Colin-Eve

Look at this handsome little guy!!!! Here he is just nine months old. And tonight, I find myself going down memory lane as I remember when C, our oldest child, was born. It's Colin-Eve and tomorrow he will be 12 years old! Unbelievable.

12 years ago, Ryan and I found ourselves shopping for clothing to take to the hospital when the baby was born. He was the first, and even though we still had two weeks to prepare, we thought it best to get a few things packed, you know, just.in.case. We found a few things but I told Ryan that I would just come back one day during the next week and get what I needed, you know, because I had two weeks until the baby was to arrive. We left the mall, nothing purchased, not even the chicken nuggets that I was craving, and we went home.

Evening fell and we set out for an evening of celebrating our little bundle of soon-to-be joy with friends from church. A showering of gifts was upon us. Prayer time was had.....and it got LONG, very, very long. I was pregnant and I needed to go to the bathroom soooo badly during the prayers. I contemplated getting up, wondering if people would notice if I left for just a second???? I made it, though, and not too long after the prayers were said, I had my first pain. It wasn't "dull" like the Lamaze class instructor said it would be AND we had two more weeks to be pregnant so I didn't think much of the pain except that it was really uncomfortable. And when the second pain came not too long after, I realized it was just a bit more uncomfortable than I wanted to admit. With the car packed, and my pains coming and going, we said our goodbyes and headed home for a good nights rest. After all, we had two more weeks before we would endure our sleepless nights, right?

Wrong! Got home. Pains kept coming. And coming. Called the doctor who said, "Well, you do have two weeks until your due date. How about you drink some water and call us back if you are still having some pain?" Hmmmm. Water didn't help.

With the car still packed. And with my special pillow and a toothbrush, we made our way to the hospital. No bag. No realization that we were leaving our home as two and could very possibly return as three.

Triage confirmed what Ryan had thought all along, I was in labor. The staff was so calm. I was in shock. And Ryan was simply tired. The nurses graciously looked at us and said, "Well, here is your room. We will make a bed on the couch for you, Dad, and the two of you will have a baby sometime tomorrow morning." Ok. With that, they left the room and said to ring a bell should we have any questions.

Not thirty minutes later, we were ringing the bell with a vengeance. Could it be that said baby may appear sometime before tomorrow morning??? Say, maybe, really, really soon???

Yep! Our baby boy, all 7 lbs of him, arrived with the cutest little cry ever and he looked just like me as an infant....head full of black hair! He had no patience for waiting until the next morning. Instead, he was on a mission and maneuvered his way into our world in four hours flat. And from that moment on, our world was changed for the better. We became parents.