Giving birth without Daddy

I wish that I could say this was the first birth of our children that Ben has missed but I can't. This was the second one out of 4. 

Each time I am always struck with the fact that although I bear the physical pain of him being gone, I cannot imagine his emotional pain for not being here.

(Or what he had to listen to and the powerlessness of not being there to help out.)

Here is our deployment birth #2~

Ben via Skype before he got cut off. They have a process called "river city" when communication gets shut off due to an incident while they are in country.

Sending him email updates praying he would get them 

Before I left for the hospital 

My lovely labor coaches

Kursten

Mom

BreAnn

Getting through some fierce pain, contractions, epidural, etc

Trying to breathe on through

A bit of humor with my birthing mask from Kendall

Ben trying to talk me through some contractions

Thankful he got to hear her first cry before the phone cut out

So thankful she is here safely

Daddy with Kenzie in the hospital 

Until they meet in person....