My wife Nicole is due to have our second child this weekend, so it will be a great Christmas for us.  Obviously I am excited to see the baby, but as much as I hate to admit it, I wish we could just flip a switch and the little guy would be in our arms, as the whole process of child birth is a bit much for me.

Six months ago, one of my good friends and co-workers, Steve Spiegla and his wife had a baby.  He was born at the same hospital as our 1st son, Charlie.  When Nicole and I visited them and walked into the maternity ward, I noticed that I was sweating and felt like I was going to pass out. It was like I returned to the scene of a crime.

That is a slight exaggeration, but I’ll go on record as saying I have NEVER felt more useless or worthless than watching my wife go through 20 hours of labor.  Sure, men have egos, some more than others, but during childbirth, they seem to disappear.  Telling Nicole to “breathe” isn’t exactly doing much, other than making her want to punch me in the face.  What a woman’s body goes through over the course of nine months and childbirth is astonishing, and almost unbelievable.  Charlie was born healthy and everything turned out and Nicole was fine, but its a scary process.  Without a doubt I earned a new respect for women after going through that three years ago.

My poor wife has been close to miserable for a month.  I came into our bedroom last week, and noticed her sleeping in what I considered to be a ‘coffin’.  She laid in bed and put pillows around the entire perimeter of her body.  According to her, that is the only way she can be comfortable.  She says that she now feels about 11 months pregnant.  I have to help her off the couch, and I notice she has taken over my wardrobe of sweats and t-shirts.

I’ve heard some men say they feel useless on their wedding day, as really the day is built for the bride.  That may be true, but the bride isn’t going through excruciating pain, like with childbirth, so childbirth gets my vote

So, I guess this is a thanks for the last nine months and a good luck to Nicole.  I’ll be there rooting you on, regarless of my worth.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.