I can not believe it. The baby is nine months old! My, it goes fast. I was thinking about the day he arrived last night. It seems like yesterday in a lot of ways. It was an exciting day. I remember I was in denial that I was in labor for hours. I woke up at one in the morning with contractions and, for some reason, thought that if I did laundry that they would stop. Two loads washed and dried later, I was still contracting regularly. Maybe a hot bath. Thirty minutes later and still contracting. I already had it all planned in my mind how the labor and birth would go and this was not it. It was two weeks early! Finally around four I packed our things for the hospital. I woke my husband and told him I was in labor and that he should get up. He said okay and went back to sleep. At six-thirty the pain was getting intense so I woke him up again, this time with a more serious tone. We left for the hospital at seven and arrived at the ER before eight. Its funny, (now), because the whole time we were driving to the hospital my husband was calling everyone while I was screaming. When we arrived at the ER the girl behind the counter asked me to indicate my level of pain according to a smiley face chart. Seriously?! When they wheeled me up to labor and delivery I was begging for some pain relief. It was not to be. I was dilated to seven and less than an hour later the baby was born. When the nurse told me it was too late for any pain relief I actually went through the five stages of grief! I denied, bargained, became angry and depressed before accepting that I would have to push this baby out sans any help. He was born pink and perfect, my little boy. When I saw that he was okay and heard him cry the pain I had experienced became a non-issue. Then they handed me my newborn son. Life just doesn't get any better than that and I was finally experiencing that again.

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. John 16.21, NAB