My poor wife.

She is lying in her hospital bed, sleeping from a combination of medications and sheer exhaustion.  She looks completely worn out.

She just delivered our son 4 hours ago.  It was a very long and hard labor; everyone was on pins and needles until our son finally emerged from her birth canal.  That was the last thing I remembered before I hit the floor.

So now I have a son.  WE have a son.  We are a family.  Mom.  Dad (me).  Big sister (aged two).  And now ... introducing Junior.  Manuel Olivaro Torrence Garcia, Jr.  Born on this day, 2010, almost at the end of another year, just before the next.  A late Christmas present (or early New Year's present, depending on how you look at things).

He is beautiful.  Big, but beautiful.  He is the biggest baby in the hospital nursery.  And certainly one of the loudest.  You can hear him squalling through the glass walls as I look in on him.  He does not look happy as the nurses mess with his belly button or check his vital signs.  Otherwise, he's perfect.  Ten fingers.  Ten toes.  Great color, rather florid in nature.  A headful of thick, dark, spiky hair.  Looks just like I did when I was a baby (have seen pictures of myself).

He weighed a whopping fourteen pounds and eight ounces at birth.  No wonder my wife worked so hard to pop him out.  I'm surprised that the doctors didn't even think of doing a C-section, but nope ... my wife delivered Manuel (aka Junior) au natural.  No drugs, no real assistance from the doctors.  she did the lion's share of the work herself, and now she is in la-la land, as pain (and other) meds flow into her blood stream via IVs.  She is also getting some blood; she lost quite a bit of blood during the delivery.  

So far, my wife is doing well, and happily, so is Junior.  

I'm just wondering what Mariposa, our daughter, is going to do when we tell her that she has a little brother.  I'm wondering what she is going to say when she sees how big her little brother is.  He is a gorilla.  He is huge!!  And he is muy guapo, very handsome.  He is me in miniature.

He is the best thing that could have ever happened to our family.  We are now a complete family at last.  I have the son I'd always dreamed of.  Oh, our daughter is great, but there's just something about having a boy to complete the family picture.  A boy to carry on my name, a boy to teach things to, and a boy to love and spend time with, as only a father and son can.

I am blessed.  Blessed beyond measure.  I have a son.  A SON!!!!