I'd like to thank Al Gore for the Internet, Steve Jobs for the iPhone, Mr. BlackBerry for my BlackBerry and the genius behind the Flip video camcorder for their role in the birth of my first grandchild.
I couldn't have done it without you guys.
Little Michael came into this world (just as I predicted!) on Thursday, Dec. 30, but he arrived 3,000 miles and three time zones away from here.
Thanks to modern technology, his grandparents, his aunts and uncles and concentric rings of family and friends knew it — and saw him — almost instantly.
We saw him shiver through his first cry. We saw his first sneeze and his first yawn. And, just as important, we saw the expressions on the faces of his mother and father in the moments after his birth.
Despite all those who complain about the intrusiveness and relentlessness of the Internet, it is the greatest thing since … well, since a plane ticket and a boarding pass.
During the hours before Michael arrived, I kept my husband in the loop by texting the updates I'd receive from my fellow grandmother — also via text message. She was in touch with the baby's aunt, who was on site in California, via cell phone and text. In turn, I kept my daughter informed by instant message.
My son called his father on his cell phone as soon as the baby arrived, and grandpa could hear Michael's strong cry in the background.
But those were smoke signals compared with what followed.
Photos and videos slingshot their way around the country with the speed of light in the minutes after Michael arrived.
We saw a photo of his sweet face before he'd even been weighed. Videos arrived next, and we could see his tiny breaths. Videos also captured his little yawn and the cutest sneeze in the history of allergies.
And the video of his sleepy little self being dressed for the ride home arrived before the new parents had finished unpacking the car.
By the next day, we were on Skype, video-calling the new family and watching the baby hiccupping and the parents smiling. The picture was so clear, they didn't even look tired.
In the days that followed, there were video and photo updates daily — all shot and transmitted in seconds with a cell phone. I carried my laptop around like a grandma's brag book of photos, dialing up the wireless connection in a coffee shop to show a friend, and carting it around to replay the videos again and again for neighbors.
I took my cell phone everywhere, just in case there was someone who hadn't seen a video of Michael breathing as he slept or opening his cobalt-blue eyes.
Also thanks to the Internet, food for the parents and gifts for the baby were on their way with the click of a mouse.
And, thanks to Facebook, the new parents were quickly awash in affection from friends and family from all over the country. I think it took their breath away to realize how much love there is for them.
If you have children and grandchildren, you know they never tire of hearing stories about how they were born.
Years from now, I am thinking, I will tell Michael how he was born on the Internet.