This is AMAZING

I doubt that any amount of reading, videos, classes or stories from friends and family can properly tell you what it's like to be in the delivery room and to watch your baby being born.  I was blessed with that opportunity yesterday morning at 5:42am as I watched while six young women helped Nicole deliver Caroline.  Then there were the people who got us to that point, the folks at our OB/GYN, the nurses in the OB triage area where they decide if you're really going to have a baby soon, or if you have to go back home. 

 

I've had anethesia to numb a tooth before and I know that it is amazing, but when it transforms your wife into a peaceful joking woman, it makes me want to hug the doctor that administered it. 

 

I'll never forget hearing our deliver nurse Catherine inviting me to look at the top of Caroline's hairy head, when that was all that was visible.  The macho man in me couldn't decline, and I'm so glad I did.  I was able to watch, through a series of three-push contractions as Caroline came to be born.  There were so many things that I could have focused on at that point.  Not passing out was one of them, but I had that under control pretty well.  There were two nurses who were there to take care of Caroline after she was born.  Until then, they had nothing to do but to watch me to make sure I was winning the battle vs. gravity.  Those two were focused on me.  I was focused on Nicole.  She was focused on Caroline.  Nice little system we had set up there.

 

As soon as Nicole pushed that final time, and Caroline rotated onto her back (as if to greet her mother face to face), I'll never forget what I saw at that moment.  I saw a baby who honestly struggled to be born, who worked as hard as her mother did to join us that morning.  There were colors and things that I suppose make some look the other way.  What I saw was an amazingly beautiful and strong baby meet her mother for the very first time.  They were best friends instantly. 

 

Among the many things I learned that morning are these:  The cord is tougher to cut than you may imagine, and that things don't always go according to plan, but that those things just add to the story we begin building from day one!