RUNNEMEDE REMEMBERED

Growing up in a small town in Southern New Jersey


Friday, May 30, 2008

My oldest is Jack Benny's age

Will my son Phil remain 39 for the rest of his life? I don't know, but today is his birthday, and he is that -- 39. Wow! Where did the time go? I can remember his birth day as if it were yesterday, or earlier this evening.

I won't go into all the details, but one is quite amusing and you might enjoy it.

My water broke at 3 a.m. Alan, being the first time dad he was about to become was flustered, to say the least. This was the first and last time I have ever seen him so discombobulated. Having been told that when the water breaks, the baby will come really fast, he ran around like a chicken without its head getting me into the car and over to the hospital.

He forgot his glasses -- he was blind without them. We were in the car on the way to the hospital and he put the top down on the convertible in which we were riding. Now why would he do that? It wasn't warm, and it certainly wasn't sunny. It was just something he did. When I mentioned it, he put the top back up and no one could hear my screams.

Actually, there were no screams at that point in the birthing process of my son. Fortunately for me I remember none of it after 2 p.m. the following day. I had no pains at all for all that time -- 3 a.m. until 2 p.m., then they decided I needed to be induced.

I remember one contraction -- just one -- and I remember a cutsie nurse telling me to breathe through the pain, at which I point I grabbed her and asked her if she'd ever had a baby. Of course, she hadn't. So I told her when she had experienced the pain I was experiencing, then she could tell me to breathe.

I remember nothing after that. But let's just say that Alan said he was never so embarrassed in his life at my behavior and my language. Oh, well. That's what happens when you have a baby sans epidural with only some Demerol to lighten the pain.

Phil was such a cute baby. We called him Pip. He was also photographed a lot. Aren't' all first born? And, I supposed he was a good baby. Although, I didn't think that his needing to be fed every two hours was a "good" baby. My mother kept tell me how good he was. Yeah, well, she wasn't feeding the child almost constantly, getting no sleep, etc.

I loved my baby boy. I still love my son -- he's a man now. When I went back to work after he was born, I took him with me the first day to show him off, and one of the staff said, he's so cute now, but in a few years, he'll have a big nose, and hair all over his face. Well, I don't know about the big nose, but he did get that hair all over his face. Boy to man. It sped by. He was a man before I blinked twice.

Now, my baby boy, had four babies of his own -- or his wife had the babies, but he had his part in that process. Sooner than he thinks, he'll have grandchildren. And life goes on and on and on.

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