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On the way to the hospital I took your daddy's hand. He didn't know what I was going to do considering how every two minutes I was climbing out of the seat. He got scared and tried to yank his hand away from me afraid I would squeeze the life out of it. I got the better of him and wouldn't let his hand go. Then, as my intention was the whole time, I kissed it.

When we got to the hospital your father went inside to get me a wheelchair. He promptly came back with one but then let me out of the rental van while he went to park. I assumed I was supposed to wheel myself back in, which I couldn't do, so I ended up pushing the chair back inside before sitting in it in front of the security desk. A nurse who was going off duty saw me and offered to roll me back to the labor area. God sent that angel to me cause I wouldn't have made it on my own. She left me in the care of another nurse and then left. I was put on a bed and the nurse came in to check me. She left with a puzzled look on her face and came back with another nurse who proceeded to check me again. You don't want to know what it felt like, trust me. When the second nurse recovered her hand she said, "I feel a head!" From there they realized that I wasn't kidding when I told them I was in labor and everything went into warp speed. All of sudden we couldn't move fast enough. Your father was on the phone trying to get some info about our friend's pediatrician, I was changing and trying to give the nurse all my info, another nurse was trying to reach the doctor. I got back in the bed and one nurse and your father sped with me through the halls to the delivery room. What a guy! In the delivery room I was so ready to go, I was begging the nurse to just let me push. She told me that I couldn't push til the doctor got there to take care of things in case something happened. So I breathed and I climbed the walls with each contraction. I have to mention that the contractions were not painful as I expected them to be. For me, it felt like I had to have a bowel movement really, really, really badly - a very uncomfortable feeling. Imagine having to use the bathroom but there not being one in sight and you have to make a concerted effort to not push or allow any pressure on your abdomen. I did think to myself though that if the feeling got any stronger I wouldn't be able to take it. Fortunately, it didn't get stronger because I was ready to start asking about that epidural. Anyway, the doctor came in all calm til he saw for himself that you were on your way whether he was ready or not. One nurse held one leg, your father held the other, the doctor told me when to push (which was easy to figure out cause I told him when a contraction was coming - he didn't even have to look at the monitor), and Joe Millionaire was on the air. The doctor really was watching it in between my pushes. My water didn't break on its own, the doctor had to break it. He also decided to give me an episiotomy. I so wish he hadn't. Oh well. I pushed and I suppose I felt that "ring of fire," I don't remember so much now. Then out came your head, and before I knew it out popped the rest of you.

I wasn't prepared for what happened afterwards - no one warned me. I got chills like never before. I couldn't even hold you cause I was afraid I would drop you. My mother, your grandma, turned up just then with her friend, Martha. They had literally just come back from a road trip to Orlando. Well, my mother was the happiest grandmother alive that night. She held little you and you looked around at everything going on around you. Of course, his proud daddy held you too.

This is the part of the story my husband would love to forget. My mother took all sorts of pictures. Needless to say, they were not all publish-worthy. The next day, every single picture found it's way into one of my co-workers email inboxes, which were then forwarded to all of my other co-workers.

The story continues...