[I.Rowboat]

I remember the births of both of our children quite vividly.

For the first, my wife had just begun her maternity leave, and the baby wasn't due for a few more weeks. It was 7pm and I was doing some work to my truck (long time project vehicle and money pit). I had rented an engine hoist to pull the motor, had a bazillion tools and parts spread out and had just finished removing the cylinder head; my arms and clothes were covered in grease when my wife came down stairs and said in a very quiet voice that her water had broken. My stomach jumped several feet upwards and to the left, and then I quickly stuffed tools, parts, and an engine hoist back into the garage, hurriedly got cleaned up, stuffed some clothes into an overnight bag, and drove us to the hospital. One funny story from the hospital: My wife had been consistent throughout the pregnancy that she wanted a natural childbirth, and did not want any drugs or an epidural. Once we got the hospital and the labor pains began in earnest, she reconsidered this decision, first agreeing to fentanyl and later to an epidural. When the anesthesiologist finally arrived, it turned out he was a classmate of hers from college, which was weird because she went to a small school (Swarthmore), on the opposite side of the country, and not a classic pre-med school. It was funny because it was so incongruous -- she's already almost hallucinating from the pain and the baby that's trying to get out, and here's this guy who's simultaneously putting an IV in her spine and asking her how people she hasn't seen in 10 years are doing. Very surreal.

The total labor took 12 hours, which is pretty quick for a first child. I was at her side and watched the delivery, which was fascinating, although my wife was squezing my fingers so hard i was worried she might break one of them, lol. Happily, our son was born healthy. The next few days are a blur, but my most vivid memory is when when we went home 48 hours later, carrying our sleeping son up the stairs, in his car seat, into our home, setting him down on the floor, and then my wife and I turning to each other and each having this feeling of, "Oh, [censored], what now? what have we gotten ourselves into??" LOL...that was five years ago, and we've come a long way since then, although I just spent the weekend with my brother, who had his first child 10 weeks ago, and it brought back a flood of memories.

The birth of our daughter was much quicker and much less traumatic -- labor lasted only a couple of hours, and we both had some idea of what to expect for the ensuing days/weeks/months.

It's been a surprise how different our daughter is from our son -- while our son is very sanguine, our daughter is much more opinionated and hot tempered. She really keeps us on our toes! I quickly bonded with our son, but I had a very hard time bonding with our daughter during the first year, as she was colicky and only wanted the attention of her mother. Since she turned one in August she mellowed a bit and has blossomed into a delightful, mischevious little girl who has her daddy wrapped around her finger. But boy, is she going to be trouble when she gets older!

I love both of my kids and couldn't imagine life without them.