Happy Birthday Danny

Happy Birthday Danny and happy birthday to me too! Yep, that's right my boy was my best birthday present ever! He is 27 today and I remember his birth like it was yesterday. Dan was due on my birthday...and you know babies NEVER arrive on their due dates. That is, unless they are "induced" but we didn't do that in those days. Nope, Danny came right when he chose...right on his due date and on his Mom's birthday! That was his gift to me!

And not only that, but Dan decided he was in a very big hurry. From the very first contraction, my labor was only an hour and a half. Yes, and at first you might be thinking, "How lucky." But not exactly...that just meant my contractions started like gang busters...and continued at a fast pace the whole time. There was no chance to get into it, to concentrate, to get into the "zone." I was going from house, to car, to bumpy road, to hospital..to wheelchair to delivery room. And was doing it in a race for time...no chance to breathe, no chance to rest...and plenty of chance to birth him in the car, at the curb, in the hospital lobby or the corridor.

From start to finish, it was one of the scariest things I've ever experienced. I thought he was going to be born speeding down route 50 to the hospital. And when I did get to the emergency room the lady at the desk was so nonchalante. I suppose they see hundreds of women come through those doors, all with hours of labor remaining. They were clearly not in a hurry. So, you should have heard me telling them to get it moving. I shouted at them, "This baby's gonna to be born right here, right now if you don't hurry it up." That got things rolling pretty quickly.

Luckily we made it to the delivery room just in the nick of time. Dan arrived no more than five minutes or so after we finally got into the delivery room. I was still wearing my fuzzy socks...there was no time to change, or prep or anything else. In fact, Kenny barely made it to see the birth. He had dropped me off and ran to park the car. He got there just as Dan popped out! But he did have the honor of cutting the umbilical cord...and of course he did see that little darling and hold him first thing.

We knew Dan would grow up to be a solid guy. The first thing we noticed was his chunky little feet with a very high instep. They looked just like Fred Flintstone's! I can see them in my mind and his feet today still look the same...just they are a whole lot bigger!

Happy Birthday Danny...my birthday present. I hope you are having fun celebrating with friends out there in California. I miss you bud!