Sue had a 6 hour labor for our first delivery and all in all, things went pretty smoothly. We went into this new experience of the actual delivery as somewhat educated rookies but still, we were rookies. Delivery was hard, painful, and seemed to take forever but I was never really nervous about that. I trusted Sue and the doctors to do their part and settled in to do mine. What made this father nervous was (and obviously still is) the 18 years AFTER the delivery. Carrying for a newborn involves a lot of sleepless night and not only for the reason you probably are thinking. True they have sleep and feeding patterns that see them awake every 2-3 hours but even during their times of slumber you, as a loving parent, find yourself staring at their tiny little faces and watching the rhythmic rise and fall of their chests (praying to see it). As a rookie parent, you do this a lot.

You panic when the sneeze or cough. You worry over every cry listening for a hint of a symptom of some distress that would require a mad dash to the hospital. You grow to enjoy the ear-splitting wails of "feed me" while secretly fearing the sound of absolute silence wondering if he is okay (sure he is, he's just sleeping like a baby). The nervousness might be chalked up solely as inexperience but I don't think this is the case. I'm not nervous at this moment because I no longer have the fear of, "can I do this?" But as soon as I'm holding his tiny 8lb frame and his spaghetti neck cradled securely in my arms, I'm positive I'll be a nervous wreck.

Wish us luck

Anyway, for them what care, here he comes.