Benjamin Edgar

Benjamin Edgar, born just after 2 a.m. Friday July 17, 2015, 6 pounds 10 ounces. 3.010 kilos for my European friends. A tiny young man. (His brother was a bruiser - 9 pounds.) I cut the umbilical cord. There was a perfectly tied KNOT in the cord; they'd never seen anything like it. And yet he's fine.

Eli's birth was incredible, but this one - the most intense experience of my life, by a million miles.

I can't write much now - got in at 5 a.m., got 4 hours sleep, must deal with my own life for a bit and then get back across town to help spring my daughter and her new son from hospital. It was a long hard day and night. She threw up so often that her throat is burned and it hurts her to swallow. During the process, I marvelled that women ever, ever, do this twice. But then a baby is born and profound amnesia sets in, which is why there are seven billion people on the planet.

My daughter is magnificent. There are no words to do her justice, so I'll just go with magnificent.

I took a break in the middle of yesterday, leaving her with her best friends Lana and Nicole, and went back to her place, a fifteen minute walk. She had all the littlest shoes ready on the change table.

Big brother was out with his dad. This is what Anna's living room looked like.

Benjamin Edgar, five minutes old.

He nursed instantly.

Anna was hoping for a midwife birth, but that was not to be. The midwives missed the actual birth but were there right afterwards and were wonderful, as was the whole phenomenal staff. Thank you, as always, Tommy Douglas.

Safe and warm.

And so very, very small.

He is perfect, except that only God is perfect and so there is one issue his mother will take completely in her stride - he has a sideways foot. A club foot, which his father also had. We knew about it from the very first ultrasound. It can easily be fixed, it'll just take some extra care. And if there's one thing that's sure, it's that he'll receive as much extra care as he needs. And more.