Happy Father's Day - To Ahren

I talk so much about the mamas I work with and the births I attend, but it's almost Father's Day. When I suggested to a few of the mamas I worked with that they take the chance to publicly thank their partners/husbands, the jumped at it. So here's Sharon's (Alicia's) Father's Day note!

My name is Sharon and I'm about to tell you about the world's greatest daddy. First, he agreed to go along with my mama's "crazy" idea of a home birth, which turned out to be the best thing for us. You see, she went through 34 hours of labor (not counting 3 nights of off and on contractions) to get me here. We stalled at 6cm for 10 hours. Had we been in a hospital, I would have been a c-section baby and that was the last thing any of us wanted. My daddy stayed with us through it all. We had lots of support at our house during my birth...our midwife, doula, and photographer were all there. He could have taken a break anytime and mama and I would have been just fine but he refused. He wouldn't let any one fuss over his own exhaustion but powered through well into our long labor. He was our rock and support...emotionally and physically. Mama says she'd never seen "that side of him" and my birth is one of her favorite memories of him loving her and them working together.

After I was born, daddy took charge. Mama focused on me and breastfeeding and cuddling and sleeping. Daddy handled the laundry, all the meals (thank goodness mama prepared a whole bunch of freezer meals ahead of time!), kept up the house, took care of the dog, welcomed visitors, became an herbal bath expert and helped us get breastfeeding off to the right start by calling an LC (without being asked!) when we were having trouble.

At the time we lived in a two story house. Bedrooms and a living area upstairs, kitchen and more living area downstairs. To put it all into perspective, mama and I did not go downstairs for 11 DAYS.
And that, my friends, is what you call a rock star daddy!