(Written August 2007)
I’m not sure where I first came across the quote, "you are who you were when you were eight", but it has always been one of my favorite truisms, and now one that I have been able to measure in a most significant way.
Baby Calvert, due on August 18, but ready a smidge early. The events of the day for August 13, 2007, included a 7:00 P.M. check in time at Baptist Saint Anthony’s Hospital. One final night of anticipation before the big event MIGHT occur.
In today, out tomorrow. We arrived at the hospital way past everyone’s bedtime to find Grace quiet, happy spirited, and ready to see what Tuesday would hold.
Tuesday’s Child is full of Grace…only today, Grace is full of Tuesday’s Child.
We thought the events of this day could well carry on for hours and into the night as most first births customarily do. But the look on the nurse’s face suggests a different story. Every time she comes in something new has happened.
Start the drip, break the water, move the bed downward and let gravity help, bring the incubator out of the closet, call the Doctor during his lunch, plug in the incubator, make a call to the nurse’s station to announce a birth is imminent, Doctor arrives and has a rushed surprised look on his face, ready to push…he teases that Grace is doing so good that he will call this the "Grace Technique."
As I quietly wait on my "mother’s perch", I am fascinated by the miracle that is unfolding before my eyes. I have done this before…3 times, but the fourth I am in awe. I have fallen in love….no, not with the emerging head that represents a new life that is about to enter our world, but with my little Grace…all over again. I have never been so proud of her in all my life. She is polite, focused, determined, and gracious.
I’ve seen that look before…at a track meet, eight years old, standing on the starting line of the 50-yard dash, ready, set, go. Red face, squinty eyes, clenched jaws, huffing, puffing-- in the race of her life as she exerts 100% effort to reach the finish line.
I loved her since the moment I felt her move inside me, but the day I saw her on the track, I realized she inspired me and that I wanted to be just like her. During her lifetime, I have felt that way many times, and especially today.
100% unbridled effort to accomplish the task at hand…ready, set, go…red face, squinty eyes, clenched jaws, huffing and puffing…and then Little Miss Betty Beatrice Calvert…one minute old.
You are who you were when you were eight. And my little bumblebee, we will have such fun discovering all that you will become. I think if we are lucky, you shall be just like your mother. Love, Poppy
And three years later? Well three years later...it's as if I have your mother all over again.
I am one lucky mama! Happy Birthday my little Betty
Baby Calvert, due on August 18, but ready a smidge early. The events of the day for August 13, 2007, included a 7:00 P.M. check in time at Baptist Saint Anthony’s Hospital. One final night of anticipation before the big event MIGHT occur.
In today, out tomorrow. We arrived at the hospital way past everyone’s bedtime to find Grace quiet, happy spirited, and ready to see what Tuesday would hold.
Tuesday’s Child is full of Grace…only today, Grace is full of Tuesday’s Child.
We thought the events of this day could well carry on for hours and into the night as most first births customarily do. But the look on the nurse’s face suggests a different story. Every time she comes in something new has happened.
Start the drip, break the water, move the bed downward and let gravity help, bring the incubator out of the closet, call the Doctor during his lunch, plug in the incubator, make a call to the nurse’s station to announce a birth is imminent, Doctor arrives and has a rushed surprised look on his face, ready to push…he teases that Grace is doing so good that he will call this the "Grace Technique."
As I quietly wait on my "mother’s perch", I am fascinated by the miracle that is unfolding before my eyes. I have done this before…3 times, but the fourth I am in awe. I have fallen in love….no, not with the emerging head that represents a new life that is about to enter our world, but with my little Grace…all over again. I have never been so proud of her in all my life. She is polite, focused, determined, and gracious.
I’ve seen that look before…at a track meet, eight years old, standing on the starting line of the 50-yard dash, ready, set, go. Red face, squinty eyes, clenched jaws, huffing, puffing-- in the race of her life as she exerts 100% effort to reach the finish line.
I loved her since the moment I felt her move inside me, but the day I saw her on the track, I realized she inspired me and that I wanted to be just like her. During her lifetime, I have felt that way many times, and especially today.
100% unbridled effort to accomplish the task at hand…ready, set, go…red face, squinty eyes, clenched jaws, huffing and puffing…and then Little Miss Betty Beatrice Calvert…one minute old.
You are who you were when you were eight. And my little bumblebee, we will have such fun discovering all that you will become. I think if we are lucky, you shall be just like your mother. Love, Poppy
And three years later? Well three years later...it's as if I have your mother all over again.
I am one lucky mama! Happy Birthday my little Betty
No comments:
Post a Comment