Tomorrow is my baby's 24th B'day.

24 years?  How can that be?  I don't know how I can convince anybody of how fast the time actually goes.  But...fast it is.  A breath...a blink...a moment...and no matter how hard anyone tries, nobody can stop it...but back to that 24 year old....

Born September 5th, 1986.  His due date!  I was miserably hot and wanted nothing more that to have the Dr get this baby out of me.  Unfortunately, the Monday before his due date was Labor Day and therefore not a "surgery" day for the Dr.  So he scheduled me to have J by C-Section the following Monday, the 8th.  Went I went for a check on the 4th...I begged the Dr. him to take him out...but of course (being a male Dr) he laughed it off and said I would be fine until Monday.  I didn't feel fine!  But...as I went home I discovered that his brother, who was only 22 months old, had a fever and was quite sick.  I remember actually saying a little prayer of thanks that I hadn't talked the Dr into delivering me...I knew that by Monday whatever brother had would have probably passed and and I could leave him for 3 days without as much worry and guilt.   About two am I woke up to go to the bathroom (as most pregnant women do hundreds of times a day and night!) and the water wouldn't stop.  Not a big gush...it just kept running out of me!  (I had had his big brother by scheduled C-Section so this was all new to me!)  I woke G up and his take on the situation was "Why don't we wait until morning to call the Dr?"  When I explained to him that I was in labor (actually beginning to feel quite strong contractions) and that I wasn't supposed to give birth naturally to this baby...he woke up and started helping get ready to go.  Our neighbor came over to stay with big brother until my parents could come get him.  I was torn between joy at meeting my new little guy...to leaving G who wasn't feeling well at all.  But as my contractions got stronger and stronger....of course I knew getting to the hospital was the thing to do...now!  After arriving at the hospital we were put in a labor room...hooked up to monitors and left quite alone.  My contractions got stronger and stronger and I was worried that I'd give birth to this child before the Dr. arrived.  Sometime after 4 am the Dr arrived and I was given my spinal and taken to surgery.  J was born at 4:55 a.m. on his due day!  From what I remember he had lots of dark hair and even though he was 9 pounds 1 ounce...he looked long and skinny to me compared to his brother...because he was also 22 inches long...2 inches longer that his brother had been. Later that day as the nurse was rolling him into the room in his little bassinette...I saw a blonde haired baby....I was confused and told the nurse that I didn't think that that was my baby...my baby had dark hair....and just as she was opening her mouth to try and convince me that it was my baby....I heard another nurse yelling down the hall..."That's the wrong baby!  That's not her baby!"  We laughed!  I got my baby and all was well.  And now...that baby is a grown man with a son of his own.  A breath....a blink...a moment....