We knew it was going to be a big day. Thursday was the first day of the last year of graduate school for us. I woke up early to have copies of my syllabus printed and to tie up some loose ends before the school year began. I taught Color and Composition at 11:00 and then had a Graduate Crit class at 2:00. MJ and I hadn’t talked all day, which was sort of unusual, but with the hustle and bustle of the first day of school, sort of expected. I called MaryJo shortly after class (which went for the full 2 hr 45 min on the first day of class!). She said, “I’m kinda struggling. Are you coming home soon?” When I got home, she handed me a short grocery list and asked me if I was done for the day. I had two things to do still, so I swiped Harper up and the two of us took off to, “help Daddy go to college.” Sidekick in tow, Harper and I overnighted a letter, made a seating chart for a 300 person class, and went to Kroger to get the things on Mom’s grocery list. Mom stayed home and exhaled. After all, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, she had been taking care of an energetic two year old all day while in labor. You wouldn’t know it by looking at her or talking to her.
When Harper and I returned, Mom stayed in the bedroom, readying herself while I readied Harper for bed. MaryJo called the midwife at the hospital who, (exactly like last time) doubted her level of labor because of her calm, pleasant demeanor. We called Sean Mills, a recent Digital Media grad and a great friend. Upon receiving my phone call he dropped everything and said, “Do you want me to run there, because I will.” I picked him up, briefed him and by about 7:30-40, MaryJo and I were off to Athens Regional Hospital. She had bags pre-packed, clothes for Harper pre-laid out and instructions for a babysitter pre-written out. In short, she was pre-pared.
Unfortunately from here, there is little to tell. We arrived at the hospital, registered, (which took over ten minutes and two maybe three contractions) and headed up to the delivery room. MaryJo smiled at me during our registration and said quietly, "Imagine how long it would have taken if I hadn't pre-registered!?” We laughed together while we looked around for some sort of Candid Camera crew. You wouldn’t believe how many people it took and how many times they had to hit the F10 button to let us in.
We met our Midwife Tanya, who said she would go ahead and check if MJ had made any progress. She was floored to see that MJ walked into the hospital, (once again) 7cm dilated. I’d love to take you through the next two hours step by step, but I can’t. It’s a super-real experience that won’t translate. My love and my admiration for my wife are incommunicable. I went to fill her Gatorade bottle half way through and a team of nurses stopped me to see if I was with the girl they had all apparently been talking about. They asked me if she really was 9 cm dilated and “THANKING her husband for rubbing her back DURING her contractions!” At 9:50pm Thursday the 16,th our second child was born. We asked that the nurses not reveal the sex of the child. Instead, the baby was put on MaryJo’s chest immediately. We smiled and kissed and quietly gave thanks for our blessing staring at each other and the baby. My wife looked so beautiful.
After about five minutes, we couldn’t take the suspense. We peaked under the blanket. Maybe it was dark, maybe I didn’t think it was possible, but it looked like a girl. MJ looked and asked the nurses for confirmation. Indeed our eyes had not deceived us. We had a beautiful baby girl. We named her the next day, Rilke Leah Bienko.
This morning, a new midwife came in to check on us. She said that the midwife from the night before had relayed the story to her. She said that in all her years, she had never seen such an amazing, beautiful birth. She said, “those two are something special.” MJ said that was so sweet to hear, and thanked her. I think it meant a lot to her to hear what an amazing job she did from someone else. She was and is, amazing.
Harper is adjusting wonderfully. All he wants to do is "Kiss Rilke?" I wish you could hear the way that he says it. He tells us, "The new baby is very delicate." He is going to be an excellent big brother. Here are some pictures of our growing family.
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