Grandson!
I was sitting in the Alvarez Union at Davidson College about 9:15 this morning -- the keynote speaker had been introduced and was just getting into the meat of his topic: the heart of IT. My cellphone rang but I silenced it; it was Ben. A few seconds later it rang again and I silenced it again: it was Pat. It didn't take me long to figure out what was on their minds, so I slipped out of the meeting, listened to the message, and called Ben.
It's hard for me to explain the intensity of emotion I was feeling as I called him. I was in tears and could barely speak because of the tightness in my throat. There was someting utterly and overwhelmingly wonderful about the experience of hearing from my son about the birth of his son. He and Sage have journeyed so lovingly and beautifully together through the pregnancy and the birth, and I was (am) feeling so proud of them and so grateful for the safe arrival of the baby that the joy just came gushing out!
The first member of the next generation of Hirbys has no name yet [now Reed Charles Hirby], but he weighs 8 lbs., was bright pink at birth (6:08 a.m. CDT) with reddish fuzz and wide-open, slate-blue eyes (Ben's description), eager to drink in the world. The labor was long and hard for Sage, and in the end the baby was delivered by C-section because his position was not right and could not be made right after several hours of hard labor. All three are exhausted at this point, though healthy. Pat visited the threesome in Madison on Friday and reports that all is well.