We're all contending for the honor of the most exhausted person in the family. I'm willing to concede first place to Tammy, although Aiden surely gives her a run for her money. But I'm calling top five for myself. I spent the afternoon in a stupor, after sleeping very little last night and then fighting my way through a stress-filled morning today.

The stresses of work for me weren't nearly up to what poor little Aiden had to go through on his first full day in the world. He was poked and scraped and punctured and snipped. The nurses kept coming in and taking him off to experiment on, then bringing him back to the comfort of his family. He held up very well, considering. Like me, he escaped into the wonderful world of sleep when all the rest got to be too much.

In fact, he slept for an hour in my arms this afternoon. He was calm and content, and so was I. I was going to sit there and gaze at this little miracle until someone told me I had to give him up. It was the nurse, who came in to drain some blood out of his heel, who took him away. He fussed a little during the ten minutes or so she was working on him, but his parents were right there and he seemed to know he was safe. After the day he had already, this was no big deal.

When I left the hospital, they were getting him ready to take home. Less than a full day old, he was about to be introduced to the little corner of the world where he'll meet his two big brothers and get to know his mom and dad and find out what's really important. They will all discover how being a family of five is different from four.

He's gradually healing from the bruising birth. He's now a little more reddish than purplish, and he's not as swollen around the face as he was right after last night's ordeal. He's not much for opening his eyes just yet. Tammy is the only person who's seen them, and she tells us they're blue. I think maybe that'll be another excuse for a photo op in a day or two.