Today is a very special day. 23 years ago tonight, my last child was born. How well I remember that day. It was Halloween, 1989. That morning, I was bored, and feeling like a whale, so I decided to go for a walk. Just up the way, there was a street that was a very steep hill that went up and round behind the house where we were living.
I made my way up that hill, stood for a while, then made my way down. I like to think that walking up and down that hill is what brought on my labor. Later that afternoon, I started cramping, and called Hubs, who was working at the garage up in Hyde Park. He jumped in the car, a little white VW Rabbit, and raced home. I believe he made it in under 30 minutes. It had started raining, and the roads were pretty wet. That drive normally took about 45 minutes!
He scooped me up, and off we set down the Taconic Parkway, which was retaining the water due to the high curbs. You see, the hospital was down in Cold Spring, and that was quite a ride too. I knew it would take a while to get there, that's why I didn't wait to call Hubs. Besides the fact that this was my third child, so hopefully labor wouldn't be too long.
I don't remember how long my labor was, exactly, but I do remember having to give birth in the labor room, because someone had just delivered in the delivery room, and there wasn't time to clean it for me. That was disappointing, because they had a birthing chair in there, that I had been eager to try.
By a quirk of fate, the new daddy of the couple who had the baby just before us was am old friend of Hubs'! And since they were also from Hyde Park, our kids went to school together, and are still friends!
There is something I feel might be confusing, so let me clear it up. At the time, we were living in Sylvan Lake, with Hubs' parents, so we could save money for a house. Hubs was working in Hyde Park, and the hospital was in Cold Spring. We lived in Sylvan Lake for a little less than a year. We moved into our current house the 4th of July weekend of 1990.
I have no baby pictures of Jesse Michael in my laptop, but he was born with little tufts of hair on his shoulders, and the tops of his ears. Fitting for a Halloween baby, don'tcha think? I remember the nurses trying to get me to name him Boris. No way. He was also the only boy born that day in that hospital.
My youngest son has grown up to be a very good person. I am prouder of him than I can put into words. As I was thinking about what I wanted to say here, I wondered why this particular birthday was special. I think it's because it's the first birthday that he's out in the world, living away from us.
For those few of you who will see and talk to my son today (you know who you are...), please remember: what is said in the blog, stays in the blog.
Apologies for the long length of today's post. I guess I had a lot to say. I'm sure you can forgive proud Mama Scheff. P.S. He's the kid on the left in the photo at the top of the post, with sister Sara and brother James.
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