Remembering Jeremy's birth day

Today is Jeremy's 37th birthday.  I told him today that I wish I could go back and live that day all over again.  It is such a precious memory to me.  Some of you readers may not have heard my home birth story, so I am just copying and pasting what I wrote on my blog on February 15, 2006.  

Today is Jeremy's 26th birthday. He joked yesterday that he was going to call for a moment of silence at 7:30 p.m. last evening at work - that's the time my water broke and I knew for sure that the baby was on the way! I was sure I was going to have a Valentine's baby, but he waited 45 minutes too long!

That was 1980. Lisa had just turned 6 and was in kindergarten at Manheim Christian Day School. Anthony was 3 1/2. I was really into natural everything back in those days, so I was determined that I was going to have this baby at home. I liked my doctor a lot, but I told him that if he didn't want to do a home birth, I would go to the lady doctor in the area that was doing lots of home births. He agreed to do a home birth - his first one. So when my water broke at 7:30 p.m. we got busy cleaning up, preparing the birth chair, etc. I still remember how excited Lisa and Anthony were - they were even picking lint off the carpet! My friend Elta Nissley came to watch the children for me. The doctor's nurse came after a while, and around 10:30 the doctor came. At 12:45 Jeremy entered the world, safe and sound. Of course Lisa and Anthony had fallen asleep by then, but we woke them up to come over and see him. I had a big snack ready for Elta to serve to the doctor and nurse. Dr. Nicolazzo decided this home birth business wasn't too bad after all, and he did lots more after that!

Eventually everyone left and Dick and the children went to sleep. I don't think I did. I just remember sitting on my bed in the family room holding my precious newborn son, full of thanksgiving to God for a beautiful birth experience, and a beautiful, healthy baby. SUDDENLY there was a loud crash outside. We lived along Main Street in East Petersburg and there had been a car accident out front. It was 5:00 a.m. My family room door was just a few feet from the street and I was so afraid that because I had a light on, someone would knock on my door. Apparently someone else came to their aid, praise God!

An even crazier thing happened later that day. I had advertised draperies in the Bargain Counter that week. The day before I had a caller who was interested in them. We had agreed that she would come at 10 a.m. the following day. So between the time she called and came, I had had a baby! Can you imagine her shock when she came to look at the drapes and I showed her a baby that was less than 12 hours old!!

I was always very sentimental about everything. I remember how I always felt that I didn't want to ever forget any special moment. There was something in a Little House in the Prairie book that I used to always think about at times when I felt so happy, content, and fulfilled. "Laura thought to herself, 'This is now.' She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago."

That's what I was thinking that night. But that special "now" was 26 years ago. I'm so glad I have a good memory. Jeremy, I love you even more "now".