Happy Birthday CJ

I used to call him my baby. Now he is 10 years old. It is hard to believe that he has been in our lives for a decade. What was our life before he was our son? What did we do with all our time?


I found out I was pregnant in the fall of 1999. We were of course ecstatic and so ready to be first time parents. We were so young! I had a great pregnancy and we had wonderful baby showers. We read books and went to all the check-ups. We were prepared…as prepared anyone thinks they are at this time of expecting a new baby.

His due date changed from June 1st to May 25th and was finally settled on May 28th. On Friday, May 12th I went in for my now, weekly check-up. Dr. Barker said that I was now to 1 cm and looking great. I asked him if he thought I was going to go into labor over the weekend because Sunday was Mother’s Day and I was hosting our mothers for a brunch. He said he was not sure and “you never know”.

After the appointment we went to the grocery store. I was having labor pains and remember pushing the grocery cart around and having to stop every once in a while and thinking…wow this hurts. Friday night passed without incident.

Saturday morning I went on a walk with Bethany, I was having more labor pains and wanted to move things along. (Remember I am two weeks before my due date and looking back…hilarious that I was so anxious to get things moving along) After our walk I sat in their family room for a while, rocking away in their chair and timing my labor pains; contractions now at this point. At 3:00 we headed to the hospital to have things checked out. A little over an hour later we were back home. I was so devastated. We were so ready to meet our new baby. Little did I know that the time would be approaching sooner than we expected.

Saturday night I went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 2am with more contractions. I was hoping this was it and it was. Carlos packed us up and drove into town. Since we were living at the farm, we had a 6 mile drive into town. I remember 2 contractions happening on that drive and none of them were pleasant to have while driving in the car. I remember wondering why Carlos felt the need to stop at the red light that turns into the hospital and wait (and wait and wait) for the red light to turn green…while I was having a contraction! I still may be able to conjure up that anxious feeling coupled with some contraction pain.

Checked into the hospital.

All was going great until he decided to get a bit stuck on the way out. Not really fun and I am not going into great detail, but all was good in the end. Carlos was not able to cut the cord because they had to pull him to the warmer and check him out so quickly. They were worried and so were we. Finally about 20 minutes later I got to hold my baby boy in my arms.

He was dark haired and a bit dark skinned. His eyes were blue (6 months later they turned hazel-brown) and he had all working parts. He was perfect.

8:42 AM, 6.9 pounds, 19 inches long