Fwd: Welcome to the World, Blart Bart

[Kelly Steinlage]

Amazing things come in threes. . . . Company, Olympic medals, movie trilogies, bad luck, branches of government, and, as of early this morning, the Dorlage children.

Around 11:30PM last night, Kelly woke me from my slumber and calmly (relatively speaking, given the situation) informed me that it was time to go to the hospital. Through the dark, we raced up Germantown Avenue.

As the orderly wheeled Kelly up from the ER, she was cheered on and wished good luck from the others waiting for treatment in the ER. Apparently, her battle cries and streams of obscenities made them realize just how much less painful their own ER ailments were. As we headed into Labor and Delivery, a new mother and father passed us heading to the maternity ward. As we passed, the father looked at me with a look that said both: phew and good luck. My look back: OMG.

We arrived in our room at 12:20AM and only minutes later our son was born. In retrospect, this has made me shudder to think about how this could have played out differently (in the car, along Germantown Ave) had there been traffic along the way. As it was, though, at 12:55AM (is four pushes a record?), Blart Bartholomew (Bart) popped into the world. At 8 pounds, 9 ounces, it has made Kelly and I laugh to hear the nurses refer to Blart as a "big" baby, given that his two siblings weighed in at over 9 pounds each. He's tiny!

When the dust settled, it became clear that he is healthy, Kelly is healthy, and my name selection was overruled in favor of Wyatt James.

Like his siblings before him, it will be wonderful to see his personality unfold. Jack is in his "super hero to the rescue" phase, jumping around the room, fighting crime and dinosaurs and, occasionally, helping to pick up something that spilled. Alice's current passion revolves around "beans" (jellybeans), "kookies" (cookies) and "dessert" (dessert). If the first twelve hours are any indication, Wyatt will always prefer sleeping and pooping to much else and hold a general disdain for having his diaper changed. All such individuals!

The third one may be a charm but charm or not, it's about to get a whole lot wilder around the Dorlage household.

With love (though slightly dazed) from Einstein Medical Center in Montgomery County,

Kelly, Christopher and Wyatt