Alan and Terri Samuel Proudly introduce:
Anakin Jay Samuel who was born on the 16th of June in the year 2005 A.D. at 10:34 P.M. Central Standard Time at Gadsden Regional Hospital.

He was at ~37 weeks maturity, weighed 6lbs 6oz, at 19 ½” in length, and had a crown of 13 ½”.


History:
My wife (Terri Lynn Samuel), Anakin’s mother, is a Group B Strep carrier. She was placed on antibiotics shortly after being admitted Thursday afternoon around 8:00pm. The ideal treatment duration is four hours; unfortunately, she would never receive the full dose in time. An Epidural was given at 9:56pm for pain. After 15 minutes of observation it was apparent that the Epidural had caused the contractions to cease. At 10:14pm Potasid to induce the contractions once more and the doctor completes the rupturing of her water. 10:17pm, the contraction resume at 1 minute apart. At 10:29pm, Terri suddenly dilates from 5cm to 10cm. 10:31 the doctor arrives and awaits for everyone to get in place. After only three good pushes little Anakin was brought into the world. As a precaution, they immediately started him on antibiotic treatments. Along with the hearing, blood culture, and other standard tests, a CBC (blood count) test was performed (prior to antibiotic treatment). His initial CBC came back as 17k (normal) and he passed all of his other tests (including testing him for Group B). A second CBC test on the following day revealed that his white blood cell count (particularly that of new white blood cells) shot up to 49k. The sudden increase is indicative of fighting off an infection. Sunday, it was at 43k and Monday it was at 41k. On Monday, they decided to do a spinal test and urine culture in an attempt to determine what type of infection he might be trying to fight off. The tests returned negative. After becoming aware that Gadsden Regional had executed every test they could and after discussing the matter with a hematologist at the hematology division of the Baptist Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, we decided it to be in Anakin’s best interest to have him transported there for further testing.

Status:
Physically, Anakin Jay Samuel is in perfect physical health. His initial weight loss was only 2oz (4oz is standard). Many of the doctors have stated that if we had brought him into a clinic for examination, they would have given him a clean bill of health. The only curiosity is his high white blood cell count. Anakin has passed every test that has been performed on him. As of Monday night, his CBC had dropped to 40k and as of Tuesday his blood cell platelets had returned to normal (they were a little low on his initial admittance to the Children’s Hospital). The Children’s hospital has now run every test they have and also can not find anything. They have decided to administer one more CBC on Thursday and as long as it hasn’t gone up again and he’s not physically showing signs of being sick, they will release him sometime Friday morning.

We thank you all for your love, support, patients, understanding, and prayers during this stressful time for us. The Samuel household is anxious to bring little Anakin into our home so he can be around family, friends, and loved ones and continue on with a normal healthy and happy life.

On behalf of the Gibbs and Samuel families, we thank you.

Awesome, sounds like he's an overall healthy kid.

I wasn't aware you lived in AL though. Much less in Gadsden...only a small bit away from where I used to live (Madison).

Congratulations! He's cute.

But, since his name is Anakin, are you sure you're the father?

Well, but the good thing is, even if you were not the father, there still wouldn't be any other...

JES** CH**** Alan why did you fail to mention you were having a kid????

*firm hand shake and buys Friend 14 a large quantity of celebratory drinks*


:D:D:D:D:D:D

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

CONGRATULATIONS! I'm very happy for you and wish you all the happiness in the world with Anakin.

And I must say, the name actually sounds really good!

congrats!

Was it even higher than Yoda's?

Way to go

This has given me a new outlook on life. Thus, I'd like to clear the air on a few things.

First, I am Friend14. I chose CaptBewil as my new handle several years ago and have been using it for gaming and pretty much everything else. Ultamately I wanted to transition completely over to CaptBewil and stop using Friend14 as it's just one extra handle too many.

Secondly, I am not a physics major, though I do have a very unique interest in physics. As my physics profesor stated "You think in a very unique way differently then the rest of us, and I mean that in a good way." He and I would spend hours after class discussing relativity and my unique understanding of physics and the universe. My physics professor also stated "The breakdown in communication is apparent now. Everyone else is standing inside the box trying to figure out what's outside of it. You are standing outside the box trying to tell us what it is you see." To which I then remarked "the funny thing is is that all I'm trying to say is that there isn't anything outside the box" which gave him a good laugh. We are writing a book on it. There's some experiments going on elsewhere in the world that we're waiting on the results for before continuing any further, however.

Thirdly, George Lucas got the name Anakin from a friend of his that had Annakin as his last name. I just wanted to make it clear that my son's name comes from the Shakrit(sp?) languange spoken by buddhist and means Warrior. So that's where the Anakin part of his name came from. His middle name "Jay" came from Terri's brother Dennis Gibbs, Jr. whom she calls "J" (short for J-R). He's currently serving another tour in Iraq. You can also see a brief picture of him and his tank division that was used in the last Jib-Jab presidential parody.

Sweet, make sure he doesn't go to court to get his name changed to Vader

So, every time the kid misbehaves, you can yell, "You were supposed to be the chosen one!" Really make him feel guilty.

Congrats. I'd buy you a round if I wasn't under 21.

Be sure to teach him in the ways of the forces.

[/bad physics joke]

We shall watch his career with great interest... *evil grin*

Soon...I will have a new apprentice.

Actually, my middle name is Jay too.

And that's what I go by.

CONGRADULATIONS ON YOUR BABY!

Remeber, Jedi Training starts at a young age.

His name is really Anakin? Thats awesome.

Just..not for him.

Let's just hope... uh...

I got nothin'.

just remember, if you ever meet anyone named JarJar, gun it down ASAP

Congrats, man!

I'm not sure what to say other than those are pretty much my thoughts exactly.

...now if only Hayden, and what-his-face hadn't been such awful actors.

Wow, this is wonderful, I'm very happy for you! I'm sorry we got a bit out of touch, send me an email sometime if you want to tell me about your *progress*.

Or anything else for that matter, including Anakin!

GET ONLINE YOU SPOON!

Congrats on the chosen one. Be sure to tell him you are his father.

(By the way, I new about his second nick long before anyone else. Muahahahaha!]

[Also, I'd like to get ahold of a few models you've got, once you've got the time.]

JediKirby

awww!!! your baby is precious! congrats

Wait, you've yet to tell us the best part! How in the *world* did you ever convince your wife to name him Anakin?!?!

That is so cool. I am really looking forward to having a kid, just for the naming part. Of course, I'll probably smack myself for saying this later, when I actually have one... :p

Screw that, why the hell didnt you tell me you were married!?!!?

CONGRATS Dude! Just dont let him near any "Palpatines"!

Yea and dont call him "Ani" either.... it might make him want to purge Jedi.

Many congrats!

Do NOT call him little ani.

You should only start to worry if he's around 8 years old and likes girls twice his age

Haha, yeah. :p

woohoo!!! kids are awesome. i had a very difficult time when mine were babies. very difficult.
and we will all love them.

have fun.

let us read your book. i work in a world of physics. quantum electrodynamics and optical interference thin films. the very small. films with physical thickness measured in nanometers, deposited and monitored in angstroms. and so i'm very interested in the very large. the universe and it's vastness.

Congratulations! As for the name Anakin, I'm pretty sure it's some European name, perhaps translated...Most all of the names in Star Wars George took from other languages, sometimes slightly varying them. E.g. Darth Vader literally means Dark Father in...what was it, Finish, Swedish, something like that.

I recall reading that somewhere as well. I think it was Dutch, but I'm not sure.

Vader = father in Dutch.
Darth = ?

Anyway, this is great to hear. Seriously took me by surprise, I had no idea that you were a) married b) then to be dad.

Felicitations.

Congrats. nuff said.

I wish my name was Anakin...

And who are you trying to kid, Friend. If you were giving him a name that was the Buddhist word for warrior, you'd have spelled it "Annakin" then! Clearly you named him after the Skywalker of the same name. Admitt it!

BTW, CGTS!! CIGARS!!

She's a "closet" Star Wars Geek...though I just haven't got her to admit it yet. I quite often catch her making star wars references although she claims that the one time she's watched the series with me was only the second time she'd ever seen them.

Just a little update for anyone that's interested. We went to the hospital last night to check on him and he was doing great. He was more alert and active then he's been thus far, opening his eyes much more often and such. We also had an interesting "poopy" incident. We were changing his diaper because we were about to leave and he had a small spot in it. While we were changing it he pooted and discharged about a spoon full more. It went every where and Terri and I couldn't stop laughing. At any rate he was doing just fine.

This morning, we called to check on him and find out the results for the CBC they did this morning. They said it was a little higher. So we're now uncertain as to if he'll be able to come home tomorrow. I guess it'll just depend on what the pediatrition says...

Thanks for all of your kind words and support!

Okay, after a little confussion and talking to several people, we finally got the break down of the CBC. It turns out that his CBC is high, but not because of the white blood cells. It's "high" because his platellet count is a little higher then what it was, which is actually okay since it was low when they initially tested him. His CBC is actually down to 29k, which is a sharp drop off and puts him much much closer to where it's supposed to be (they said that the range varies but typically 15k to 20k is normal). So they're 99% sure he'll be able to come home tomorrow.

The best explination they have is that he had some type of infection when he was born. So, what little ani did was produce a large quantity of new white blood cells to get rid of it. Couple that with the antibiotics and the infection didn't stand a chance. So what's happening now, is that all of those thousands apon thousands of white blood cells he created are finally aging enough that they're beginning to break down and die off normally. At any rate, this explains why an infection never showed up in any of the tests. Basically, the infection was irraticated before the tests were done. What we've been waiting on all this time is for the new white blood cells he created to die off naturally. Nothing was wrong with him all along, in fact, he's body was doing everything it was supposed to. Additonally, he's gained two more ounces, so he's now up to where he was when he was born. It's a shame he had to spend all this time in a hospital and not with his family at home snuggled in all of the blankets we got him. But it was better to err on the side of procaution and make for certain that nothing was wrong.

*Does happy dance*

29 thousand?!? Not even Master Yoda has such a high count.