The story of my birth...

Keegan turning 5 has been SO emotional for me.  I know with 5 comes a whole new chapter in his life, and as much as I want to let him storm ahead into those new experiences... part of me just wants to hold him a little longer.

Just as I'm sure my Mom always wanted to do with me.

I can look back now and see those moments that she was trying to hold on... that I was trying to get her to let go...

Part (most) of me just wants to let her hold me a little longer....

But what is done... or not done... is done.. or NOT done.

Now about this birth of mine...

I've given birth to three adorable babies... I can rattle off their time of birth... birth weight... length... what the labor was like... who was there... what I was thinking... which way the room was facing...

all.of.it.

Every year on their birthday, I write the kids a letter for their baby books, and I can sit there and think of the day like it was yesterday.

I'm sure Mom could too.  But she never wrote me a letter.

What do I know?

I know that when Mom had Karri, her water broke (while she was sitting crossed legged on the floor) 10 days before she was born, 3 months before she was due... they sent her home and put 2 x 4s under her bed.  I know that after Karri was born, Mom didn't get to hold her until she was 3 months old, could only pass a finger through the hole to touch her.

I know that Lindsey was born in a blizzard.  Had the hospital been much further away, she would have been born IN the car.  When they got to the hospital, they didn't want to let Dad into the delivery room, and when he finally "convinced" them to let him in... they put him in a room with a woman whose feet he didn't recognize.

But what about me? 

What I knew about my own "blessed event" was pretty scarce.  I knew that when she found out she was pregnant, my mother (the wife of a cattle farmer) had her due date predicted by my father, by pulling out his chart for cattle breeding. April 8th.  I knew that she never weighed more than 135 pounds the entire time she was pregnant with any of us... but that was about it.

So last night, on the eve of Keegan's 5th birthday, I called my Dad to find out what he knew.

He can tell me how much he paid for lunch at a hotel in 1978, so I had a little hope, and he was able to give me a least a little of the story.

I wonder if he knew that I was crying when he was telling me.

They went to the hospital about 8 pm on the 7th.  Dad claims that I was the first baby born at Dukes to let the dad be in there.  When midnight came around and I hadn't been born yet... Mom was pissed.... though I think that might have more to do with knowing that Dad and his cow chart were going to be right...I was born just after midnight.  On the birth certificate they had started to write Wednesday and just crossed it out and wrote Thursday.  She got the chills really bad and chilled all night... I bet it was because I wasn't snuggling with her any more.

They named me Sara because (according to mom) it was on a western on tv and was easy to spell, not because it was on the bathroom wall (according to dad).

Is it everything?  No.  I'm sure she could have told me much more.

I wish she could still write me that letter.