The longest weeks of the year…

Sixteen years ago today I went into labor with Ben. I still remember the incredibly strange feeling as he dropped into the birth canal and those contractions started coming hard and 8 minutes apart.

Of course, Ben wasn’t born until nearly 6 weeks later– on Valentine’s Day. Except for brief hours of respite I contracted every 8 minutes for the entire 6 weeks. My doctor told me “any day now…” at every visit. I had a doctor’s appt. on the day Ben was born and the doc said, “Wow, this is strange. Every week until now you’ve been progressing nicely but now you are in what we call reverse labor, your cervix is actually closing up.”

I burst into hysterical tears and he said, “Just kidding, you are dilated to a five and fully in labor– go up to the hospital.”

I could have KILLED him! Needless to say, I never went to that doc or a male doctor ever again!

Cute Ben was born just 9 hours later with the biggest cone head you’ve ever seen. It was a bit disheartening when you want to show off your gorgeous newborn and the nurses kept coming in to see the misshapen head of the “kid who was stuck.”

So as you can imagine, the weeks leading up to Ben’s birth were the longest in my life. Nauseated, contracting and GRUMPY, I had to quit my job early. I moped around, made a lot of baby quilts(more about that another day) and read endlessly.

Aren’t the weeks between New Year’s and Christmas almost interminably long for everyone? We have only a few hours of daylight, the festivities are over and we are all on a spending and calorie budget.

I am nearly as anxious for Ben’s birthday this year as I was 16 years ago. He’ll be able to drive, to date, to bless the sacrament at church…. and oh my word, I am so sick of driving that kid around!

Still, some of the most profound experiences of my life have happened in January and February (besides the fact that 6 our birthdays and our anniversary fall between Jan 15th and Feb 14th). Somehow those bleak, dark days lend themselves to reading, introspection and quiet miracles.

I’m certainly counting down the days(41 to go!) but I also look forward to seeing what will fill these weeks to come.