Better late than never

I'm a dad !

I always wanted children, but a few years ago I gave up the dream. I was getting too old and I had never found anyone to share my life with. Which was a shame, because I always thought that I'd be missing out on something really special if I never had a kid. Then on December 27th, 2005 a miracle happened -
I met the girl of my dreams and this time she seemed to like me, too.

After that my life just got better and better. I got an apartment that I loved (and she loved it, too). Amy moved to Cincinnati from Akron to be with me. We got engaged. She moved in with me. We got married. We moved into a house (or half of one at least!). And now we've started a family. I've got everything that I ever wanted and I'm happier than I've ever been or ever dreamed I'd be.

Here's how it happened - at two o'clock in the morning of the morning of Friday the seventh, my gorgeous wife woke up and left the bedroom. I figured that she had to go to the bathroom like every morning at two (I generally wait till three thirty) so I rolled over and went back to sleep. Some time later, she nudges me and says, "Are you awake?" I mumbled something in reply and she says, "I hate to tell you this, but my water broke. Are you awake now?" I was immediately, if not completely, awake. As the fog slowly lifted and I realized that I wouldn't be getting back to bed and would have to get through this possibly very long day on just two hours of sleep, we sat on the bed and flipped through all of her maternity books trying to decide what to pack. Because naturally we had planned to pack that night since, you know, we had so much time left....

It was decided that we needed some supplies, so at three in the morning off I go to the all-night Kroger's in Hyde Park. My shopping list was probably the strangest I'd ever seen - maxipads, tortillas, Gator-Ade and granola bars. I bragged a little to the guy stocking shelves by the Gator-Ade, but it was his own fault for asking if I was having a good night. Besides, it was too early to call our families and I had to brag to someone. I was running all over that store like Rob Petrie or like Jimmy Stewart in some old movie (stopping to look at the dvd's to see if they had the second season of the Muppet Show because I knew Amy would like it), trying to find everything so I could get back to my house and take Amy to the hospital. Eventually, I did and off we went.

At the hospital Amy was amazing. I knew she would be, but it was something to see. She went through the whole labor naturally, with only a saline drip and no support from the doctor, who offered her a thousand dollars if she got an epidural and didn't like it. But she showed him. They was a difficult hour or so, but we got through it. And she never yelled at me, called me names, tried to break my hand or tell me that I was never allowed to touch her again. You know, all the things I was afraid of!! Another thing I was afraid of was how I'd react to seeing the birth. But once it started, I couldn't take my eyes off it. After eleven and a quarter hours of labor, the munchkin was ready to come out. When it did, the doctor said, "Okay, Daddy. Tell Mommy what it is."After nine months of wondering what we were growing in there, we were finally going to find out and it was all up to me! So I look down to find out and the stubborn little bugger has its hand between its legs! So the doc removes it and now the umbilical cord is in the way!! So they flip the baby over and present it to me bottoms-up. Everything is so red and swollen that I have no idea what I'm looking at. So I take my best guess and say, "It's a.....girl?"

And I was right!

Katherine Eileen Waldfogle (that's the first time I've written it!) was brought into this world at 1:16 p.m., Friday, September 7th, 2007. She was 7 lbs .08 ounces and was twenty and a half inches long. She has a full head of brown curly hair and is, bar none, the most beautiful baby in the world!

But they won't let me bring my baby doll home. Not yet. Katie developed a little jaundice today and they want to keep her another night. They've put her in what I call the tanning booth and are going to observe her overnight. I know that this happens to a lot of babies, but this one is mine and I hate her seeing her like that. I know that tomorrow everything will be fine and I can bring her home but tonight I sit and worry and write my first ever blog at three thirty in the morning. Last week, I would have just been getting up to pee.....

I'm going to miss sleep, but I wouldn't trade this for anything.