I posted the details of all of this over in the Team Forum, but I wanted to share this with my "hometown" crew:

Long story (sort of) short, my wife gave birth to our first child two Sundays ago, but he was a full ten weeks premature.  I went through the very worst and best moments in my life in the matter of a couple of hours - scared to death when the OB said he was coming and couldn't be stopped or slowed down, overjoyed when he came out kicking and screaming, breathing on his on!

Cutting to the chase, my wife is fine and my son is healthy in spite of his early arrival.  Lord willing, he'll keep growing like he is now and we'll get to bring him home in a few more weeks.

Let me introduce you to Richard Jr. (or Richie, as we plan to call him), Alabama's youngest gun collector (I've already started his collection ):



And here he is with two of the most thankful and relieved parents in the world just a couple of days after delivery:

May I be the 1st to say CONGRATULATIONS!    I sure hope he continues to do well.

Rick

Congratulations!  He looks great, as do Mom & Dad.

Congratulations!  And God Bless you ALL !!!

Richie looks to be doing just fine. Congratulations to you and your lovely wife.

God bless you and your family!

Congrats, my friend.  BTW, what part of AL are you from?  Have you attended any of our FOP shoots?

Quoted: Congrats, my friend.  BTW, what part of AL are you from?  Have you attended any of our FOP shoots?

I live in the beautiful town of Slapout, Alabama - a tiny rural community in NW Elmore County, about a half hour out of Montgomery (where I work).  I've always meant to come to one of the shoots (I grew up in the B'ham area), and now that Richie is here I don't know when I might have the chance - but I bet all the sacrifices like that will be worth it!

BTW, thanks to everyone for the kind words!

Congratulations and thanks for sharing those real nice pictures.

CONGRATS!!!! lets hope this kid gets his looks from mom

mike

Yet another hearty CONGRATULATIONS!!

My best to all 3 of you.  And as Mike said, let's hope the looks are from her side of the gene pool.  

congrats man, you look like a proud papa!

Hope your family continues to do well.

best regards,

LWC

Big congrats from Ga.!!! Said a quick prayer for ya.

Thanks for all the kind words - sadly, he looks just like I did as a baby so his chances as a future male model look slim.

Seriously, he is doing very well considering how early he was.  He is now over 4 pounds (the lowest he got was 2 pounds, 10 ounces), gaining an ounce per day, more or less.  His IV and oxygen are gone and every test has been encouraging.  We spend as much time with him at the hospital as we can & we hope to FINALLY have him at home by the end of this month.

Thanks again for your prayers - God has been very good to us!

Richard

Just one last update to let y'all know that Richie finally got to come home from the hospital late last week.  He's about 5.5 pounds, 19" long, and seems to be doing very well.

You'll be glad to know that he was in my arms most of Saturday afternoon & evening helping me cheer on Alabama (Was that a long game, or WHAT?), Auburn (What happened?), & the Marlins (ANYBODY but the Yankees again!).  I must admit that I spent more time looking at him than the TV screen.  I didn't want to let go of him for a minute!  It's great finally having him at home.  Now, where did I put those youth guns?...

i have been there and am glad to hear junior is home safe and sound.

My daughter was a 12 week preemy as well. 3lbs 4oz. spent 30 days in neonatal ICU at university hospital in mobile. Sacriest time of my life.

This month she turns 15 and you would never know she'd had a problem.

mike