Nov. 9, 2007

We were three weeks short of our little guy's due date, but we were anxious. I woke up with a hope and a feeling that maybe today would be the day. So I called in to work and set up a visit with some current students at BYU's Marriot School of Business. I drug Kelli down with me and made sure that she had to walk all over the campus as we met a recruiter for lunch and sat in on a Human Resources class. She was having contractions all through the class but they didn't seem too serious. The contractions continued as we traveled home. Seeing how the hospital was in Salt Lake, we thought about just dropping by to see if they'd deliver a baby for us. As we waited in the hospital room I tried to make sure I wouldn't be disappointed when they informed us that it was a false alarm. The contractions weren't increasing much but the nurse said she'd call the doc to see if she wanted to send us home or keep us there. When the nurse came back and announced that the doctor wanted to break Kelli's water, a smile came across my face as big as when the ultra sound indicated I was going to have a boy.
Kelli's water was broken and we were advised that an anesthesiologist could come in to administer an epidurral as soon as he got out of surgery. Soon after Kelli's water broke the fun and exciting contractions became much more intense. She began dilating quite rapidly, so rapidly that by the time the anesthesiologist got out of surgery Kelli was feeling like she needed to push. He asked if she wanted the epidurral now and she bravely declined! Two big pushes and one small grunt later, the best looking little baby I'd ever seen popped out of my wife and entered our world. To me he had a perfect little face and the sweetest little features. I loved him instantly and so did his mother Kelli. As she held him for the first time he looked up at her with a sense of awe that he had such a tough mother. He and I were both proud of Kelli for giving birth naturally to the 6 pound 14 ounce little man.