Announcing...

Birthday: 9:02AM Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Birthplace: Group Health Hospital, Seattle

Stats: 3lbs, 11.6oz; 16 1/4" long, and fuzzy. Cute-like.

It took us a bit to get come around to a name, but we found one.

And his name is called Hale True Benson Squire.

Hale as in 'hale and hearty', as in inhale, exhale, as in, 'this is our son, Hale'.

True as in loyal, straightforward, direct. As in true love.

He came a couple months early, and will need to stay in the hospital for a while while his systems mature enough to withstand life in the outside world. Mostly his lungs. He's healthy and we couldn't be happier!

It was a few hours after he was born that Amy got to see Hale for the first time. Kind of a big deal. It took a couple days before we could hold him, because of the inconvenience of the CPAP (Constant Positive Airway Pressure) apparatus he had blowing air into his nose, helping his lungs to get sturdier.

It looks scarier than it is. We keep thinking how glad we are we're getting this chance to get to know him a bit before his official 'coming out' date. It's like cheating, really.

He got that off yesterday (the 20th) and it was replaced with just a little tube. Immediately after he got the tube, he started getting in some skin-to-skin time with us.

All this tube and monitor stuff is evidently pretty standard operating procedure for kids who come out as early as this one did. The word on the street is that Hale is doing great, and has every chance of growing up just fine--he just needs to finish cooking is all.

Assuming all goes normally we will likely be able to bring him sometime around his original due date, April 22. That could go a week or two in either direction with no cause for alarm.

We tried out his name by writing it in Sharpie on his diaper. Which is tiny and cute, by the way. We think it's going to take. Hope so; it's on his birth certificate.

O Madonna. Beatific!