A little over a week ago, on Friday, November 9th, our son Jack Obadiah Gallagher was born at 3:54pm, and our lives changed forever...

Ok, i can hear the gaging and eye rolling already. Relax, I'm not about to go all emosappy and gushy on you. It's actually a rather simple statement - your life really does change when you suddenly have a little guy (or girl) to take care of. No matter how much you prepare for it, the first week as a new parent can be exhausting - especially when the little one comes earlier than expected. ^^;;

Yes, I know that I don't really have to apologize for the sudden hiatus from the comic due to Jack's sudden and early arrival, so for once i won't. :) Dom called me the next day and asked if he should take over Megatokyo for that week. My mind was a little frazzled so i said yes. Sorry about that. ^^;; (Actually, a big huge thank you goes out to Dom and everyone else who kept an eye on things while i was offline. Thanks guys!)

Right now, I'm starting to get back to work, and it already feels rather daunting. ^^;; My plan for the Megatokyo comic is to be back on track by Monday, November 26th (Monday). As you may have guessed, the plan most borked by Jack's early arrival was our plan for the holiday rush at the MegaGear store. As i said in my last rant, we were originally going to do a big push in November and then take December off when the baby came. There went that plan. ^^;; I'm gonna scramble the next few days to get the new products up and online so that we can get the store rolling along and take care of everyone for the holiday season. Even though this is traditionally our busiest time of year, we have enough friends and family pitching in to help us through it all. That said, please visit the store on Friday  for all the new offerings and to stock up on Megatokyo gifts for the holiday season. (Update: I'm still working on getting everything up for the store, still have to photograph the new shirt and finish the christmas ornament and some other stuff.  I'll post here when things are ready :)

Enough about the store and the comic already! What happened?

I'll sum up.

At the beginning of the week of November 5th, Sarah and I had the understanding that they were probably going to have to bring baby a few weeks early. They had as much as told us that it was going to be later the following week. On Friday the 9th we were just going in for our weekly ultrasound and checkup, expecting to get scheduled and set up for the following week. We didn't bring anything with us to the hospital - no camera, no day bag, nothing, not even a book or magazine to read. It was just an early morning appointment.

You can imagine how surprised we were when many hours later, after many other things happening, Sarah found herself being rolled out of the Triage area towards the C-section suites and a nurse was pushing scrubs into my hands telling me to put them on. What? A C-section? Now? You mean, like... NOW?

It all happened so fast that neither of us had any time to really think what was happening. It wasn't long before I trying to keep my glasses from sliding down my facemask while holding our very small but very healthy baby up to Sarah's cheek to say Hi :) He was 4lb 10oz, pre-term, but healthy and looked like he was going to be fine.

The next 24 hours were a blur. I know that if i managed to get 2 hrs of sleep in that 24 hrs it was a lot. Thankfully, Sarah's sister (who happens to also be a nurse at the same hospital) came down and stayed with us starday night taking care of Jack while Sarah and I got a few hours sleep. Amazingly enough, both mom and baby were doing well enough on Saturday that they sent all of us home on Sunday.

As i am sure any recently new parent can relate, the first week with a new baby is quite an experience, a kind of trial by fire that tends to run new parents ragged. Feeding the little guy every 2.5 hrs, constant diaper changes, making sure he is still breathing (yes, you freak out about that for a while)... i wont bore you with the details. The proverbial total lack of sleep for new parents is no myth :)

For us, however, there was a little more to deal with than just being new parents with a new baby. Jack was born almost a month early, and even though he was doing really well for a preemie, there were a number of obstacles for him to overcome. We had many worries and a number of scares the first week, and every time we were clear of one worry another potential issue surfaced. The constant back and forth of 'is baby going to be ok or not ok?' really, really wore us down, but we got through it.

The good news is today we finally got the all clear from the pediatricians - Baby Jack is fine, doing well, and nothing major to worry about. If he can survive his parents it looks like he will do just fine. :P As long as his dad doesn't drop him or put a diaper on over his head in a sleepy stupor in the middle of the night, he's got nothing more to worry about other than eating and growing and messing up diapers and sleeping and... well, making us two of the happiest parents around. He's real good at that last one (though I'm sure he'll make up for it when he's older :)

I won't belabor this anymore other than to say thank you to everyone who emailed and msg'd Sarah and i with best wishes and congratulations. We're both still a little tired, but we're both doing fine. More or less :)

In addition to the rant picture above, there are a few additional pictures i considered for rant images over the past week while trying to get to a point i could write something to let you folks know what was up. The picture that Dom posted last week was the only one i could take at the time, having only my cell phone. Earlier this week i took this one which shows me holding Jack while looking through the mess that I call an email in box. That's a little too sombre, tho it is a rather thoughtful picture (it's via my macbook isight camera). This photo is actually kind of interesting - for most of the first week we had to have Jack on a Bili Blanket, which is a blanket of fiber optics into which UV light is pumped from a big light. I joked that it was like having a bi0roid baby, all plugged in with a big heavy cord and glowing like a heavily modded game box. I look like a mad scientist there. :P

That'll do for now. Nothing is more irritating that new parents with 'ohh, look at pictures of our new baby!!' stuff. :P No need to run for the hills, Life is settling down, and like i said, things are different, life HAS changed for us... but in a good way.

Now i just need to figure out when i'm gonna find some time to watch Clannad. I guess there really are things that would keep me from watching it. :)