by Drew Galloway
It is March 30 at 7:30 p.m.
I’m in the hospital waiting room with my parents and my brother-in-law’s parents. We are the only ones in the waiting room and we are talking about what we think the new baby’s name will be.
The only thing that we know is that her name starts with an “A”. And we did not know that her name would start with an “A” until 3:00 that day and the first name that popped into my head was Amelia.
I’m the youngest child in my family and my sisters are 28 and 30 years old. My sister, Betsi, lives in Atlanta, Georgia and my other sister, Emillie, lives 5 minutes from our house.
Betsi has two boys, Jack and Henry. Jack is four years old and is obsessed with sports. If you ask Jack who the best quarterback of all time is, without hesitation he will say Tom Brady. He runs around the house during football games wearing a helmet with a football and mimics what the players do.
Henry is two years old and is a wild child. He runs around and likes to pretend to drive in cars. He has an alter ego that we call “Melvin” because he never sleeps and is always fine the next day.
At 7:50 my brother-in-law, Jake, comes into the waiting room with his mom’s purse.
“It’s go time,” he said.
“It’s go time,” he said.
Everyone’s really excited in the waiting room and the conversation switches from what we think the name will be to what time we think she will be born.
In the middle of everyone placing bets, we get our phones out and we text people that she is about to be born.
This is the first childbirth I have been apart of, so I did not know anything about how long labor is or how long it usually takes to push the baby out. I randomly guessed 9:20.
While we place our bets, we talk about our favorite Jake story.
Emillie and Jake have been together since I was three years old, so he has always been like the brother I never had.
At 10:09 Jake comes back into the room.
“She was born at 9:19,” he said.
He tells us that her name is Amelia Jay, but we would have to wait another 30 minutes to meet her because of the hospitals’ “Bonding Time.”
That was the longest 30 minutes throughout the process.
Everyone got their phones out again to text people that she was born.Then, we were allowed to go in and meet her.
When we saw her for the first time, everyone cried. My first reaction to her was how wide awake she was. Both of her eyes were wide open and she was sticking her tongue out at us.
My other reaction was how cute she is. Her head was perfectly round and she has really big eyes that have a little twinkle.
My other reaction was how cute she is. Her head was perfectly round and she has really big eyes that have a little twinkle.
That night I thought about a lot of things, like how becoming an uncle three times before turning 18 is really rare.
It is really crazy. One of the things I have learned is that the decisions I make right now could change the lives of three little kids.
I’ve also learned to appreciate the little things in life. Everyday after dinner Jack and Henry want to play Hide and Seek with me and I always say yes even though I know where they will hide because they do not change their spots from night to night. When I play on my PlayStation 4, Jack wants to play with me so I give him a controller and we play together. It is always about the little things.
They have also taught me how one person can really influence you. My family always has sports on our TV, we cheer our teams on and they cheer them on with us. I also have hundreds of collectible mini helmets of college football and NFL teams with a field, so Jack and Henry play with them and Jack can name every team that I have.
That night I also thought about the best way to welcome Amelia to the family. I thought about maybe posting a picture on Instagram with a sappy caption or tweeting about it, but I decided to write this story and include a letter to her:
Dear Amelia,You are only a week old and I have only seen you three days, but you already have me wrapped around your finger. You are going to be really spoiled, not only by me, but by everyone in our family. You are being born into the best family a baby could ask for. We are really loud and will probably wake you up when you take naps, so sorry in advance. We are annoying at times and will get into your business but it is just because we care about you. I will probably be really overprotective of you and not think any guy is good enough for you, so sorry again. I might not show it all the time, but I really care about you and do not want to see anything happen to you. Your dad and I are going to teach you a lot about sports (probably more than you will want to know). I cannot wait to watch you grow up. I want you to know that if you need anything, ever, that I am always here for you and that I love you.Love,
Uncle Drew
Dynasty Network of America 