Baby Kai is here and we're so excited!
Kai is pronounced "sky" without the "s".
Kai was born Wednesday, July 26 at 1:33 p.m. Like any proud father, I'd like to tell you the fascinating story of his birth.
[11:30] I got a call at work from Reba at about 11:30 saying she was feeling "something". She then called her doctor who said, "Well, I can tell you're smiling, and if you're still smiling, you're not in labor." So, she waited and I worked.
[12:00] Thirty minutes later, I got another call, "You need to come take me to the hospital," she said. No explanation or qualification was needed, I said, "Okay!" and hung up. I took five minutes to finish what I was working on and explain what was happening.
The twenty-plus minute ride home felt like two hours. I got caught by every light from Hillsboro Road to Harding Place to Bell Road --- every one. When I could make forward progress, I may have exceeded a speed limit here or there. On Harding Place, a police car flew up behind me with its lights flashing (no sirens), I thought, this could be good or bad. I'll just tell him my wife's in labor and I’m rushing to get her to take her to the hospital. He can either give me a ticket, (in which case I hope he at least hurries) and I can let the judge scold him later in court considering the extenuating circumstances; or he can give me the rare and incredibly exciting police escort we see only in the movies. But, as I pulled to the shoulder of the road, the police car whizzed past me like I wasn't even there. Turns out, it was time for the shift to change at the Harding police station and he didn't want to stop at the light!
[12:35] Anyway, by the time I finally got home, Reba was beginning to have pains/contractions. I scrambled to get all the “old baby’s” stuff – I think that’s what most parents call the first one for that short period of time until they get used to the fact that they’re not the baby any longer. We packed everything into the car and we were off!
[1:14] When we arrived at Baptist Hospital, I found a nurse and a wheel chair to get Reba out of the car and into the triage room. Nurse one of two checked her out and couldn’t believe what she found – or couldn’t find. She was checking for the usual signs of partial dilation, only to find that Reba was fully dilated. She ran to get nurse two of two to confirm what she found. Sure enough, this baby was ready for business. So, they whizzed her (I know, there was a lot of whizzing happening that day) down the hall, going so fast they bumped into the wall at least once. They went so fast they took her to the wrong room. The baby was so close we had to stay there.
[1:33] Five minutes after we got to the room, the doctor arrived. She applied a local anesthesia and said, “You can start pushing anytime.”
Just two pushes and five minutes later Kai was born.
Our thanks go out to everyone for your prayers, cards, flowers and visits.
Craig & Reba (and Craig Gabriel)
