So much has happened. At 12:11 pm on March 12, 2003, Alexander Clifton Knight was born by c-section. He weighed in at 7 lb, 6 oz, and was 19 3/4 inches long. Not bad for being 4 weeks early, but still he's just a little guy. He spent the first night in NICU so the doctors could observe his blood sugar and blood oxygenation, but all was well and he got to go up to Beth's hospital room the next afternoon. Already he has developed a penchant for peeing (and pooping) as soon as his diaper is off. At two days old, he managed to soil mother's just-made hospital bed two different ways at once. He continues to sprinkle at nearly every changing. I've hardly ever changed a wet diaper because he only pees once it's off. Today, he even got his pediatrician. I have gotten pretty good at changing diapers if I do say so myself despite the peeing. Beth is recuperating nicely, and Alex is eating well after a few false starts and a steep learning curve for both him and mommy. He looks a lot like my Dad. I've been off work since the day he was born, and it's going to be hard to get back into the swing of things Monday. I also missed the NCAA pool at work this year being gone, so of course thus far I've correctly picked 26 of 28 second-round teams with 4 games still in progress. I even called the Tulsa upset of Dayton and Central Michigan over Creighton. My final four: Florida, Texas, and Kentucky over Oklahoma in the final.

Beth had another appointment with the doctor in Fort Wayne today. After looking her over he decided he was having a Kenny Rogers moment...know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em...and the long and short of it is he does not feel comfortable letting her pregnancy go any farther. So, we are going to have a baby tomorrow.

Beth had yet another doctor's appointment in Fort Wayne yesterday, and he told her that she was doing better than she had been on Monday enough so that he was going to try to let her go another week or two. He said that last Monday he was almost sure he would have delivered the baby yesterday but her blood pressure was down some so he changed his mind. Now he wants to see her again on Tuesday (he told us to bring our toothbrushes) and he'll judge from there. This morning I went out because I had gotten a flyer for a big sale at one of the local used car chains and wanted to see what kind of stuff they had. I wound up test driving a 1998 Ford F-150 XLT 3-door extend cab home to show Beth. We both really liked it a lot (and had had a feeling lately that maybe we were a little hasty buying the van last fall) and wound up trading in the van and taking the truck. So, now we have a towing vehicle that is 10 years newer with 90,000 miles fewer on it, and makes me feel a lot better about selling the Saturn, which we have also decided to do, because I don't want to have 3 cars. PJ and Roma visited today from Indy. We didn't do a whole lot because Beth is on bedrest.

Beth had another appointment today, this one with the doctor in Fort Wayne. I couldn't go with her so her friend Kate did. I wish I could have been there because we had a few surprises. For one, the doc didn't like the way her blood pressure was up and has decided that we will not be delivering the baby in Warsaw because he wants to be directly involved. Two, mostly due to concern over preeclampsia, he wants to deliver the baby this Friday, or if Beth's doing better then, no later than next Friday. Three, the baby is not a girl. Our child, in the doctor's words, has cojones. Of course, this news comes only two days after Beth's baby shower in which we got a lot of cute pink things because everyone knew it was a girl. This is the second time he's flip-flopped on us (see 11-18-02, 12-31-02) so maybe we should wait to see things when the baby's born before buying too many blue things with tractors on them.