Today is my 38th birthday and I awoke to 2 little girls giggling and shushing each other as they snuck into my room planning on how to get into the bed with me. Hubby wasn’t home from work yet so there was plenty of room for them to creep in. I lay quietly listening to their plan. Sydney whispering directions while Chelsea giggled loudly. There is nothing like the scent of my little girls first thing in the morning, their bodies warm from their beds, their eyes puffy and sleepy but full of excitement for a special day. As I peeked out of one eye I was flanked by these sneaky excited lassies.
As anyone with young children can imagine there is little chance of delicacy from excited little girls so I wasn’t surprised by the pointy elbows and kicks that accompanied this effort of theirs, ahhhh finally they were settled and snuggled into my sides. Then it began, the soft chatter from Sydney..Mummy….Mummy guess what day it is?
Chelsea: IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!
Finesse I tell you…Sydney scolding Chelsea for her yelling…Mummy will get a headache again…on and on until I began tickling them. It was yet another memory which I hope I retain, one of pure love.
Today I am thinking of my Mum and what her day was like 38 years ago. I was my Mum’s 5th pregnancy, 2 of those pregnancies before me had gone to term.
Her first daughter was Theresa Rose, she died a few days after birth of what they called SIDS back then.
Mum had a miscarriage with her 2nd pregnancy and then had my sister, a healthy happy baby.
Between my sister and I she had a 2nd miscarriage.
In 1972 when Mum became pregnant with me she was advised to abort me because the Doctors didn’t think her uterus could support another pregnancy to term. My Mum and Dad have always told me that they didn’t even consider it. They just felt that it would be the wrong thing to do.
I was due on March 8th but Mum went into labor on February 7th. She spent a fearful, uncomfortable day and night in the hospital with them monitoring her and was being released on February 8th because labor had stopped and the Doctors advised rest at home when the labor began again. I’ve been told that efforts were taken to slow the labor as I was small and the longer in the womb the better. By February 9th in the early hours it was decided that an emergency C section was required and I arrived around 9am weighing 5lbs 1oz.
My Dad got news that I’d been born but that both Mum and I were critical and they would update him soon. As he tells the story it goes back and forth that Mum was dying, then soon after he received word that I was.
I cannot imagine how that felt.
I was a small baby and spent a week in the neonatal unit but survived.
Blood transfusions saved my Mum’s life!!
My Mum has told me this story each year of my life, imparting on me their love for me and how wonderful God was to give me to them to raise.
In turn on this day of my birth each year I’ve always celebrated my Mum and Dad, first for choosing life for me and facing what that could mean, then for fighting to live for me and finally for raising me.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY. What a sweet and loving story of your birth. Enjoy your day!!
Happy birthday, dear girl. I, too, have two little girls and know exactly the scenario that you described. That's the good stuff :)
Happy Birthday!
Happy Belated Birthday!!!!! What an awesome story and thank you for sharing it with us. God has a very special plan for you my friend, and I'm glad I get to see that plan unfold…..Have an incredible year : )