The Flight of Time

Nine years ago tonight will forever be on my mind as one of my most memorable. I couldn't sleep, we had tons of company and my anxiety was through the roof. We were living in a great big farm house in Plano, Texas and tending to the little Shetland Ponies for our landlord. We had quite the life. Pretty laid back, pretty easy.

As soon as Mac and I got married we (mostly me) decided it was time to start trying to have a baby. Almost 2 1/2 years to the day our dream came true. This is the birth story of Fisher. My first born. My sweet baby.

As I said, we were all cozied up with a house full of family anxiously awaiting his arrival. Two weeks prior I had been diagnosed with Preeclampsia so I knew the exact date of induction and was so excited yet so nervous at the same time. It was decided that Mac and Mom would go to the hospital with me and that my step-dad and my brother would soon follow. This was at 5:00 in the morning folks. It was a chilly chilly morning in the Dallas area, but I didn't mind. I got dressed in my shorts and sandals while Mom and Mac wore jeans and jackets. The cold didn't bother me a bit. (Mac had actually been wearing coats inside our house for the past few months because of how cold I wanted it. Funny Stuff.)

We walked into the hospital, signed in, got all the paperwork filled out and got settled into our birthing suite. My sister-in-law was head nurse of the labor and delivery unit, so I got all kind of special treatment...which later would be to my demise at the births of my other two children. When you know how it CAN be to be a rockstar when having your baby and then to find out how it really is in real life...ugh. Everyone should get special treatment. Anyway, after we got all settled in I soon got started on the dreadful drug named PITOCIN! You know it, don't you? After about 30 minutes on that mean drug I felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside.

I will never forget when it was time for the L&D nurses to "check" my dilatation for the first time, I told Mom and Charlie and Tony that it was time to leave. Charlie replied, "What, I'M supposed to leave? I don't have to, right?" Now, we all know that he was present when welcoming Mandy's first child into the world (the first time he met her she had her legs spread with a baby coming out), BUT....we all also know how modest I am, so I wasn't having any part of that sort of participation. I think he got over it fairly quickly???

After I was at approximately 4 cm dilated, Dr. Umholtz came to check me and told me it was okay to start the epidural. An hour or so after that, I met the most wonderful Anesthesiologist. For the life of me, I can't remember his name...but at the time, I thought I was going to french kiss him when it was all over. As you all know, the price to pay for the ease of pain is the actual slow-down of contractions and dilatation...but that was okay by me. Within 30 minutes I was back to feeling like a normal-ish human being instead of an alien.

Around 4:30 in the afternoon, I gave birth to the most precious baby on earth. He was everything I ever dreamed of. The most magical part of it all was how MUCH I was filled with love...not only for this brand new gift of mine, but for my husband too. It was far beyond anything I'd ever felt in the world. It's not an emotion I can explain...I just knew I had wished I could grab onto it forever.

I have since gone on to have 2 more wonderful, precious beautiful sons and there births were beautiful and miraculous also...but there's something about the birth of your first child that you just can't seem to explain. Amazing, truly and utterly amazing.