For My Big Grown Up Girl

Today is Admin/Eldest's 31rst Birthday.
She was born at 10:17pm, a Saturday.
Her labor was easy,but her birth presentation was, shall we say, 'topsy turvy'. Two days before her arrival, at our last Lamaze class, the little gymnast turned completely upside down. Nervous looking nurses kept coming in and feeling my upper abdomen, kinda avoiding the very large, swollen, pregnanty part. A trip to the xray department (I know; the 70's...) in my Lamaze sockies proved what they knew, Rhiannon Linda Cory was passing through my very dilated cervix, with her foot AND umbilical cord coming first.

The speed at which they zoomed me to surgery was crazy. Prepping, catheterizing at a lightning speed, charts and cords thrown on the space on the gurney not taken up by my large body, and down the hall we flew.

Looking backwards, upside down, at a very worried looking Mr. Cory waving weakly as he helplessly stared at his life flying down a hospital corridor, I had no chance to even consider what might/could happen.

Post holiday babies, all the hoo haa of those inclined to clamor for First Baby of the Year status had died down. No one really anywhere around the whole labor/delivery department. So when Miss Rhiannon made her very hasty and safe arrival, her parents were allowed to see her rather quickly, in the recovery room, since we were all alone in the quiet of winter in a hospital. It was near midnight of the 7th, when we heard the rumbling of the little incubator that our firstborn occupied. Rhiannon was not due till the 19th so we knew that she would be tiny. At 5 lbs, 11 oz and only 18 inches long, we could only imagine what that was going to look like. Expecting something like a little unfinished kitten or something, around the surrounding curtain of the recovery area, in peeps a very alert little sweetie of a baby. Her big eyes completely open and her mouth working like she was ready to tell us about her amazing journey. We spent an amazing hour staring at the perfection that was her, pointing out all her family's traits. She responded to her daddy's voice quickly; he had made a nightly practice of talking to her in utero for months. We had a blessed family time, the three of us, all alone, in the semi darkness and silence of the middle of the night. Sweet, sweet time.....

Rhiannon came home one week later. We had a the obligatory five day stay for Cesarean then and jaundice in the 70's involved IV treatment under bilirubin lights for several days. A blizzard came and went while we were in the hospital and the name for our next child came in the form of my roommate's son's name. Here I am, five days post-partum, already picking out names for my next child! And I followed through two years later. A cold, cold snap was approaching the weekend she arrived home. Our old house was known to be chilly and drafty so Hubby and I camped out in our bedroom the whole weekend. We cuddled under quilts and napped and rested and stared at this new little life, firmly entrenched between us in our bed and our hearts. It was a lovely time....

Which brings us today, thirty one years later and we still are in awe of her. She is an amazing woman, full of compassion, love and wisdom. We are so proud of all that she has taught us in each stage of her life and probably never more so than in her role as mama to our beloved Vivien and devoted wife to Jon.

It has been a privilege to be her mama.....A role I embraced thirty one years ago and still cherish today....

God bless my 'little' girl.....
LYSMICETY......