I shared the birth story for my son earlier and thought that today…the celebration of my little rose turning 1 year old…would be a great day to share her birth story.

The pregnancy with my little girl was not a fun one for my wife. She was sick, hurting or both every day she was pregnant with our daughter. It was a trying time and a very different experience from her pregnancy with our son as she expressed so eloquently in her post this summer. Given this we were quite positive that this little girl may not be sticking around until her projected due date. Being that September and October are my busiest work times I started preparing early for my paternity leave and letting people know my phone would be on during meetings.

During one of these meetings with a principal, teachers and our coordinator talking about the new program we were bringing to their school…I started off with my usual spiel: “my wife and I are expecting our second baby in a couple weeks but are warning everyone in advance just in case the baby decides to come early. I’m going to leave my phone on and the only call that can get through is her telling me, ‘It’s go time!’ but I don’t expect that to happen because we’re still a couple weeks out.” As the meeting was getting close to the end…my phone rang! I looked at them and said “oh, this is my wife, please excuse me!” I stepped out and heard my wife tell me that she’s been having contractions for a while now and they’re getting more intense and closer together: “I think I’m in labor.” she said.

I returned to the classroom and said “I think my wife is in labor, I guess I need to leave right now.” There was a strange mixture of nervousness, excitement and awkwardness given that I had just met some of these people at the start of the meeting. They wished me well and I was off. Eighteen minutes later I was home helping to finish up our grab and go bag, saying goodbye to my son and loading my wife and I in the car. Given the way my son came into the world we knew the plan and process we would be going through for our daughter, and so luckily had knowledge of what to expect. The 15 minute wait time I had apart from my wife while the doctors got everything ready was long and nerve-racking but I was a little more prepared for it this time around.

Everything went smoothly and before I knew it my daughter was here. She was beautiful and so tiny. When they laid her down to clean her and get her measurements she was not pleased, but when I gave her my finger to calm her she stopped crying and looked up at me. At that moment I felt the love and relief flow…this was my daughter…my amazing little girl…she had my whole heart in her hand at that moment.

From the time I hurriedly left my meeting to the moment of her birth was a mere three hours.  Our little girl was ready to be here and meet us and we were so excited to meet her. She was calm and strong and beautiful and we were very in love.  What made this story even more special was the moment when we got to introduce our little lady to her big brother. To know that he had been in her place just three years earlier and that now he was getting the chance to meet and help hold her made our hearts melt all over again. It was quite clear from the moment he saw her how much he adored and cared for her, and he continues to be a great big brother to this day.

Now this precious little one is a year old and has developed quite the personality. We are so blessed and thankful to get to be her parents and look back fondly on the day she joined us. We love our little rose!

This is fatherhood…