Becoming a Father

On March 3, 2009 at 7:56 a.m. I added a title to my life's career: Father. Let me back up a day and tell you the whole story in it's entirety.

Jas and I went to the doctor's office Monday morning and she got checked by Dr. Black to see if she had progressed any and to decide what needed to be done since her due date had come and gone by about two weeks now. Dr. Black sat us down in his office and said the words we slightly shuddered at, "I recommend a c-section." We were uneasy about that, but relieved that something was going to happen. After verifying via stress test, that we didn't have to do have the procedure that day, we came home to Meredith (my mother-in-law) and began to plan out the day and what we should do to prepare. It hit us pretty hard after that: we were going to be parents tomorrow. It was like being called on a church mission and being asked to report to the MTC the next day. We ran alot of last minute errands and went out to eat at Tokyo's with family. The best part of that day was seeing our good friends Aaron and Laurie and meeting up with them for ice cream. It seemed all four of us were anxious, but only two of us would be having a baby the next day.

On Tuesday, we arrived at the hospital with two bags each at 6 a.m. Jas, Meredith, and I almost needed a luggage cart to haul around our stuff. Jasmine went into the triage room in Labor and Delivery and they hooked her up to the monitor (where she was having constant contractions) and gave her an IV. Our math equation that day was:

Jas + needles = bad

Jas almost passed out from just an IV. She made it through. They passed me some "hospital nomex" to slip into and I was ready to hold my son or to make peanut butter, whichever came first. They brought Jasmine to the operating room and said I would see her soon. She got her anesthesia and was strapped down. I came into the room with our camera. The already had her stomach open. I was told to sit behind her visibility screen towards her head. Jas was a bit out of it. She was very concerned that she couldn't feel her toes. I reassured her, "it's just the drugs." Dr. Black then told me to get ready. I was told to stand up. He tugged at something inside her stomach and out came the head. With one more fluid motion tug he delivered a little baby covered in "stuff" and screaming. He held him up for me to take a picture and then I was asked to sit back down. The Neo-natologist took the baby and brought him to the warming light. They suctioned and tested and prodded. We could hear his cry. We could hear his strong cry. I was directed around the operating table and told to go to the baby. He had a makeshift beanie on his head and was swaddled very tightly. He was quiet again. I cut the umbilical cord while the "Neo" took pictures. They swaddled him very tight. She then let me hold my son for the first time. I cried a little.

Benjamin Aaron Hall was born at 7:56 a.m. at Mermorial Hermann Baptist Hospital in Beaumont, TX. He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Still in the operating room, I brought Ben to see his mother. Jas and I rejoiced together as we experienced the bundle of joy newly born into our lives. We posed and posed as the "Neo" turned the OR into a photo studio. Then Ben was put into a small glass cage for transport and we wheeled into the hall where the grandparents saw him for the first time. Tears welled from their eyes as they saw the next generation of Halls pass by them.

The nursery across the hall had a nurse taught by Dr. Hall nine years ago who did Ben's arrival procedures. He had eyedrops. He had blood sugar tests. He was weighed again. He had his temparature taken...two ways. He got a bath and he got his head washed. That's when we noticed it. Ben had hair...alot of hair...an enormous amount of hair for a baby! The nurse said, "I think I may need a blow dryer," as she was drying his hair. Ben was the cutest baby in the nursery.

The following pictures illustrate the story I just told.