Boxer Boy Arrives -- His Name is Zain

Summer Soltice, June 21st, the longest day of the year. It also happens to be the day that our boy decided to show up on Planet Earth. This also happened to be his "due" date. Although from what we hear these "due" dates are pretty much just educated guesses. The amazing this is that while this guy was "on time," his mom hasn't been on time in about four years!

I know you've probably heard it from everyone who has had a child but there are no real words to describe the event of childbirth from the perspective of a father. I stood there in amazement as my beautiful wife pushed and pushed, following the nurse and doctor's instructions perfectly. Using all her energy, in about 75 minutes, baby Zain was born. I can't tell you the pride in and love I felt for Amy at that point. Then, there's the arrival of the child. First the top of the head, then the whole head and then, in a blink, out pops this blueish looking little person, wailing from the moment he took his first breath. Baby Boxer is alive and well. But, at this point, still nameless.

Dr. Karen Callen, our truly extradordinary OB, asked me to cut the cord, which I did. That cord provided life to that little guy. I guess I never thought about what it would be like but it's an amazing piece of anatomy. About 1 1/2 in diameter and strong!

After the cord was cut, the baby made his way up to Amy's chest. The tears are now flowing freely from both mom and dad as the baby bonds with his mom.

After we stopped crying, we realized that we needed to name this little guy. We wanted to do this before the grandparents and Auntie Nicole and Great Auntie Mo came back into the room. We knew that we wanted to follow the Jewish custom of naming the baby after important relatives by using the first letter of that relatives name. We had lots of propects but in the end we chose to name the little guy after Amy's paternal great grandmother Zina and my maternal grandfather, Ira. We consulted our list of names agreed that the "Z" name would be Zain. For the "I" name, we agreed Ian would be a great middle name.