For fathers: remember when you first became a daddy?

[elwoodblues]

My oldest was an interesting experience. My wife went into labor about 10:00 pm. After a few hours at home we went to the hospital. Everything was going along smoothly (though slowly.) When the doctor got there about 10:00 am he checked on my wife and said that the baby was breach and we'd have to do a c-section. Things moved fairly quickly after that and we had our son shortly after 11:00. When I heard it was going to be a c-section I broke down. I was very nervous for my wife's safety (even though a c-section is fairly common) and we just didn't mentally prepare for the surgery at all.

WARNING RELIGIOUS CONTENT: A few days later I went to church. I had been in kind of a rut with my faith and needed a boost. I questioned how great a sacrifice was really made by Jesus --- I mean there are martyrs who die for their faith and they didn't have the benefit of knowing they were god. And then it hit me...the great sacrifice wasn't just dying, it was sending a child to death.

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Our first daughter's birth was a scheduled c-section. Really, we were both cool as a cucumber. Nothing really out there with that one, though we really did bring a beautiful baby into the world.

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The twins' birth was something else entirely. My wife was scheduled for a c-section on Thursday, September 27th (this year.) The doctor wanted to do an amnio on Tuesday the 25th. I was saving up my time off work and decided to head to work instead of the amnio (my wife's mother went with her.) I was on the train and just about to Chicago (hour+ train ride) when I get a call on my cell from my mother in-law saying "turn around, they're taking the twins today." The train schedule was not compliant, so I took a $100+ cab ride to the hospital --- nervous as hell. The twins were born about 10 minutes after I got there at 10:50 and 10:51 respectively. Anna was whisked away to intensive care and Emma, my wife, and I headed to recovery. The nerves were really high about Anna, but there ended up being nothing wrong.

My kids = cute [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] (and slightly aryan looking)