It started as a dream. I was having a dream that my water broke and we were trying to leave for the hospital. K went to get the car and I was frantically trying to get everything together. Of course, my hospital bag was at Baggage Claim in the airport, but when I arrived to pick it up they thought I was part of the cleaning crew. As I struggled to get up a ramp to leave I thought, “I haven’t had any contractions.” And then I thought, “But you should still go to the hospital because your water broke!” As I finally got the door open I had a contraction and woke up. I wondered if it was real and after a few minutes I had another contraction and I started to get excited.
Now I didn’t want to get too excited – I had had about 3 hours of contractions on Christmas night that amounted to nothing. But here I was at 3 in the morning walking the floors of the nursery encouraging Number 3 to come on out.
It was December 30, 2009 and after a few more hours of contractions my daughter was born at lunch time. She is named after a friend from college who passed away on my 25th birthday. Her middle name is Grace.
I hope that she will have all of the brains and spunk of my dear friend. And I hope that by naming her Grace I can give her some of the strength and peace and joy that she has most certainly given me.
