Dear Baby, Your Story Continues {Part Three}

This is the story of Behr's Birth told through the eyes of his father.  Haven't caught the first half?  Read up!

Tuesday, January 11th (continued):


Standing and waiting there felt like an eternity, but eventually a nurse called me and said, “Mr. Schreiber its time.”

Entering the operating room was surreal as the doctors were gathered around my wife as she laid there on the table. The doctors and nurses were thoroughly preparing for surgery in an impressively coordinated rhythm. As I approached, I could see my little wife peering up at me. I smiled at her as I made sure she was ok and comfortable. As surgery began, my main focus was encouraging Shannon, keeping her comfortable and also talking enough so that she was focused on the sound of my voice and nothing else. We talked about vacations, traveling and other topics to keep ourselves distracted and before we knew it…

Wednesday, January 12th:

….little Behr was tugged out and the doctors briefly lifted him over the curtain so that we could see him for the first time. The doctors, then quickly took his vitals as our son vocalized his entrance into this world.

Can you blame him?

He was in a warm dark, fed on demand environment, and now he is in a bright, cold room with people wiping him down.

The nurses quickly brought Behr over to us and he continued to cry until the moment when the doctors placed him in my arms and I said “hello.” He must have recognized my voice, because he looked up and calmed down instantly.

Filled with utter joy, my eyes began to tear up. I turned to my wife and could not believe we were in this moment, celebrating the birth of our son.

As we sat there in the OR, the nurses helped to move Behr close to Shannon so that he could lay on her chest. Although exhausted from hours of labor and exhausting the moments leading up to surgery, the birth of our son re-energized us. While the doctors finished up the surgery we had an incredible time meeting our new born son.

Once surgery was complete, the nurses took us back to our labor and delivery room so that mom and son could bond immediately. We bonded and talked through basics and then I helped the nurse with our son’s first bath.

And by “helped” I basically watched in awe, as I could barely function with fatigue setting in.

When bath time was complete the nurse asked if I wanted to help put Behr’s onesie on, I took a try at it, but had to turn the reins over to the professional, as I needed to practice more. We finally got wheeled down to the recovery area around 4 am. By then all three of us were rather tired and we dozed off for a couple hours.

Waking up, I began a quick crash course in changing diapers and Shannon was coached on feeding methods. The staff at Georgetown was incredible as we even had doctors and nurses from Labor and Delivery stop by to say congrats. Someone even said, “Congrats this means you can stay until Sunday…” referring to the fact the Behr was born in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, not late on Tuesday evening.

We turned to each other mutually agreeing that we were not too excited about the thought of staying until Sunday. Shannon was ready to get out of the hospital and I looked forward to brining my family home before leaving for Brazil.

Overall the day was a blur, I made phone calls, we sent emails and then Behr got to meet all four of his grandparents as well as Uncle Ben. It was absolutely incredible stuffing our family into the small hospital room as we each were glowing with joy. When the visiting ended we rested up and quickly learned to nap when our less than 24 hour old son rested.

we also gave Behr his first lacrosse stick before he was 24 hours old!
text book hand positioning,
he is a natural.