The Reflection

I remember my only full term pregnancy. Nothing went the way they said it would.

To start out, I already had two children at home, so I was a busy mama. My husband was less than ecstatic about another child. It meant we were going to exceed the national average of 2.5 children and have to sell our car and house and replace both if we expected this child to live and travel with us.

The pregnancy itself was pretty uneventful which was a blessing. I went from size Barbie to size blue whale in a few short months, then woke up the morning of my husband’s firm’s long planned conversion and informed him that my water had broken. I did not record what he said for posterity. It is better off forgotten.

We arrived at the hospital and I was fully dilated in less than thirty minutes! Unfortunately, this baby required more room than that for his personal comfort and huge head. No amount of coaxing and stretching could change his mind.

After hours in that so called final ten minutes of the birthing process, during which I watched my husband consume several gallons of chicken soup while on the phone with the people from work, and during which I tried to describe where my potato peeler was to my father who was home cooking dinner for the other children, and during which my doctor ran up and down the halls singing and calling out to the five of us giving birth on his day off, my son was born!

The nurse said she expected my doctor to shoot out and hit the opposite wall of the delivery room when the blessed event climaxed, because he had both feet up against the delivery table while he pulled on the forceps and sweated like a man doing a triathlon. I did not know this until afterwards. All I knew was he was blocking my view in the mirror!

A big beautiful eight pound boy! No blue eyed baby here, he had black eyes and enough hair to call in a stylist for his first picture, but we were ecstatic. I did record what his father said here. “Oh my God,” over and over again as he ran between me and the warming tray.

I also remember looking into those deep dark eyes and wondering if they still held the reflection of God in them.