The (Actual) Big Day!

The rest of the story...

We had been pushing for about an hour off and on. Dr. Jackson was pretty confident that Xavier was face up, and she thought there might be something else going on in the womb. She looked at Holly and said, "I can let you push for a few hours, but at this point I'm confident that this isn't going to happen. This baby isn't coming out this way."

We were bummed because we really didn't want a C-Section, but we understood that it was going to be a necessity at some point that night. With that in mind, we told Dr. Jackson to go ahead and prep for the surgery.

I couldn't believe that he was going to be here soon. How wonderful!

So, we prepped for surgery, in the mean time, Dr. Jackson actually went and delivered another baby, and then we went back into the operating room, ready to meet Xavier.

I sat with Holly, up at her head as they began the surgery. She was so scared, and very cold. I held her arm and kissed her and kept telling her how great she had done, how strong she had been all day.

It was nearly twenty four hours since Holly's ninja move out of the bed. Dr. Jackson called over the blue barrier, "time to stand up dad, get that camera ready."

I stood up and watched as my son was taken from the womb and brought into the great big world. What an awesome experience that I witnessed through the lens of my camera.

Once he was born, they showed him off to Holly then moved him over to weigh him and get him cleaned up. I couldn't stop smiling. He and I took some pictures, then he got to go to his mommy who kissed him about a hundred times. 

Then we took him out to meet the paparazzi!

Here are the people who braved the late night and long day in order to meet our little Xavier:

Grandma and Papaw P.

Grandma and Grandpa B.

Great-Grandma C.

Aunt Heather

Aunt Elna

Uncle B, Aunt Lisa, Kristi and Kaleigh

We found out later that they had a small pool going to determine what they thought Xavier would weigh when he was born. Here are those results:

Grandma P: 9 pounds, 6 ounces

Papaw P: 8 pounds, 7 ounces

Grandma B: 8 pounds, 2 ounces

Grandpa B: 7 pounds, 10 ounces

Great-Grandma C: 9 pounds, 3 ounces

Aunt Heather: 7 pounds, 12 ounces

Aunt Elna: 8 pounds, 13 ounces

Uncle B: 7 pounds, 15 ounces

Aunt Lisa: 9 pounds, 1 ounce

Kristi: 9 pounds, 7 ounces

He actually weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces. This makes Grandpa B the winner, although if this were The Price Is Right, they'd all be losers. Xavier was also 21 inches long!

What sticks with me the most about the birth of Xavier is a feeling that I have yet to describe adequately. We had known who Xavier was for months. We named him LONG before he was born, and we called him by name while he was in the womb. There was never any doubt that he was going to be our little Xavier. We were thrilled to meet him.

The actual event of meeting him, however, was overwhelming. I was completely dumb-struck by the idea that THIS was Xavier! This… concept finally had arms and legs and fingers and toes and very powerful little lungs!

I’m doing a remarkably terrible job at explaining myself, but it’s the best I know how to do. He had gone from being this abstract thing into being our little boy so quickly. I was completely struck by how much I loved him the moment I saw him.

It was like my life up until that moment had been remarkably incomplete. I couldn’t understand how I had ever been able to function up until that moment. How had my world ever been right before Xavier was born?

These are the things I’m processing in these days, and I’m sure I’ll continue to process them as long as I’m alive.

God is good, we love our little boy.