John Howard "Cosmo" Bond was born Sunday, July 18, 1999 at 12:04 a.m. He was six pounds, three ounces and 18 inches long. 

The birth was by Caesarean because of complications.

Jack - named for uncles on both sides of the family - was three weeks early. Amy's water broke at 1 a.m. Saturday but was not followed by labor contractions. She was hospitalized at 9 a.m. and was given drugs to induce labor. The contractions didn't start until 5 p.m. that afternoon.

But by 11 p.m., although Amy was handling some very intense contractions every one to two minutes very well (she says the karate really helped) the baby had made very little progress.

We found out why in the operating room. The baby had the cord wrapped around its neck twice and was not exactly in the right position. These are not always dangerous problems, but without the fluid around him he was not able to float out away from the cord.

Jack has reddish blonde hair and although looked incredibly like my father-in-law at birth (all babies do) he seems to look a lot like me, or so they say. I'm not sure myself, and anyway, babies  looks change as they grow.

But folks, this is a very cool thing and I'm a little surprised to realize that. I never really connected to babies before but it's a different thing when it's yours.

By the way, the choice of the name Jack had nothing to do with the fact that the birth experience eerily coincided with the disappearance and search for JFK Jr.

:-)

Things will be crazy for a while but we'll be in touch. Feel free to call. Mother and child should be coming home on Wednesday. Amy's mom is in town to help out. More news will be posted when/if we get a chance to sleep.