Brendan the Be-Bop boy is three today. I would show you a picture of his three year old self but I can’t figure out the new camera cord so will wait for Allen on that.  Please be sure to go send a birthday wish to his birthday Buddy, Elizabeth, who stood by us all those months leading up to his birth while his Daddy was in the desert.

Have I told you this story?   Probably but I don’t see it on here. Whooey. What a night. What a year that was. Allen had decided to retire from the Air Force.  He thought a baby would be a good way to celebrate lol! We are funny that way.  I remember getting that positive pg test.  I remember standing in that same bedroom two days later when the call came.  He was being deployed. I didn’t cry then. I did lose my vision temporarily.  Freak migraine. Silent blind terror.

Grace covered us those months. Everything that could go wrong seemed to but friends showered us with help. I spent the second half of the pregnancy on partial bedrest as this baby grew faster than his dates suggested. When he steadily measured weeks ahead of his due date I gave up on Allen being there for the birth.  Then he didn’t come and didn’t come. Finally Allen left Iraq and flew to Baltimore. The last leg of the journey home. My gosh, he was gonna make it. I fell into bed in awed relief. It lasted about 15 minutes.  Then my water broke.  Dang.

After the initial panic wore off I called Allen back. Well, after I called the midwife and my labor partner. He had a fully charged calling card and managed to stay on the line for the next three hours til that baby appeared. Gotta wonder what that sounded like on his end. ; ) We wrestled that baby out. He remained neither posterior nor anterior but rather sideways. Ow ow ow.  So much for babies eventually just falling out! 

When all the excitement died down and the midwives went home I laid in bed staring at this little person sleeping. In all that post-labor adrenaline rush I couldn’t sleep and ended up just waiting until Allen walked in the door. It wasn’t the way we planned it.  Few things ever are!  But it was all good in the end. It always is. : ) 

Happy 3, sweet boy!  What would our lives be without you? 

And happy 39-again E!  Call me when that package arrives!