Braun’s big home run jolts a baby into being

Ryan Braun’s huge home run in Sunday’s game not only broke the tie, it broke Niki O’Connor’s water as the pregnant woman jumped up and down in celebration.

Braun’s blast launched the Brewers into the post-season, but he also gets credit in the O’Connor family for a BBI, a baby batted in.

With her due date just four days away, the middle-school math teacher in a stretched-out Brewers T-shirt had walked to Miller Park on Sunday afternoon with her husband, Brian, from their nearby home on Blue Mound Road. It was a slow walk and, mercifully, downhill.

She and Brian were only 9 years old the last time the Brewers made the playoffs, so they didn’t want to miss the final game of the season with the wildcard spot up for grabs. They’ve been to 15 games this year.

But after attending Saturday’s game, Niki was having contractions that night at home. The painful spasms continued Sunday, and it was time to make a decision.

“I wanted to go sell the tickets, but Niki said, ‘Oh, no. No, no, no. I’m going to go,’ ” Brian said.

It’s probably false labor, she figured, and the Brewers’ opportunity to beat the Cubs was real. So off they went, joining Brian’s dad, Bill, and brother, Trey, at the ballpark. They had good seats on the first-base side in Section 110.

“I was having contractions the entire game every 5 or 10 minutes,” Niki said. “Every time I had a contraction, I was grabbing Brian’s hand and squeezing it.”

Her father-in-law said he wasn’t too worried. He joked that there had to be lots of doctors in the crowd. “I looked over at her once in a while and I’d see her breathing funny. I just thought it was discomfort,” he said. “She’s a real trouper.”

Sitting next to Niki was a woman — a Cubs fan and a mother — who was worried the sell-out attendance was about to increase by one infant. She tried to keep Niki seated peacefully.

There wasn’t much to cheer about in the early innings, but the place went nuts when Braun hit a two-run homer in the eighth, putting the Brewers ahead to stay, 3-1. Niki jumped and whooped and clapped.

That’s when she felt something warm and wet.

“You turned around without any embarrassment at all and told my Dad you peed your pants,” said Brian, who works as a financial planning consultant.

Niki soon discovered it wasn’t that at all. Her water had broken, but not entirely. It was more like the ground-rule double of amniotic fluid.

Her day at the game still wasn’t over. They watched the Brewers win, then stayed to witness the Mets lose to the Marlins on the Miller Park scoreboard, then lingered a little more to see the celebration on the field.

Niki and Brian rode home in a cab and a short time later went to Aurora Women’s Pavilion of West Allis Memorial Hospital. At 10:27 a.m. Monday, 6 1/2 -pound Addison Jean O’Connor was born.

The couple’s first child, Addison shares a birthday with Niki, Niki’s late grandmother, Dorothy Konieczki, and, appropriately, with Brewers owner Mark Attanasio.

The nurses call her the Brewer baby. Niki and Brian briefly considered a Brewer-related name but decided to stick with the pre-arranged Addison, which was in no way inspired by the street running past Wrigley Field, Brian emphasized.

Ryan, or maybe Ryann, was a close second, said the new mother and Brewers superfan.

(jsonline.com)