23 Years Ago Tomorrow...

...numero uno son was born. Since I try not to post during the day I shall wish him Happy Birthday now. Love ya bud.

The birth of both my sons has been the crowning acheivement of a life that has otherwise been somewhat disappointing, through no fault of my own, I should add. Be that as it may, since I'm not into pity parties, I shall proceed. The X went into labor about 5:30 in the morning so I called work and told them of the situation. At 8 AM we made a trip to the OB_GYN and she was about 4 centimeters dilated so they said go ahead to the hospital. Well, lemme tell ya, that was the beginning of a 36 hour marathon. We had originally decided to go with the in vogue Lamaze thing, but after a few meetings we culled that. I definately planned on being in the delivery room, but the X was having nothing to do with that 'natural' shit. She wanted drugs, and plenty of them. And if they'd let her have some chardonnay, well by god that would have been included as well. Things moved slowly, and I mean kinda like Livey's bowels. Initially she would dilate about an 1/8 of a centimeter, then spike up, then go back down. I asked how that was possible, and of course they said they had never seen that before. I could only think to myself 'here we go again with the I've never seen this before' shit. This want on for about 18 hours, during which time we had her twin sister there, her Mom and my folks. Back then you could sit in a small waiting area they had that had drink and snack machines and ASHTRAYS. Yeah baby. Everytime they wanted to send her home the pain would increase so they started her on pain meds and kept working their way up the chain of the 'OH YEAH, more of those, please'. So after about 12 hours of this merry-go-round the troops decided to go home since the X was in a state of drug-induced nirvana. I walked down the street to an all-night diner to grab a beer and a pack of smokes. When I got back things were escalating so they gave her an epidural and a few hours later he popped his head out and said 'GOOD MORNING WORLD'. All total it took 36 hours. Of course everyone immediately came back to the hospital to have a look at the greatest miracle I've ever witnessed. If you've never seen a birth, in person, put it on your calendar. It's amazing. I left about two hours later, worn to the hilt, but prouder than punch. I picked up a six-pack on the way home and sat at the kitchen table contemplating how our lives had suddenly changed for the better. Every year on his birthday we would go to the Ocean Isle. Second time down all we heard was 'More cake please'. Still a picture of that around somewhere.

I think I've been a good Dad over the past 23 years. I hope I have. I will do this again on May 31 of next year when the youngest turns 21.

I love ya son. Have a great B'Day and I'll call ya. So will Mamaw.