Looking back, Tesy’s birth wasn't the "perfect" plan I had written down in my journal. It was longer than I wanted, harder than I expected, and far messier than the movies.
Then, at the thirteenth hour after birth, TeSys opened her eyes.
They placed her on my chest, slippery and warm. The world narrowed down to just this little face. She stopped crying the moment she heard my voice, her eyes blinking up at the bright new world she had entered.
"Tesy," I whispered.
I didn’t wake my partner yet. I laid there in the dark, timing the waves on my app, feeling a mix of terror and thrill. Was this really it? By 4:00 AM, they were five minutes apart, and I knew this wasn't a drill.
Dorn picked it up. It was warm.
If Tesy had a vote, she would have stayed put forever. The due date came and went, marked only by my growing impatience and the endless buzzing of my phone.