The Birth: September 28, 2011

4:00 A.M.
I wake up to find out that Ashley had already been having minor contractions since 1 o'clock. I asked her why she didn't wake me up and she said there was no need too, which I then agreed and went back to sleep.

4:49 A.M.
I can't sleep with the nurse continuing to come in and out of the room so I decided to watch some Sportscenter.

5:49 A.M.
Only problem with watching Sportscenter so early in the morning is after one hour there is nothing else to watch. So I tried to go back to sleep.

6:18 A.M.
Can't sleep so I start to work on my blog.

6:42 A.M.
Ashley is now asleep and I am wide awake.

7:24 A.M.
I start taking pictures and video of this experience. Ashley yells and curses at me.

7:35 A.M.
We get our first visit from the doctor and Ashley is already 2 cm dilated! Doctor said at this rate we could meet Kherington by noon! They don't have to give her pitocin to speed up the process because she is doing it all on her own. Kherington can't wait to meet her daddy!

7:36 A.M.
Everyone is receiving mass texts from me letting them know noon is the time for my scheduled landing.

8:02 A.M.
Ashley's contractions are bad. She sounds like a wounded seal.

8:05 A.M.
Ashley is screaming for the epidural even though the doctor told her to wait till she is about 4 cm. But what do doctors know?!

8:32 A.M.
By this time Ashley's body is an ocean of sweat and she is screaming for an epidural like Mel Gibson screamed for his son in Ransom.

8:35 A.M.
I step outside the room to grab the nurse so Ashley can get her epidural shot and from the hallway her room sounds like a scene from Hostel. She sounded like she was being tortured.

8:46 A.M.
While Ashley is laying there screaming and cursing at me, I asked her, "This doesn't mean we aren't going to have another one right?" Wrong question to ask!

9:05 A.M.
Here comes the epidural man to save my day!

9:11 A.M.
Ashley is asleep.

9:20 A.M.
I'm asleep.

10:15 A.M.
My mom is the first person to come visit since we heard our target time of noon.

10:56 A.M.
Ashley is at 9 cm! It is almost time! My facebook and twitter are constantly being updated along with my mass texts being sent out.

11:12 A.M.
Ashley's dad is here now!

11:20 A.M.
Trying to figure out if we will be all set in our room for the St. Louis Cardinals game at 8 o'clock. They have to win to force a one game playoff but if the Atlanta Braves lose and the Cardinals win the Cardinals clinch the NL Wild Card. So Kherington didn't come on a Sunday to interfere with the NFL games but now she might interfere with one of MLB's biggest nights? I can already see that this is a sign from God telling me she will be getting in the way of a lot of sporting events in the future.

11:52 A.M.
We find out that Dr. Hardy has a C-section at 12 o'clock and that he will be in afterwards. The nurse says Ashley is still at 9 cm and she is going to give her some pitocin to help to that last centimeter.

12:10 P.M.
The wounded seal is back.

12:57 P.M.
The wounded seal is still, well... wounded.

1:05 P.M.
The nurses come in and gives us the instructions for when Ashley pushes. How to hold her smelly feet, where to give her leg support, and how to count to ten.

1:26 P.M.
Still pushing. Facebook and twitter getting constantly updated.

1:31 P.M.
Well hello Dr. Hardy!

1:47 P.M.
I can see her head! This is so amazing! Haven't started crying yet!

1:50 P.M.
O-M-G! (Yes, I just used OMG to explain my feelings. I am at an emotional state, give me a break!) This is by far the neatest most awesomest (Yes, awesomest) experience I have ever had!

1:53 P.M.
Her head is out! And tears form.

1:54 P.M.
Little miss Kherington Marie is born, cue the water works. The 10 or so seconds it took for her to start crying was probably the most nerve wrecking experience, and I couldn't even see her because my eyes were blurry. Her stats are 7 lbs. and 19.25 inches.

1:55 P.M.
I cut the umbilical cord which was like taking a pair of kitchen shears and cutting a garden hose. Not as easy as it looks!

1:57 P.M.
Ashley gets to hold the love of her life. I look at Kherington in her eyes and I can see she gave me the, "Move aside I'm number one now!" look. Already this child has her mother's attitude. Unbelievable.

2:01 P.M.
I get to hold my beautiful baby girl. Greatest moment of my life. I finally got to meet her.

2:07 P.M.
Family and friends are allowed to come into the room and share this experience with us. Thank you to all who showed up and thank you to everyone who didn't because that would have been really crowded then.

Tip #42: Watch your child being born. It sounds disgusting and in every video you watch before hand it is disgusting. But when that is your child being born, and you are watching him or her start their life. It is absolutely breath taking.

And this is when my plane landed on my journey to, destination... dad.

The Teams: June 15th, 2011

There will be a huge fight between Ashley and I when Kherington gets older because there is only one sports team that we agree on, and that is the St. Louis Cardinals. In college basketball and the NFL we completely disagree. I of course love every sport, and Ashley loves certain sports, it is one of the reasons we love each other so much. We use sports in our lives all the time. I told Ashley if we were having a boy I was going to paint the room burgundy and gold for the Redskins, and we already decided that our wedding colors are going to be royal blue because that is Duke and Kansas University's colors. We have no problem with disagreeing on sports teams, we end up rooting for the other's team as long as they aren't playing each other, but Kherington can't grow up liking and rooting for two teams. We can't cause her that much confusion at such a young age, if she is confused about her favorite team, whose to say she won't be confused about other things in life, and I am NOT having that!

She will definitely be a St. Louis Cardinals fan because Ashley didn't even like baseball until we went to a couple of Cardinals games last year, and now she is a fan. I already bought her a "Mommy's future Cardinals fan" t-shirt. I tried to buy a couple Redskins and Duke one's as well but she told me it would be a waste of money because she wouldn't wear them. How unfair is that? It is my baby too!

So Ashley and I will need to make an agreement with the other two sports. Of course I am sure my reader's are saying, "Just let Kherington decide." my answer to that is, "Hell NO!" Kids like winners, and if we give Kherington the decision to choose who she wants instead of raising her towards a certain team, she is going to end up liking whoever wins the Super Bowl and NCAA Tournament the year she can first remember. For example this year she would be either a Green Bay Packers or Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I can't live with my child constantly wearing green and yellow or black and gold, and God for bid the Dallas Cowboys win the Super Bowl in a couple of years because she will have to be put up for adoption then! The same goes for college basketball, this year Connecticut and Butler made it to the championship, no and no. And again, God for bid the North Carolina Tar Heels make it to the championship because she would again be put up for adoption. Which she probably will end up liking them anyways because she is a girl and they have a girly color, baby blue, so she will think it's pretty and will ask for a UNC t-shirt one Christmas and she won't get anything but a bag of coal and I will tell her Santa Clause doesn't like UNC and she will never get presents from him again if she continues to like them.

Tip #24: If your biggest worry about your child growing up is who her favorite sports team will be, then you got it good!

And this is when I started to worry about what city I was flying over on my journey to, destination... dad.