Together We Make Football (and Babies!)

Looking back now, it is all a bit surreal and maybe slightly crazy: I was in labor at an NFL game! 

It was not long after meeting my husband, Brian, in 2009 that he took me to my first Falcons game.  I had no idea that a few seasons later I would be inside the Georgia Dome poised to possibly give birth to our first child.

Football has always been a meaningful tradition for Brian’s family—his parents took him to his first Falcons game before he was even a year old!  As a child, he organized backyard football games with his brother and other kids from the neighborhood.  Emulating what he observed the television networks doing at Falcons games, he setup the family camcorder and ran dozens of feet of coax cable to the basement so that his younger sisters and others could watch him and his buddies play football—LIVE—on TV!  He used a VCR to record it so that if there was a controversial play, the people downstairs could quickly rewind the tape to review it.  Using a cordless phone, they would communicate back up to the field (yard) what the “replay officials” had decided after further review.

Fast forward to the 2012 NFL season.  I was 34 weeks pregnant and started to have some pain on Friday, but just kind of ignored it as we had a big weekend planned which included going to see the Falcons play on Sunday.  Atlanta was having an awesome season so there was extra excitement surrounding their games.  I downplayed my pain to Brian as I knew he was really looking forward to the game and I did not want him to think we should skip it.  I was in a good bit of pain walking to the game, but continued to ignore it. 

We have season tickets, so we sit near the same people each time.  A lady who we see at every game came up to us and told us she had a dream a few nights earlier that I was in labor and delivered the baby at the dome.  We just laughed as we knew I was over a month away from my due date.  Little did we know, that woman was on to something!  The game did not disappoint as the Falcons won.  Walking back to the car, I was in a lot of pain and finally told my husband that I really think I should probably at least go to my doctor in the morning just to make sure everything was okay with our baby. 

The next morning, I went to the doctor as soon as they opened, and they quickly realized that I was indeed in labor—and had been for days!  They immediately put me in a wheelchair and took me to the hospital.  They asked me why I did not come in sooner and I responded with, “Well we had tickets to the Falcons game and didn't want to miss it!”  Our son, Jacob Brian, was born the very next morning.  Jake spent six days in NICU as a precaution of being born premature, and we made sure he sported a Falcons hat the next Sunday as they played again. 

The Falcons continued to have an amazing season and there was a lot of hype that they could make it to the Super Bowl.  My husband insisted that if the Falcons did go all the way to the Super Bowl that we would be taking our newborn to New Orleans!  Atlanta came up one play short, but that season was nothing less than magical in so many ways for my family.

Our family’s love of all things football continues today.  At 11 months old, we took Jake to his first Falcons game, just like his daddy did when he was that age. Watching Brian carry Jake into the dome, I could tell it meant the world to him to let our son begin to experience how much football means to him.  Fittingly, our Atlanta Falcons were victorious that day.

I’m pregnant again, but not to worry, our sweet little girl, Abigail, is due in the spring—months away from football season.  But if she’s anything like her older brother, she might decide to show up early—just in time for the Super Bowl!