Ten Years Ago...

... with five days to go before my due date I had the notion to DO SOMETHING to while away the time. I had already planted literally hundreds of tulip bulbs, winterized the yard, cleaned the house, bought all the diapers and wipes I could possibly need. By baby number four you get pretty good at the getting ready part but the waiting never gets easier. To make things worse I knew that I would most likely go past my due date by at least five days before my doctor would finally give in to my pleas and kick start my stubborn body into labor. My three older children all refused to come out on their own. The older two required surgical intervention before labor ever started and the third one introduced me to the joys of pitocin. So, despite the fact that I had been having contractions on and off for two weeks and even had a mortifying trip to the hospital when I thought my water had broken, (the nice nurse patted my head and told me it's normal to make mistakes like that your first time.. and then rolled her eyes and stomped out when I told her this was my fourth child) I needed a project. My stepmother had made a very cute baby quilt with teddy bears all over it and she had sent me extra fabric to make a bed skirt for the crib. So I decided to make a coordinating quilt for Taylor's bed. I headed out to the fabric store and picked out half a dozen cute fabrics, baby blue with stars, white with little pink hearts, pastel candy stripes, all of them adorable. By time I got home I was tired but happy that I had something to keep me busy. I headed off to bed planning to get to work as soon as the kids were off to school the next morning.

Of course, I never started the darn quilt. I found the fabric a few weeks ago still in the bag that I brought it home from the store in. I woke up at 1:30am with a contraction. I lay there watching the clock on Bob's side of the bed waiting for another one. It came at 1:35. I shrugged it off and closed my eyes to go back to sleep and there was another one... the clock said 1:38.. hmm. I laid there timing increasingly stronger contractions and then shook Bob. "Hey honey, I think I'm in labor. I'm going to jump in the shower." He groaned. Of course he didn't believe me.. three kids, no labor.. I simply was not reliable. I showered and he slept on. By time I was dried off the contractions were 2 minutes apart and I was pretty sure we were having a baby soon. It took another hour to get the kids up and over to a neighbor's and an eternity to drive through rush hour traffic to the hospital. I won't go into the gory details... Delaney was born uneventfully just after 8am.

She was beautiful and amazingly loud for such a little thing (she still is!) She was instantly Daddy's little girl, so much so that the nurses were worried that I wasn't bonding with her because he was holding her and I was just watching. But I loved watching them together. Delaney was an early birthday present, born the day before Bob's birthday, and they just seem to "get" each other. They share a love for silly jokes and fast food french fries, Judge Judy and Tom Jones. For the last few years there has been a Father/Daughter Dance scheduled for the weekend before their birthdays. This year they couldn't go because Bob is in no condition to dance. So Saturday night they cranked up the music and shared one very short dance. I wish I could have taken a photo to share here but I didn't want to interrupt them. Neither one of them can pose naturally for the camera anyway so the best picture is in my memory. Dad and Daughter dancing slowly, carefully, in our living room, with smiles that the camera can never quite capture. Ten years later I still love watching them together.

Happy Birthday Delaney and Bob.