My own personal Father's Days

Harrison and BriAnne(BiBi)

I have always considered the next two days as my personal Fathers Days. It's not because of gifts I receive each year on those days. It's because of the gifts I received 22 and 18 years ago, our son and daughter. I remember those days almost like they were yesterday. 

LeAnn and I were at some friend's of ours when her water broke about midnight. We went by the house to get her pillow and the bag she had packed for the event. We then headed down the road to Grand Prairie Hospital where the long ordeal began. We were put into a room and test were run. Since she had not yet started dilating or having contractions we were told to get some rest. She was in a bed and I was in a chair but neither of us got much sleep with the nurses coming in ever so often to check on her status.

It was like that for most of the next 18 hours till one of the nurses came running in and said they were going to have to do a C-Section to get our son since his heartbeat had begun to slow. She was rushed down the hall to get prepped for surgery and I was told to sit in the room. Then a nurse showed up and gave me some scrubs and told me to change. As I nervously changed from my clothes I was worried if I could make it through the birth. I always had a difficult time watching videos of friends surgeries and had even passed out during a movie. I was a little squeamish about blood to say the least.

In about 20 minutes the nurse came in and told me to follow her. She took me to the delivery room where LeAnn was all covered and people were standing all around her. I was told to sit by her head and talk to her. She was shaking so I thought she was cold but she said it was from the drugs they gave her. I held her hand and talked to her until they were ready for me to watch.

When told to stand up I was amazed by how unfazed I was by the scene in front of me. They had already did the incision and were reaching in to grab our son. As they brought him out and I told her he was beautiful. A nurse brought him over to me and told me to go with her to be weighed and measured. As we were walking down the hall the fire alarms went off, kind of a warning for things to come with Harrison. They measured him, weighed him, printed his feet and put a bracelet on his leg all while I was present to assure us and them there was no mistake later.

When we left to take him back to the recovery room where they had moved LeAnn we were met at the door by firemen with axes and hoses standing on the other side. We stood to the side and left after they had all entered and walked down the hall to give Harrison to LeAnn so she could hold him for the first time. It all became real at that moment and I can't explain the anxious joy that I experienced.

For the record there was no fire in the hospital that night. Some kid had just pulled the alarm in the hall outside the nursery.

From that moment on everything had changed. We had become a family and everything I did from then on was for them more than it was for me. Four years later, almost to the day, we were again in a hospital delivery room. This time she was scheduled to be induced early in the morning. I think she got her first shot at 7 in the morning. The next 12 hours were the most emotional and exhausting time of my life. Watching her struggle with the pain and contractions over and over wore me and a friend of ours out and I was doing next to nothing.

A friend of ours and her father were in the room with us. Lorie was there by request and Nathan was in the room checking up on her for the families. When it was time for the final push the nurse left to get the doctor but before leaving told her not to push. Yea, right! When she began pushing Nathan was on the phone with LeAnn's mom, who was home staying with her mother who was ill at the time, and was blocked from getting out by all the other people in the room so he got the show of his life from the couch in the room. When BriAnne was born we knew that instantly she was going to be the last one. We had our boy and we had our girl. Nothing else was needed. We were complete.

This Saturday Harrison is 22 and Sunday BriAnne is 18. It is hard to believe that our kids have grown up so fast into these amazing adults they are today. It seems like it was just yesterday I was dropping them off at daycare with their bottle of Coffee and Cream. Today as parents we couldn't be prouder of either one of them. They are both independent thinkers and remember most of the things we have spent years teaching them. I love each of them infinitely more than they will realize until the day when they have the joy of parenthood. I look forward to that phase of our lives. Together with LeAnn I think we will make perfect grandparents.

PS: Back to her first pregnancy with Harrison, the friends we were hanging out with that night, we saw them pretty regular from the time we started dating and all through her pregnancy. That night her water broke was the last time we ever saw them. They must have moved during the first 2 weeks to a month after Harrison was born and we have yet to hear any news about them since. It's like they disappeared off the face of the earth. I have looked for them on Facebook often but to no avail. It's weird how friendships end sometimes but this is the strangest I have ever heard of.