on fatherhood

having been a father for going on 12 days now, i think i know a thing or two about the ins and outs of bringing up baby right.

for example: installing the car seat. we have the removable seat that docks to a base (we even have a base for each car! wow!), so getting the base strapped down nice and tight is a must. i remember Stevens telling me how he had his knee in the car seat bouncing up and down on it to make sure it was torqued down nice and tight.

Andrea had been telling me to get out and put the base in at least one of our cars for about a week before she went into labor. naturally, i didn't get started until she was about 8 hours into labor, before we left for the hospital. and i didn't know what i was doing. in fact, after reading part of the directions, i was convinced that neither of our cars (8 and 14 years old) were even capable of transporting children safely.

i finally figured out, or so i thought, how to get the base installed. as we were getting into the car to drive to the hospital, Andrea looked at the car seat and said, "oh, that's definitely not right". under normal circumstances i would've argued with her, but come on: even i'm not that big of a jerk. "we'll worry about that later", i said and we drove on. half way to the hospital i said, "so why do you think it's wrong?". i couldn't help myself. she decided the angle of the seat was too steep and needed to be more horizontal. seemed logical.

after Oscar was born and we were in hiding at the hospital, i went out to the car to see what was up. that's when i noticed the level built into the car seat that tells you if the angle is right. she was correct, it was way steep. i looked and looked, but couldn't figure out how to make it right. defeated, i went back in the hospital room and proceeded to tell her about her steep back seats and how there was nothing we could do about it. she seemed to remember a way to adjust the angle, and immediately i felt like an idiot. "ok, i'll try again".

sure enough, after taking the base out of the car, i figured out how to adjust it to perfect pitch. now, i just needed to re-install it nice and tight again. remembering how Stevens had bounced up and down on his seat, i figured i'd do the same. except, instead of using my knee, i used my chest and bounced myself up and down on the hard, plastic base...driving it into my right ribcage. after about the 5th blow, i felt a sharp pain and was convinced i had broken a rib. luckily, i did not, but it still hurts to take a deep breath, laugh, etc. Andrea can't laugh hard, either b/c of her operation, so whenever one of us makes the other laugh and we both get going, we have to use our very reserved "pain laugh" while saying to the other between breaths, "stop it...stop it...it hurts...don't make me laugh...i'm gonna kill you". she thanked me for obtaining a sympathy injury.

it's been over a week since the injury and it's still hurting. i googled the symptoms and believe it's costochondritis.

don't worry, it's much more painful than it sounds.