12/10/2008 - 17:09
Tyson Chandler II
by Tyson Chandler

We have a healthy baby boy and he's doing great.

He's got a different personality than Sacha. He's much more calm.

My wife is doing really well. We had a great delivery and everything went as planned. It couldn't have been better.

There was something (I couldn't even pronounce it) that they thought he may have had that would make him more susceptible to catching pneumonia, so they wanted to monitor him for three days to make sure that he didn't have it. And he didn't have it.

The afternoon before he was born, I was planning on having someone from the Hornets drive my truck from the hotel to the arena (we were playing the Clippers), so I could drive straight home, but my truck ended up catching a flat somehow. So, I ended up having to go back to the hotel, gather my things, and then I left the hotel close to one o'clock. Then I had to have something to eat, my old faithful, In-N-Out, on the way home. And I got to my mother's house around two.

Then we woke up around four to go to the hospital. We got there, they checked my wife in and started the whole process. This one was quicker than Sacha. Around two o'clock in the afternoon, she started pushing, and about 10 or 15 minutes later, Tyson Chandler II was there.

My wife got a little nervous at the last minute, figuring she was going to have to push hard because of how tough it was with Sacha. But Thank God everything worked out great and went smoothly.

I WISH HE WAS A LITTLE BIT TALLER
It's a totally different feeling with a boy. First of all, Sacha's attitude was very noticeable when she was a baby. So, that's one huge factor.

And when you have a girl, you're like, "That's my little angel. I'm going to protect her." But when you have a boy, it's like, "Yeah, that's my little man."

The way you think is totally different from the way you think about your little girl. She's like Daddy's little sweetheart, but he's my little man. It's just two different things.

You're thinking about fishing trips, playing sports and all that stuff. I'm already thinking ahead about how I'm going to act when he starts playing sports, and how I'm going to communicate with him and help him without putting pressure on him, or without being overwhelming. I'm already thinking about that stuff.

Sacha came out at 22 inches long, and my son came out at 20 inches long. But my daughter did come a week after her due date and my son came two weeks before his due date. So, I'm hoping that's what it is, because if my daughter stole all my genes and my son is going to take after my wife, I'm going to be one upset father. Ha ha.

I DIDN'T GET CURIOUS THIS TIME
It's so funny. Walking around the hospital, people were asking me, "Did you look? Did you look?" I guess they had read the blog. I told everybody that I didn't look.

I didn't look and it was a great experience because of it.

We were in the hospital for three days, and I became like the local hospital celebrity in the cafeteria. I was pretty much restricted to our room and the cafeteria, so I was going to the cafeteria pretty much every couple of hours. I made friends with the chef down there and he was hooking me up with stuff that wasn't on the menu. He started making me these burritos and getting creative with it.

Here's some advice: If you ever have to stay at the hospital for a few days, make friends with the chef.

THANKSGIVING WITH THE FAMILY
I had planned on waking up and leaving for Denver Wednesday night and playing Thursday. Then the doctors told us about the possible condition, so I didn't want to leave then. They told me that they would be able to notify us Thursday morning. So I thought I would find out and then try to get the first flight Thursday morning. But they didn't get the results until it was too late for me to get out.

We checked out of the hospital Thursday afternoon and I wasn't going to make the game, so I decided to just wait until Friday morning to fly to Portland.

So, I ended up staying, which didn't work out bad, because the team still won and I got a chance to be with my son on his first Thanksgiving. He watched his first Hornets game with me by his side. So, that was a good thing.

GIVE MY BOY A NICKNAME
I'm debating on a nickname, so maybe you guys can help me out. The first one is "Slim," because he's really skinny and long. He's got long limbs, big ears and big feet, but he's just so long and skinny. So, I was calling him "Slim," which my wife loves.

The second name is "Red," because when he gets hungry, he gets so angry, he turns bright red. So, I started calling him "Red" in the hospital too.

I really can't make up my mind, but my mom and my wife love "Slim." So they want me to call him that.

Then, my father-in-law's nickname was "Red" growing up and they called my grandfather "Red Boy." So, I kind of want to call him "Red" after his great-grandfather and his grandfather, but I like "Slim" a lot.

I need you guys to help me decide.

Mama P (Chris Paul's mother) was saying, "You gotta call him 'T.J.'! I love 'T.J.'!"

I told her, "No, Mama P. We're not calling him 'T.J.'"

There's nothing wrong with it, but I just didn't want to call my son "T.J." Just for that reason, we didn't make him a Junior.

Some of my teammates call him "TC2" or "T2." I'm just gonna stick with either "Slim" or "Red." My wife just calls him "Baby Tyson."

BIG SISTER SACHA
People have been asking about how Sacha would react to the baby. At first, it was a little rough. When he first came out, I was holding him and she was like, "Daddy, put him down."

I told her that I would give him to Mommy.

"No, don't give him to Mommy."

I asked her who she wanted me to give him to.

"Uh, put him there." And she pointed to the end of the bed.

I said, "No, Sacha. He's still a baby. Somebody has to hold him."

Then she goes, "Give him to Big Mama." That's what she calls my mom.

Then I think his grandmother picked him up and she ran over there and hopped into her grandmother's lap to take up space so that Baby Tyson couldn't sit there. My wife was like, "Sacha-Marie, you are not to act like that."

So, she got reprimanded a little bit early on and was upset about that. But when we brought him home, she really wanted to hold him and help feed and change him.

Now, my wife says that she's such a great help, bringing her diapers and helping fold his clothes. She wants to hold him all day. So, they've really bonded in the last two weeks. But we really had to win her over by saying, "This is your little brother. You have to take care of him."

When we first came home though, she's just sitting there, and she says, "I'm not gonna hit Baby Tyson. I'm not." My wife and I looked at each other wondering what she was thinking.

Yesterday, she tells my wife, "I'm not gonna feed Baby Tyson. I'm not gonna feed him." My wife said she doesn't know where she's getting this from, but she's got to make sure that Sacha's not putting food in his mouth when she's not paying attention. So, we definitely have to watch her.

HOME ALONE II
Not being around my family has been tough. I just try to blank it out of my mind.

One thing though is that I definitely have a release now. She had the baby, I was there and everything went well. The first month of the season, I was playing with an extra weight on my shoulders, because I was so worried about it.

I definitely feel a lot more free now. Then again, they're not here, so I just have to blank it out, counting down the days. I think about them all day, but I just try not to dwell on it.

And they'll be here soon. We keep moving the date when they'll come back here up. We had planned on them coming back January 8th or 9th, when we get back from Utah. But my wife's so homesick that we're thinking about pushing it forward either to right before Christmas or right after Christmas.

They can't come home now because we wanted to wait a while before having the baby fly, but also because we're doing house work here. There's a lot of painting, and a lot of drilling, and a lot of chemicals. So, we don't want to bring the baby back until that's all finished.

When we moved in, a lot of the stuff still wasn't finished from after the hurricane. We were getting a lot of problems, and they're fixing everything that was damaged. We want to bring the baby back to a healthy environment.

BASS UPDATE II
It's been cold, so I haven't had a chance to get out and tackle that bass, but I did go out fishing Sunday and caught this huge red that was about as big as an ice chest.

So you guys that were giving me advice on the bass will be proud of me, because I did catch a redfish that was about 13 pounds. I got him out in the wetlands. I'm not sure what part, but I don't want to let out my secret anyway.

I'll put a picture of the red in the blog when I get it. My man Sal took the picture. He also sent me home with some lures and was giving me tips on how to get the bass.

But I appreciate all the coaching and help you guys were giving me in the last blog post. I'll take everything into consideration when I go out back, I'm gonna pull out all the tactics, and I'm gonna get him on the first sunny day.

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