And this is it....

.....we are having a baby...finally! Christine in doing great, dialated, contractions coming strong...doctor said sometime in next 4-8 hours our little girl should be coming out to meet us.

We appreciate all the well wishes and the comments over the last week but this is really it!!

Here's To You Mr. "My wife has been in labor for a week" Guy!!

I sometimes forget that my blog is all about me....LOL. As I now realize that it has been a week since Christine called me to tell me she was being sent to the hospital, I had to look back on the stress, the lack of sleep, the bad eating habits, and all the caffeine intake over that week as I give a shout out to the men behind the women in labor everywhere. Kind of like the Budweiser commercials.

Yes, I realize I am going to be crucified for this from all of my female friends, but seriously, child delivery is hard on us men too. With Lucian it was me that had to do everything, sleep on a 3 ft sofa (and the floor), answer every beckon call of my wife, talk to all the doctors and nurses, pace the floor, entertain the family, update the friends, etc. She got to lay in a comfortable bed and get pain meds (and the arrows start flying towards my head now)

Don't get me wrong, I know that child labor is excruciating pain....I was right there (but according to her she felt nothing at the time)...and she definitely has no memory of the entire experience.

Now for baby girl DeLo this has been going on for a week. I have been doing my best to manage the house, Lucian, Christine, work, and family but I would be lying if I said I was not totally stressed out and ready for a baby right now. Everytime I ask Christine to do something I feel guilty because I know she is miserable.........and Lucian has been sick on top of everything else.

I have tried to resort to humor around the house but my dear wife does not always find me funny as she waddles around like she has a watermelon in her pants.

So I know that there are thousands of men out there just like me...toiling in the misery of pre-birth chaos, biting their tongues, swallowing their pride, and taking care of business because that is what we do as men.....at least real men.

So HERE's TO YOU!!! Cheers!

It Is True

...what they say about girls....you will be waiting around for them your entire life. All I can say is that this sucks. We have been waiting around for almost 3 days and I almost feel like we are back to square one.

Christine is doing good but feels bad that everyone is waiting for a baby and she has not delivered (literally).

We so appreciate everyone's concern and love and caring. It is nice to know how many friends you have out there! A baby yesterday would have been nice to take the sting out of a WVU loss (or a Ravens loss for some of you).

Lucian is loving all of the anticipation because everyone has been around and playing with him to fill the time.....he is going to be very sad to return to day care.

So as I sit here in the darkness before dawn....again.....thinking about the changes about to happen in our lives....new memories about to be born, I thought I would share a couple quotes that I love:

• "Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express."
  


• "A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."
  

Until the next post....hopefully with more news!

History Repeating Itself

It looks like my wife likes to give birth on Saturdays. I had to look back through the old blog but we are almost on the exact same path as when Lucian was born.

Not much on Thursday...little pick up on Friday but going to bed tired and frustrated with little idea when the baby would come.....Saturday all hell breaks loose....major contractions, water breaking.....baby...tears. That was with Lucian

And so here we are again. Christine woke up this morning and started frantically cleaning up the bedroom...full nesting gear.....when I inquired her quote was..."when I finish making the bed we may be going to the hospital and having a baby."

Yes...contractions are now intensifying and only about 4 minutes apart. Is my baby girl really coming today...is this really the first day towards planning for her future? So many questions....so many things I don't know about how to raise a little girl that I am looking forward to learning......so much in front of me!

Baby #2

Well.....I kind of grinded to a halt on my blogging when Lucian was born so I decided to kind of wait till birth time to get started and then keep it going moving forward.........I HOPE.

So here is where are......24 hours ago we were in the hospital strapped to monitors and awaiting a baby....but the doc sent us home until contractions are a little closer together.

And we have been trying everything....(yes, everything).....spicy food, wii bowling, squats, and Chrissy even walked on the treadmill till she puked!

We are trying but have no idea when this little girl is going to come out!

I will keep the posts coming.

A Lot of Work To Do To Catch Up

My friends Lisa and Tejal harped on me about not continuing my blog and when I logged in today, this is what I found. I must have written this right after Lucian's birth and never posted it but I would be sad if I never expressed these thought so here it is...


Written sometime in June 2008...

The juxtoposition of life and death has never been so apparent to me as it was this past weekend. I spent this past father's day fighting back both tears of joy and tears of sadness. Almost exactly 24 hours after experiencing the absolute beauty of becoming a father for the first time I learned of the passing of one of my best friends, Chuck Schwink.

You can't imagine the emotional roller coaster that the last month has been. As Lucian's due date approached, Chuck's health seemed to decline. I am quite sure that I cried at least once every single day in the month of June. So much happiness and so much joy. And in the midst of all of this I am also running an annual fundraiser for the foundation that I created in memory of my father who passed away only 18 months ago.

I think that is where it all began....this emotional roller coaster ride. You see, in August 2006 Christine and I got engaged. I popped the question about 1/4 mile from my parents house in a spot that had special meaning to me. My father was only the third person to know (after myself and Christine, of course). I can still remember how excited he was. As we planned the wedding and settled on a destination he was so excited to get to be wearing shorts and flip flops for a wedding. He would die only a month later.

I remember so many events leading up to his death that seemed to point to the powers that be that allowed me to spend even more time with him...(we spoke every day but often when I went home I spent a lot of time with friends). The first divine intervention (although a painful one) came about a week before our family was about to go to Hawaii for two weeks. On a short bicycle ride I slipped and broke my arm in a freak accident. There went all of the Hawaiian plans for excursions. But in hindsight it was perfect, Dad and I hung out the entire vacation.

On the last weekend that I ever saw him I had gone in for a WVU football game - which usually meant me being out and about - I got sick and ended up spending most of the weekend hanging out in my parents basement talking to my Dad and watching football together. Looking back, I was never so happy to have an injury or get sick.

The death of my father felt like getting my heart ripped out. My father was my best friend, my mentor, my inspiration. He would miss my wedding, the birth of his grandson, and all the memories yet to come.

The outpouring of kindness, friendship, and true love that was seen at my father's funeral will be with me for my entire life. The tributes and the the thousands of people that came to pay their respect was a testament to the man, the father, the friend, the husband.

My friend Chuck was there and I will never forget one thing that he said to me. I had just introduced him to one of my relatives as my boss and he pulled me aside and told me not to ever introduce him as my boss, that he was my friend first. And that he was. Chuck and I (and often our buddy Craig) shared a lot of memories from the various NACUBO trips we have taken over the last six years. From golfing some of the legendary courses in the country, to enjoying fine wines, to partying on his boat, the memories are many and some of the stories legendary.

And Chuck was there at my wedding, having fun, meeting friends and family from all over the country and always displaying his charm and charisma and the everlasting smile on his face. Little did I expect that upon returning from my honeymoon, three days later Chuck would be diagnosed with cancer....and a year after that he would no longer be with us.

So while I stand here as a new father, two of the people that I would have loved to have had Lucian learn from, laugh with, and love on his own are no longer with us. I know in my heart that they are hanging out together, looking down, maybe getting in a round of golf.....all the while smiling....two great men....two great dads.....two people I loved and miss.

What's in a Name?

Since there have been so many inquiries about the name of our son I will clear it up.

First, the pronunciation:

• Lucian is pronounced LOO-shun
• Xavier is pronounced ecks-ZAY-vee-er
  

Now the meaning:

• The names are of Latin descent and the meaning of Lucian Xavier is "The Bright Light."

And here is one more picture of our Bright Light