Once t’upon a time...

...there was a woman, who really really wanted children. Finally after 6 miscarriages she was finally going to carry a baby to term. She knew from the moment she conceived that it was going to be a girl. She called her Christel, even though her husband really wanted a boy and called it Bozo. But she was convinced beyond a doubt it would be a girl.

The pregnancy went along fine and mommie-to-be was happy as could be. The baby was not in a hurry to join the world. The pregnancy was 3 weeks past due and the mommie was miserable. She and hubby had done everything to hurry the delivery along to no avail. Then one night he comes in all excited that his friend Eddie has tickets to a San Antonio Spurs basketball game. The mommie is not excited, what if she goes into labor and he’s in the middle of a basketball game. This was before the age of cell phones. Anyway she said she guessed he could go so long as his friend’s wife, Carolyn, would “baby”sit her. Carolyn agreed and off the guys go to watch the Spurs.

The mommie and Carolyn played some cards. About 8:00 the mommie couldn’t get comfortable, her lower back was bothering her. So they stopped sitting in uncomfortable chairs and went in the other room to watch some TV.

Carolyn said that the mommie might be in labor, but the mommie said she wasn’t in pain, just uncomfortable. Finally about midnight the fellas arrived home. Needless to say, you can’t go to a Spurs game and not drink beer, so they were a little tipsy and a lot tired.

On the way home, the poppa asked if she wanted to go to the hospital, it was on the way home. The mommie had already been to the hospital once with “false” labor and didn’t want to do that again. She said, “no I’m not having any pains, let’s just go home and go to sleep”, which they did… for a while anyway.

About 1:00.the mommie’s water broke. She tried to wake the poppa up, but he wasn’t having any of it. When she finally convinced him that it was time to go he got in an all-out hurry. Meanwhile, the mommie was putting on a little make-up, after all this is a big day and she wanted to look her best. The poppa was antsy and was trying to rush her out the door.

Once they arrived at the hospital it was all excitement. But her labor was slow, slow, slow. The poppa was asleep (or maybe passed out) in a chair. Contractions were fast so the doctor started the epidural. Then her contractions stopped. They started her on a pitocin drip only to find out there was a hole in the tubing and most of the pitocin was in a puddle on the floor. The poppa woke up occasionally to see how she was doing, basically he was not much help.

Finally her contractions started again, she was completely dilated and they told her it was time to push. She was pushing good, but, wait, they realized she was not fully dilated to they told her to stop pushing. Now it really was time. They took her to the delivery room -by now it is about 4:30 the next afternoon. The epidural had worn off, so they did a spinal. She was exhausted and wanted to give up. The only thing that kept her pushing was that she really, really wanted to know if the baby had red hair. A very tuned-in nurse kept coaxing her to push by saying “we can almost see her, I think her hair is red, but push one more time so I can be sure”. Finally, after much pushing and then use of the “salad forks”, Christel was born. At 5:02 December 3, 1975. The mommie waited anxiously for that first cry. And did she ever cry, holler was more like it.

The mommie was totally worn out, and now she was numb from her toes to her throat, she had no energy to even cough. When they brought Christel to her to hold, she started crying, scared to death she would drop her. But the nurse helped her and she didn’t drop her.

She was the most beautiful thing the mommie had ever seen. And she came from her, you see the mommie was adopted and this was the first person in the world she was really related to. The mommie couldn’t stop crying, tears of joy, and exhaustion, and excitement, and more joy. It was almost too much emotion to handle.

Then they took Christel to the nursery and finished up with the mommie. After the mommie spent 3 hours in recovery she was finally allowed to go to the nursery to see her brand new daughter. And guess what that little girl was doing when the mommie saw her the first time---she was up on her elbows looking around at the world in amazement. And guess what, she still looks at the world in amazement and with a sense of awe.

Today she is 30 years old. She is the light of my life, my first and best treasure. I love her more than she will ever know. She has grown into a beautiful, witty, caring, sensitive, smart, loving woman. She is all the mommie every hoped for, and more.

Happy Birthday, Baby.

Love, The Mommie.