11.26.09
When attending the birth of your child
Number One Fan: One of the items I took to the hospital while my wife was getting ready to give birth was a small fan. Amy is prone to opening windows for fresh cool air at home; for the induced labor she was getting various drugs that were cranking up her internal thermostat.
Leading up to our big day Amy and I had watched a number of TV shows about births. In one show I caught sight of a small clip-on fan on the back of the bed over the new mother’s shoulder. As I rushed back home to grab some supplies, this came to mind. And it was a life saver. Amy’s room had sealed windows and she was sweating as things got rolling. I was able to bring out and adjust the fan continually through out the labor and the recovery after the C-section.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a broken camera is a thousand regrets.
You should take a camera, but maybe not a video camera. I can guarantee that you will want photos for family and friends and for yourself. We bought a good Canon point-and-shoot camera in preparation of having a baby and I worked with it for a few months before the big event. I felt quite comfortable with it, I had extra batteries and the recharger in the room ready to go if needed. As my boy got whisked from the OR to the receiving room, I grabbed the camera and started shooting some stills. I switched to video mode and then it happened.
“Memory Card Error”
Here I am recording the first moments of my child’s life, hoping to bring the images back to Amy and save them for posterity and the camera goes belly up on me. From what I can tell now, the memory card itself may have been at fault rather than the camera, but I did NOT have time to diagnose the problem. So as they say, the best camera is the one you have with you (and WORKS). I took out my iPhone and started taking picture with it. Mine is a 3G, not a 3GS, so I didn’t have video recording, but at least I could bring up the voice recording app and capture some cries.
The moral of the story is to have a backup for the irreplaceable stuff, the stuff that can only be captured once. The camera or video camera or whatever. Also, make sure it is small enough to fit in your pants pocket. I’m hoping that someday we will get an iPod touch with a video camera with a half dozen megapixels, but even then, I will still want a second one in back pocket for this sort of event.