AS fun as most family stories are, here is a little story about when i was born. I had jaudice and a hole in my heart, so i wasn't the prettiest thing to behold once i had popped out. But my fathers reaction to me being born was to faint and hit his head on a machine, which ended up getting him a needle. I did have the opportunity to see my youngest sister be born, and i was fine. My question: How did your DH's (lol) react when you had your first child?

-- jillian (sweetunes483@yahoo.com), October 19, 2001

Answers

I was only 19 and really didn't have a clue exactly what to expect, he had less of one than I did. I think his biggest reaction was to be scared to death, then very relieved and happy! We were so glad to have a child, Cale always said she was what made us a family!!!

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), October 19, 2001.

My husband didn't have time for any reaction. My daughter was born while he was parking the car. Too bad he missed it. She was born with a smile on her beautiful little face.

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (aka Dianne in Mass) (Trevilians@mediaone.net), October 19, 2001.

Jillian, you are going to love this one, but please don't tease your pastor about it too much;o) Tom was a biology teacher then, and he reacted to the science of it. Words like "Cool!" and "Wow" were coming out of his mouth as he carefully noted all the different machines, instruments, and other gadgets being used. The umbilical cord fascinated him, but for some reason he refused when the midwife offered to let him cut it. Of course, he was there for me and did a GREAT job comforting and encouraging me.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), October 19, 2001.

I had all my children with nobody but strangers around..no refection on my husband, it just always worked out that way with the kiddos coming when he was away. Nine-million years ago when I was a brand new RN, I worked at a tiny hospital in the woods of Maine. This place was so small (1970) that I covered both CCU,ICU, the ER and labor and delivery...those were the days, LOL..anyway, I will never forget this one couple..her name was Emily. She and her husband had a diary farm and she was in having their first baby. As her delivery became imminent, I tried to convince her husband that he needed to come on in the delivery room and hold her hand because she was frightened. I will never forget this as long as I live: in he came, all 6 feet of skin and bones, shaking like a leaf..he couldn't have been more than 23 years old. As the nurses' aides and I sat him down next to her and showed him how to look at the mirror to see the birth, little Emily had a terrific contraction and the baby's head could be seen. Her husband looked at the birth process, got a huge smile on his face and said," Wow Emily! Look at that,honey! It's just like one of them cows in the barn." Needless to say, Emily was not too pleased with his comparison and asked us to throw him out of the room. I've always wondered if they tell this story to their little boy who is now 31 years old.

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), October 19, 2001.

I have friends who were expecting twins. The husband was an EMT, so he was allowed to actually assist the doctor. Baby #1 was born- everything okay, Baby #2 was born-everything okay. The Doctor said "There's a third one!" and the husband fainted. The third baby must have been hiding during all the sonograms.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), October 19, 2001.

My husband was brought to tears with the birth of our firstborn, and as he held her and cried, he called out to his mother, "Congratulations! You're an aunt!" We have this bit of brilliance on videotape :-)

-- Julie (julieamc@eagleslair.net), October 19, 2001.

Well I had two before I married my present and final DH, but we had the "ours" baby at home with a midwife,my dh had never even been in the delivery room with his previous childrens birth and he wasn't just totally convince about the whole homebirth thing, I did real well with my breathing and didn't scream or anything, trying to stay calm and in control, the last hour before he was born was pretty stressful, he was big and I had pushed for 50 minutes and he had crowned for 15, so when he finally shot out, I kinda passed out and we were all pretty speechless, but finally the midwife sd, " well Dad what is it?" Dh, said, " uh, well, uhhhh", I opened my eyes, looked down on my tummy where he lay, lifted up the towel covering my wet, fat baby boy and laughed out loud, because with 4 boys between us dh wouldn't even discuss a boys name, he finally announced the sex! After cutting the cord, burying the placenta, everything calming down later that night, he sd, "you know there wasn't to much to that, we could do that again huh!" I couldn've knocked him out, he thought since I didn't scream and carrying on like I was dying, it was a snap!

-- Carol in Tx (cwaldrop@peoplescom.net), October 19, 2001.

My husband has been with me for the births of both of our girls, and he was been wonderful both times - even with me screaming and carrying on. I was told that at one point during my first delivery, I screamed at the nurse, "Just get this thing OUTTA ME!!!" :-) Weirdest thing about giving birth... a woman can scream and cry and curse and carry on, and as soon as the baby is born, it's like it never happened! Seems like the pain is forgotten, because here is this magical, wonderful blessing from God right there in your hands! It's the most amazing experience.

My favorite baby story though is this... My hubbys little brother and his wife (both were in their late teens) were having twins! We got the call that the twins had arrived and everyone was okay. My hubby was away from home at the time, so I called him to give him the good news. I told him everyone was fine and the twins had arrived - and there was a boy and a girl! He said, "Wow! Are they identical?" After I quit laughing and could speak again, I said, "Well, I certainly hope not!" :-)

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), October 21, 2001.