The moment of truth has arrived . . .

The moment we have been waiting for finally arrived at 3:04 AM on Friday, April 1, 2005. It was a wonderful experience for both mom and dad. Labor was not a pro-longed and painful experience (although I guess that's relative since I didn't go through it) and everything went great. Before I tell you the story I'll throw out a little sneak peek:

Here's how it happened:

Thursday evening, March 31, 2005, approx. 8:45 PM. Pam and I are sitting in our office working on a few things. Just as Pam finishes her last task she stands up, says 'uh-oh' and scurries down the hall to the bathroom. At that moment I knew what happened. A few minutes later she came out of the bathroom and says to me 'I guess we're going to be parents!'. The water broke.

Call the doctor and its off to Morristown Hospital. Pam is admitted and the nurses and resident verify that her water did indeed break. Our doctor arrives shortly after and all signs are pointing forward and positive for mom and baby. Its about 10:30 PM and she is approx. 4 centimeters dilated. Around 11:30 PM the epideral kicks-in and the main pain from contractions subsides. By 12:30 AM our doctor says goodnight and will be back to wake us at 5 AM to see where things are. I unfold the rollaway bed and climb in to get a few hours of sleep before showtime. Guess again.

1 AM and Pam is ramping up. By 2 AM contractions are getting stronger and more frequent. At about 2:15 AM the nurse has her try a couple practice pushes to see what's going on. Tells Pam she is 'all the way.' We aren't quite getting it at that point and ask how many centimeters is she. Nurse says 'all the way means all the way - 10 cm!'. Doctor is in our room within the next minute or so and by 2:20 AM we are off and pushing.

And one . . . count to ten, and two . . . count to ten, and three . . . count to ten. Nurses are doing their thing, doctor is all set up for work and Pam is doing beautiful. I do what little I can to contribute by keeping her focused on me and counting with her. Every contraction she pushes all through the ten count. She is wonderful through the whole process. Along the way the doctor is saying 'your doing great, progressing, progressing.' I think he is just being very supportive and encouraging as any good doctor would be. I rethink my shoe choice thinking this could take hours.

Approx. 44 minutes after Pam started pushing our newfound bundle of joy arrives. Earlier in the evening we told the doctor about our website and that 75% of the votes were indicating boy. Her pulls our child out and says 'I guess the other 25% were correct.'

Welcome to the world Erin Hatton Smith. Born at 3:04 AM on Friday, April 1st. She weighed 6 pounds and 15 ounces. Length of 19 & 3/4 inches, with big blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair (at least for now!).

And now of course, what you've all been waiting for . . . pictures!!!!

1st picture with Mom, just after everyone has been cleaned up:


Meet Erin:


Check out my profile! Is this the cutest thing ever?


Here is a doomed man, at the mercy of Daddy's Little Girl:

As far as the predictions went, sometimes the majority was close and other times not. Here is the breakdown (with the actual turnout in bold):
Boy/Girl: 77% for boy and 23% for girl
Hair Color: 64% for red, 16% for brown, 12% for blonde and 8% for black
Family Resembelance: 37% for Dies, 59% for Smith, 4% for Hatton and 0% for Schellheimer - what do you think? We are both saying as of now she looks like a Smith.
Arrival: 50% for early, 19% for on-time and 31% for late.

Not only early but quick. Our doctor said that when we go for number two we should really discuss logistics given how quick this little peanut popped out!

Well, that is all for now. More pictures will come in the following week or so. Need a bit of time to recuperate and focus on my priorities now - my little girl and my wife. They both did wonderful through this entire process and having them at home with me is an incredible feeling of contentment and joy.