Karen's pregnancy, in less than a minute.

Allison Guy's birth: The slideshow

To scroll through the photos or find specific ones to print, visit the online photo gallery.

More updates to come, but the quick version is that everything's going great. Thanks for all the notes and support!

Allison Guy is here!

Born at 3:01 p.m. today, weighing 7 lbs. 3 oz.! More photos and reactions to come, of course.

Karen did fantastic!

Baby update 3: 1:05 p.m.

Things continue to go great. The doctor just came in for an exam and said Karen's 7 cm and 100% effaced (for those of you who understand the relative meaning of such things).

Not sure what this means for the timing. The doctor said "a couple more hours," but I'm thinking we'll be here a bit longer than that. Part of my assumption comes from the fact Karen is still totally relaxed and still reading a book. Of course, this might be because of her new best friend, Mr. Epidural. I got to rub one of her feet a few minutes ago, so at least I am earning my keep as something other than the birth blogger.

Baby update 2: 11:15 a.m.

Things are still going well, but slowly. Karen's epidural is in and working perfectly. She's been an incredible trooper so far, especially when they had to draw about a milk jug's worth of blood out of the back of her hand.

That said, I smoked her at gin rummy 2-1, so she must be a little distracted.

Baby update 1: 9 a.m.

After a surprisingly good night of sleep, we're back at the hospital, and the show's begun. Karen has started the induction, and contractions are slowly growing in intensity.

For now, she's comfortable, resting and reading a vampire novel. Pretty mellow scene at the moment, but I'm sure that'll change fast. So I'm not sure if I'll get a chance for another update before things get serious.

We're at the hospital. Aaand...now we're not.

First update: 3:35 p.m.

Karen's water broke about an hour ago, and we're now in our room at the hospital. Karen's comfortable and getting ready to see the doctor. No serious contractions yet, though, so it's hard to say how long this night is going to be.

More to come!

Second update: 4:36 p.m.

A bit of a false alarm, so we're heading home. Hospital offered to let us stay there, but we'll likely get more sleep at the house. (But still probably not much sleep.) We'll be back there first thing tomorrow morning to start the real show. (Promise.)

Five years ago today....

...it was an icy-cold, blustery day in Chicago. And mere minutes after our friend Matt snapped this photo, it started snowing and didn't let up. Thankfully, I don't live in a Victorian novel, so the weather didn't end up being a portent of things to come. It just made the bridesmaids cuss a little.

I doubt I have to tell any of you how incredible it's been being married to Karen. She keeps me excited about life and energized about learning new things. We've gone through some pretty dramatic transitions in the past five years, and Karen has always been the voice of enthusiasm and optimism, although she's enough of a realist to actually make me plan my life more than a day ahead.

I could obviously spend countless posts talking about how great she is, how much she's added to my life, how cute she looks when she's killing samurai on the XBox, but there's really no rush. We're only five years in.

Happy anniversary, Karen.

Blogging Griner quotient doubles. Science textbooks pulled for emergency revisions.

Big congratulations to my wife, Karen, who has joined the exciting world of blogging. She even started off strong, with a post that's simultaneously thought-provoking, sad and uplifting.

Personally, my favorite part of her blog is that her "about me" section ends with, "That's all you need to know for now." It helps give everyone an insight into the unique challenges I faced in courting her.

Enjoy! Oh and yes, I'm still besieged by work, so the blog updates remain soundly on the back burner. Maybe Karen will pick up the slack.