10 years ago tonight ...

I was in the emergency room. The baby in my womb had stopped moving. We were close to my due date and he was my first pregnancy. I had called my ob/gyn who instructed us to come to the hospital and get checked out. My parents were at my house because we had planned on having a family dinner. My husband and me, my brother and his wife, my sister and her boyfriend, and my parents. They stayed behind as we left.

In triage, they had me drink some apple juice while they readied the doppler. Babump, babump, babump. Heartbeat. And it sounded fine. They had me stay a little while longer, then released me.

At home, with that news, everyone relaxed. And had dinner. And drank a little bit more than usual. This was the first grandchild in the family. As they left, very late, they called out, "Don't go into labor tonight, we're too tired and drunk!"

Yeah. You can guess.

3:00 am, I woke to feel some strange cramping. And dampness. I got up. No big gush, but definitely water coming out. I woke up The Husband, excited. "My water broke. But I'm going to take a shower. You can go back to sleep if you want." And he did!

He argues that this was because he was sick. He was, but this is a guy who can sleep through the sinking of the Titanic, so I'm not sure it was a causal factor.

I had my shower, called the hospital, he got up and got dressed. We had planned on paging my parents, but the RV park where they'd parked their trailer was on the way to the hospital. They were awakened at 5:00 am by me banging on their window. My dad, bleary-eyed, came to the window and peered out. "We're going to the hospital to have a baby!" I announced.

He and my mom came out. He held me at arms length to look in my face. "This is the happiest I've ever seen you," he said.

A few hours later, when they got to the hospital, I didn't look so happy. A few hours past that, I threw away the whole "natural birth" thing and experienced the wonder and joy that is called "epidural."

When it was time to push, I felt a kinship with all the mothers in the world. At my request, The Husband went out into the hall and asked the two grandmothers if they wanted to see their grandson born. Music was playing, the grandmothers had to keep reminding each other to breathe, the rest of my family was out in the hallway. At 5:06 pm, The Boy was born. He was so beautiful. I had myself prepared for a lizard -- that's what everyone said newborns looked like. But not this one. He looked like a doll baby.

Tomorrow, he turns 10. I can't believe that in the same amount of time it took for him to get from there to here, he'll be 20. It goes so fast.

Tomorrow, his sisters, father and I will creep into his room with his "morning" birthday cake. We will wake him up singing "Happy Birthday." His father and I will tell him how glad we are that he's ours.

He'll go to school. And Little Warrior and I will go to get her first 100% double-dip of chemo. Obladi-oblada. Life goes on.