The Miracle of Birth

I would like to share another great memory of my life. On January 7, 2005 Emma Naomi was born. It was a day Heather and I had been waiting for quite some time. Well I should say for obvious reasons Heather was more anxious than I was.

As most women know and share to almost everyone, during the last month of pregnancy they are ready to be done. To take you back a few weeks, Heather went to the doctor a few days before Christmas for a final check. During the doctor visit, the doctor very enthusiastically said, “it looks like you might have a Christmas baby; I think the baby could come at any time.” I was pretty excited. But unfortunately for me Heather heard, “The baby is going to be born very soon.” Now I can understand a woman’s need to be done with pregnancy when they are down to the last few weeks, but it doesn’t help the situation to have the doctor tell my wife the baby is coming at any time. The next two weeks were the longest weeks of our lives. Everyday Heather would say, “I just want to be done. I should be having this baby today.” As the good husband that I am, I was supportive and sympathetic to her needs and did everything I could do to keep her comfortable, but there really wasn’t anything that I could do. Christmas eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and New Years Day all came and past and no baby. It was the longest Holiday season ever.

To make the story longer, Heather was not working just waiting, and I was working two jobs to keep up. My employers knew I was on high alert and had to leave at a moment’s notice. On a normal day when I got done with my morning job, it was straight to work again. For some strange reason on January 7 I had some spare time and decided to make a surprise visit home. I was home for about 30 minutes when Heather developed major contractions. Heather called the hospital to ask if we should come in and asked the standard question, “How far apart are you?” Well at this time I was running around all crazy getting stuff ready and had no idea how far apart they were, and Heather was a little preoccupied at the time to sit and stare at a clock to time it. So I think at the time we just gave them some answer of “5 minutes.” The hospital gave us the run around and said we should wait and come in if they were closer together. Well after another contraction came about 2 minutes later, Heather called again and the hospital said come in. I grabbed the bag and headed in.

On the car ride over I remember telling Heather to hold on and wait. I did not want to pull over and deliver a baby on the shoulder of highway 694. Thank goodness we made it to the hospital. I got Heather a wheel chair and we were on our way. We got inside and they requested we register. I tried to explain we had preregistered, but for some reason we weren’t in the system. Trying to remain calm I started to fill out the paperwork and Heather in her glory said, “I can’t wait! Fill out the paperwork later and get me upstairs.” I looked at the receptionist, I looked at Heather, I looked at the receptionist, I looked at Heather, and we were on our way upstairs. We got to our room and Heather was awesome. After 90 minutes at 6:35 PM Emma Naomi took her first breath on her own and came into the world. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen and when it happened I have no idea what I was thinking about. I just remember one minute nothing, the next a baby. The nurse proudly announced, “You are the proud parents of a baby girl.” Heather emotional and sobbing says, “I’m sorry it’s not a boy.” I hugged and kissed her and said, “It’s ok!”