The best thing to ever enter into my life happened on Wednesday morning, March 21, 1990.
From the beginning of 1990 until Ashleigh’s birth, Christi and I understandably spent nearly all of our waking moments together. We were thrown a shower by my church, we shopped for baby clothes, we took Preparation for Childbirth classes at Kettering Medical Center (completed 2-13-90), celebrated Valentine’s Day, our one-year anniversary at Traditions restaurant (3/2), and reported for doctor appointments - and of course, we attended high school. Christi and I even volunteered in the library together aiding Mrs. Berger in sixth period up until January 12th when the semester changed.
These were great times but they were destined to change on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 20. I was at work bagging groceries at the Beavercreek Kroger. Christi had had a doctor’s appointment that morning at 11:45am. I had spent the night at Christi’s the night before and took her to the appointment. She had been having one appointment a week for several weeks, and since the baby was due on March 19, this was obviously an important one.
When it was over, we drove back to her house and later I reported to work for my 3:00 to 7:00pm shift… but was not there for all of it. Christi called me and told me that her water had broke at exactly 5:41pm. I immediately grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the store and rushed over to her house. I had been trying to quit smoking rather successfully but felt I would need to play the stereotypical ‘waiting-room father’ pacing up and down inhaling cigarettes. Christi’s Dad suggested that I pop in a sucker instead.
We headed to the hospital and my Mom and sister met us there. By today’s standards, her delivery seemed rather long. The total duration of her labor was 13 hours. Christi immediately discarded the notion of natural childbirth and demanded the epidural to ease the pain. For the bulk of the night, we sat together and watched “Moonlighting” and then Nick at Nite (in the days that they were still showing black and white shows), waiting for our baby to come.
When the time came for her to actually give birth, we were moved from the comfortable room with the TV to the sanitary delivery room. Christi’s Mom and I were both in there, she videotaping, I attempting to comfort Christi. She and I were perhaps the last two people I know - maybe the last on Earth - to not know the sex of the baby beforehand. I had wanted a girl and that was what I got. We made the sudden decision to name her Ashleigh Elizabeth, having previously decided on Ashley Nicole or Ashleigh Nicole, changing it to Ashleigh Michelle (1/28), Ashleigh Jane (2/8), and Ashleigh Jane-Darlene (2/11).
It was not an easy delivery. They had to use forceps to pull Ashleigh’s head out of the womb. She still shows the scars to this day. Her head was stretched into an impossible-looking shape as she was pulled out and I momentarily thought she was being born with no eyes! I had the honors of snipping the umbilical cord. She was born to the world at 7:04am on March 21.
After seeing Ashleigh, holding her, and spending some time with Christi, my Mom took me home. I skipped school and fell asleep on the couch, the last thoughts ringing in my head before I dozed off… “I’m a father.”
Next up: hospital photos of the happy parents and baby.
Wow….I want to cry reading this..tears of joy, of course, as it was one of the happiest times in my life.
Christi
October 19th, 2006