I think of myself as being pretty stoic most of the time. I distance myself from pain, suffering and heartache and put on this stone facade for the rest of the world to see. This facade came crumbling down last Thursday when my newest child was born.

My wife was in the middle of induced labor while I thought silently to myself “Please, let it be a boy!”. I have gone through too much emotional ups and downs with daughter #1 that I really didn’t want a repeat of all those years of heartburn.

I watched in awe as the baby’s head crowned. I noticed that the umbilical cord was coming out at the same time as the baby’s head. Having first hand experience with these types of births this worried me greatly. You see my sister was born with her umbilical wrapped tightly around her neck. As a result of being deprived of oxygen for 10 minutes she suffers from brain damage. She is in her late 30s but acts like she’s 9. She still lives with my mother, who’s in her 70s.

The doctor called for an emergency team to assist with the potentially dangerous situation. Not only was there a problem with the umbilical cord, but the baby’s shoulders were stuck in the birth canal at an awkward angle. Double jeopardy. One of the nurses that were called in to assist balled her fist and pushed down on my wife’s abdomen as hard as she could and the baby was expelled forcefully into the doctor’s waiting hands. After collecting all of the baby in his hands he gingerly set the baby on my wife’s chest and asked me if I wanted to cut the cord. I wanted no part of it. I just wanted the baby safe, and out of harms way.

It wasn’t until after the baby was cleaned up, Apgar scores taken, and other miscellaneous, and sundry procedures that we found out we had a 7.7 lb, 20.5inch, healthy baby GIRL. Girl#2, for those of you keeping track.

At this point my wall came crumbling down, and my knees went weak. I know I said I wanted a boy, but I would not trade her in for the world. She was wrinkled, purple, messy……and BEAUTIFUL! I whispered “I love you” to my exhausted wife, my voice was cracking. Needing to keep the crumbling machismo wall from toppling over completely, I carefully stepped away from the tangle of IV drips and monitoring cables, and dutifully snapped photo after photo through the tears (mine, not hers).

Girl#2 is several days old now and doing fantastic. Someone told me that she would have me wrapped around her little finger. I laughingly said “Yeah, right!”. Those little fingers are pretty small, so I am now in the process of learning how to limber up my vertebrae for the impending finger wrapping. I’d hate to get a cramp.