sunday morning. They actually got some sleep Monday night, so when I saw them on Tuesday they were both looking pretty good.

Dustin has already thrown himself into his new role of doting father. When I arrived at the hospital, Dustin was out with Kara while she was weighed, and Angelique informed me that earlier in the day Dustin had taken somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 pictures of Kara in the same position. He claimed that the lighting conditions and facial expressions were changing by the second, thus necessitating the large number of pictures. I don't think he had maxed out the memory card on his digital camera yet, but I'm sure that by now he's done so several times over.

So a big welcome to Kara Grace Allebach, who is now on her 9th day in the world. And congrats again to Dustin and Angelique, who seem to be coping with their new parenthood very well, albeit with perhaps less sleep than they're used to.