Our daughter Chloe was born on February 11^th at 12:05 AM. Once the doctor used the suction on her head, she came out very quickly. My wife had a bit of tearing when Chloe came out, but the doctor didn’t seem too worried about it. She later stitched up the wound and said, “It’ll heal in six weeks.” Once Chloe was out, immediately the doctor grabbed her and started suctioning out her nose and mouth. Apparently, Chloe had pooped in the womb. This pre-born baby poop is called meconium and can cause problems if ingested by the newborn.

Once the meconium was taken care of, two nurses took Chloe to a side table to clean her. I stood by the table in awe of this new creation, my beautiful little girl. The cleaned off all the amniotic fluid, me conium and blood, and she looked great. Her head was a little deformed and she sported a red ring from the vacuum they used to get her out, but other than that she looked perfect. Next, it was my turn to cut the umbilical chord. The nurse handed me some strong scissors and I cut through the thick rubbery tube, that tube of life that had once been my daughter’s only connection to nourishment. After the cleaning, the nurses carried her over to the baby scale. On their way over, I shouted out my prediction, “I think she’s going to weigh nine pounds.” I never saw the actual weight, but the nurses said, “Let’s just call it nine pounds.” I think Chloe weighed a tiny bit less than nine pounds, but the nurses rounded up perhaps to please Chloe’s daddy. I was very pleased.