With Harrison’s arrival on the 15th, I have had neither the time nor the raw material for blogging about math, education, or technology. Instead I’ve been mostly figuring out how to decrypt my new son’s little coded messages and trying to sleep when I can. But there is one tech item from my experience of the last week that I would like especially to highlight: the ongoing awesomeness of the iPod touch.
Originally I wanted an iPod touch to replace my aging third-generation Photo iPod. I figured the main purpose of an iPod is music playback, and having internet and video capability would be sort of nice too. But now I see that the iPod touch is a lot more than a music player: It’s a passport to new-parent sanity. Consider the following ways the iPod touch has been of use lately:
– I used the iPod touch to provide real-time updates of my wife’s delivery — well, at least right up to the point we went to the delivery room — for friends and family using Twitter and Facebook. 
I was even able to make some short posts to our family blog, although blogging on the iPod screen keyboard really takes it out of you.
– I found out that while you’re in the hospital having a baby, the moments of genuine excitement are intense but sparse. Mostly there are lengthy periods when you’re just there in the hospital room with nothing to do. Fortunately before I came to the hospital with the Mrs. I stocked up the iPod with every LOST episode I owned and a whole bunch of podcasts, so when baby and mom were asleep and I wasn’t tired (ha! Remember when I wasn’t tired?) I could fend off the boredom.
– Although I have never actually done this, you could use the iPod in its originally intended mode, as a music player, to play back calming music to a newborn with one hand while holding the baby in the other.
– Perhaps the most frequent use of the iPod touch has been during my overnight shifts looking after the baby. These are usually from 8PM to midnight and involve trying to lay down in a quiet, dark room knowing that any attempted sleep is going to be interrupted by a suddenly hysterical baby. The first night we were home and I was on deck, I ended up rocking the baby in my left arm while seated and using my right hand to Twitter to the outside world. Now this has become something of a nightly live-blog of my exploits as parent-on-duty. I use the tag #babyshift to highlight these posts.
Sometimes I report on what’s happening during my shift. Sometimes I throw out questions to the “audience” which turn in to good discussions about parenting tips and tricks. I’ve had very lively conversation threads during these times, while I Twitter one-handed in the rocking chair in our bedroom waiting for Harrison to settle into sleep. The “#babyshift show” has made what would normally be a tedious parenting task into something fun, even something to look forward to. You simply can’t overestimate the value of connecting to the outside world when your whole world is turned inward because of a new baby, no matter how wonderful that baby is. (Join me most nights between 8-9 PM by going to my Twitter page.)
So here’s to the iPod touch and the whole idea of mobile access to the Internet.
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Casting Out Nines 
Ha, I had this same experience with my first smartphone, the Palm Centro. When my son was born, the extent of my then-phone’s awesomeness was being able to play Java pool. In those first few weeks after my daughter was born last February, however, I was able to Twitter, text, and email without my computer.
You’re dead on about connections to the outside world being important in that time period, too. We made that mistake with our first, to all of our detriment, but we made a concerted effort with the second to reach out, and we were all a lot healthier (emotionally, if not physically!) for it.
Now that Grace is going to school away from the house, I’ve come up with a new benefit to my iPhone. We have about a 20 minute ride to school. Her teacher assigns 20 minutes of multiplication flash card practice per day. If we don’t manage to get to it the night before, I hand her my iPhone and have her do it with one of the apps I found in the app store.
What you experienced there was really a blast. Having an iPod touch is good but seeing your newborn kid ios way better. Now the excitgement is doubled up because how iPod managed to change and suipport you throughout this magnificent event in your life. I’ve been using my touch as my stress reducer, watcing the heroes series on it everytime i’m on my office break is my best sample. It’s also easy to download movies especially songs since i encountered this great href=”http://ipoddownloads-site.com/ipoddownloads/ipod-download-music/” target=”_blank”>Ipod Download Music site. And the best part is it’s for free!
What you experienced there was really a blast. Having an iPod touch is good but seeing your newborn kid ios way better. Now the excitgement is doubled up because how iPod managed to change and suipport you throughout this magnificent event in your life. I’ve been using my touch as my stress reducer, watcing the heroes series on it everytime i’m on my office break is my best sample. It’s also easy to download movies especially songs since i encountered this great Ipod Download Musicsite. And the best part is it’s for free!