In the early morning of November 16th (about 1am) my wife, Sarah, woke me up to let me know that she thought she'd been in labor for about an hour.  Now we had just had a birthing class a few weeks earlier to prepare us for this very moment.  It was stressed, most importantly, not to show up at the hospital too soon.   They'll send you home otherwise.  The optimum time to head to the birthing building is when the contractions are 2 to 5 minutes apart.   The challenge for us, being that we live in Annapolis and my wife's OB is in DC (where she works) is that the hospital she's required to go is about 50 minutes from where we live (Sibley Memorial).   And on a work day the route to get there (495) could make the highway a parking lot of DC commuters.   So the fact that it's 1- 2 in the morning on a Monday is  brilliant... and a brilliant move on the baby's part... to get this going.   So as my wife's contractions were clearly in the required marker of 2 - 5 min. apart, we collected our readymade bags and we're about to head on our stealthy way to the hospital in the dark of night.   Then, the unexpected...  Her water broke!!  (interesting statistic:  only 12% of women have their water broken before getting to the hospital) at that point the baby has to come out within 24 hours.   The car ride to Sibley Memorial went smooth with the exception of camera catching me  going 12 miles over the speed limit in Chevy Chase.  Thank you very much!!   From here on it things moved rather quickly.   Except for my wife's pain...  OH GOD THE PAIN!!  One should never have to see their wives scream " OH GOD, THIS IS TERRIBLE!" .   The word "terrible" is on the pain chart right in front of us.    It ranks #8.   Thankfully she didn't wait around for a #10 (SEVERE!) to get the epidural.   It took about another 6 hours of dilation before the pushing began.  Fortunately it only took 3 pushes and there he was...  a baby boy.    Christian James Parada born at 1:17 pm weighing 7lbs. 10oz measuring 20.5 inches.  Life as new parents has been quite a challenge but that baby's cuteness makes it all worth it.   Welcome little man.