A Baby Story

Regina Blankenhorn and her husband Carl are both educators with a young son. Regina talks of how she and Carl first met through a friend. She mentions of her youth in Brazil, of growing up Greek Orthodox in a middle-class family and that her religion helps to sustain her as it has all those years earlier. Carl mentions that he grew up with Athiest views of religion. Also, the episode shows him holding his son at the time of his birth. Both parents play with their son and tell him about the new sister that is inside his mother's womb. The couple help stage a birthday party for their son and invite family and friends, who praise the couple's parenting skills. Then, Regina heads to the hospital to take an ultrasound of her belly, and the results are normal, and she is upbeat about the chances for a healthy birth. By the time she heads into labor, Regina is told by her doctor that the baby has to be rotated so that it can be pushed out properly. The baby was in a breech position. It needed to be turned so that it would come out head first. After hours of pushing, Regina succeeds in birthing her child....mother and child are okay. Days later, the couple has the child baptized by a Greek Orthodox minister. In this episode, both Regina and Carl express the anticipation all expectant parents feel (typical). Also, Regina weeps softly as she recalls her late mother and how she wishes she could see the birth of her second grandchild. Very understandable loss. She is a beautiful woman of about 38 (as of 2000 when the episode first aired), and expressed her wish that she had had her children at a younger age so that she would not have waited to start a family later in life. But then these are career educators who put work first before family and marriage; sometimes fate has a way of determining outcomes beyond our knowledge. Fate was quite good to the Blankenhorns.