Happy Birthday from You, to Me..

Hi Mom.
In 1 hour and 45 minutes, it will be 12:14am CDT, marking the 36th anniversary of our relationship...hope you don't mind, but I'm going to keep counting for both of us. As it's our first one on opposite sides of this dimension, I wasn't really looking forward to the new arrangement. You always used to call me and tell me about the day I was born, and it was the part of my birthday I most looked forward to. Your voice, so calm and smooth, telling the story as if it came from your very core, made me feel like there was at least one other person in the world who revered the day, as much as I. Repetition was effective, and I can now recite the story to myself, and forgive me if there are minor embellishments, as sometimes whim and fancy overshadow memory.

" On the day you were born, I knew it was going to snow. The barometric pressure had dropped, and so had you. You are Monday's Child, (and a Midnight one, at that), so the day leading up to your arrival was Sunday. We went to church that morning, and dropped your sister Megan off at Aunt Julieanne's. I told your dad that i thought you would be here by nightfall and he smiled. He was excited to be a father again.
The whole world felt quiet and sleepy, that first Sunday of 1974; but you were swimming and stirring the whole day long and I was sure you were going to be a dancer. I felt very calm and confident when we checked into the hospital. Technically, you were my third baby, and i knew pretty well how to read my body. While your sister and your half-brother took their own sweet time making their entrances into the world, i was certain that once my water broke, you would be very close behind. Your dad and I were very relaxed...that's how we were back then- laughing and joking about how if i had a hundred babies, probably all of them would be late. i really thought you would be born before midnight and Grandma would be so pleased that you arrived on the Catholic Feast of the Epiphany...but midnight was drawing near, and i was still only dilated to 2.
Your father was getting hungry, and things didn't seem too pressing, so i sent him downstairs for popcorn. Almost immediately after he left the room, i felt one powerful contraction and then my waters broke. There was a tiny bit of apprehension, but otherwise i was pleased. It was Showtime.
I calmly called for the nurse, and in her stead, got a newly minted candy-striper who dutifully raced to my bedside, tripping and stuttering...'Yes, Mrs. Wroblewski?! What can I do for you?'
'Call the Doctor,' I said. 'This baby is coming.'
'Oh no, Ms. Wroblewski, your baby can't be coming...you were only dilated to 2', the young lady observed.
A force was coming over me, and I knew with great certainty that you would arrive within 10 minutes, despite the apparent lack of "scientific" evidence. I wasn't panicked, but i was stern: "Call your nurse, NOW!" I commanded. The nurse and doctor had both been called, but no reply-and my contractions were seconds apart by now. That poor young candy striper was white as a ghost. She was trying to think of every possible alternative to her delivering the baby herself when she got an Anesthesiologist to come to my bedside. I was literally at the point of pushing when she screamed, "Stop! Don't push!"
The next thing i knew, there was a mask coming down over my face, and i felt my left arm swing wide.
"Get that thing off of me, this baby is coming!" I proclaimed. A small battle ensued as i struggled to retain consciousness and at the moment of climax, I saw the nurse fly in past a pale candy-striper and a red-faced anesthesiologist. I grabbed the bed rails and instructed in a convicted, though raspy voice, "Get down there and catch this baby".
You wiggled out, into the tentative hands of an unprepared nurse, just as your father sailed into the room in cap, gown, mask and popcorn...tears in his big blue eyes and a huge smile across his face.
The doctor arrived to officially announce your birth, 15 minutes later.
I always knew you would be independent, caring not if the world was ready for you. Happy Birthday Sarah Jane. I love you."