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Sacramento Sailor Returns Home To A Larger Family Than When He Left

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A Sacramento-area sailor returned home from deployment on Friday to a bigger family than he left.

Utilitesman second-class Ben Kellogg now has a new rank—the rank of Daddy.

It's not often you get to see a father meeting his newborn baby for the first time.

Amanda and Ben Kellogg's whole family got to witness their special moment at the Sacramento Airport.

"It's been long-awaited and I was in disbelief to see everybody and finally meet the little man and be back with my wife, so I don't know how to explain it," he said.

He's been deployed in the Pacific since the day Amanda learned she was pregnant. Before his homecoming on Friday, Amanda couldn't contain her nerves.

"I haven't felt this nervous in a really long time now," she said. "Maybe since the first proposal, when he proposed to me. I was probably, maybe as nervous as I am today."

Little Remy was born six weeks ago.

"He was actually able to Facetime while I was giving birth, so that was great," she said.

Amanda also had support from her sister Melanie McClellan, who was pregnant at the same time. That means daddy Ben is also Uncle Ben.

"When he first saw her when she was born, he started tearing up and he's like, 'she's so beautiful' and I just couldn't wait for them to meet. and it was amazing that they just got to meet like that," McClellan said.

This was Ben's third deployment, and he understands he's switching gears from active duty to diaper duty.

"This was the most anticipation I've had coming home," he said. "If I could have left the day he was born, I would have been on a plane in a heartbeat."

Amanda says she knows Ben will be an amazing father, because he's an amazing husband.

"I was excited because seeing him with him makes me fall in love with him all over again," he said.

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