Some people are wild about April Fool's Day - they plan elaborate jokes and prank their family and friends mercilessly. Not me. The best I could ever come up with was "it's snowing!" and that only worked one time! I don't like playing tricks and I definitely don't like being tricked. April Fool's Day was my least favorite "holiday" ever.
Until April 1, 1976. After nine months plus two weeks of waiting - after visiting my doctor on March 31st and being told "no baby yet - come back next week", baby #2 decided to play a trick on us and prove the doctor wrong.
When my contractions began around 4 pm I assumed the whole process would take a couple of days just like it had when Michelle was born. I did call my folks to put them on alert "just in case" and by 7 pm they were at our house ready to take Michelle home with them. We watched TV for a few hours, timing contractions, and at 10 pm I called Allen and asked him to come home from work so we could go to the hospital.
We got to the hospital around midnight and went through the process of checking in and getting settled in our room. After all the hustle and bustle calmed down, Allen and I tried to make ourselves comfortable, planning to get some rest before my contractions started in full force. It wasn't long however, before something felt weird and I asked him to get a nurse. Actually I think I yelled "Get the nurse..something is wrong!" The nurse came in with a slightly patronizing attitude, trying to calm me down thinking that I was just another young, hysterical woman with a low tolerance for pain. But no....wait a minute....she became quite a bit less calm when she did her perfunctory check and realized the baby was on it's way! The rest of the event is a blur of excitement and activity as I was wheeled into the delivery room and watched the doctor arrived in time to catch Amy Kristine Carlson as she catapulted herself into our lives.
From the moment we saw Amy she captured our hearts...from her dimples to her white "dandelion" fluff of hair to her tiny little fingers to her captivating smile to her spunky determination. She changed the way I look at April Fool's Day forever - for 33 years it has been a day of celebration and great joy.
This morning when we left the restaurant after a wonderful birthday breakfast I said "Amy it's snowing!" Only this time it was no fooling....
2 comments:
Tugging on the old heart strings, huh? Loved reading this.
Thanks Mom! I loved the story. Especially because when I look at Micah I see the same crazy hair and now finally a small dimple! Plus he came into the world pretty quickly, too, and 2 weeks early!
Post a Comment