Bithday Number 6

On Christmas Day, my son turned six.  I cannot believe where the time has gone.  I remember the Christmas Eve before he was born so clearly.  I had been put on bed rest two weeks beforehand and was forced to take an early maternity leave--putting my radio and TV gig into emergency mode.  That night, though, I was feeling well enough to attend the get-together for my husband's side of the family, which was about 45 minutes from our home at the time.  I hadn't gone anywhere for what seemed like forever, and my due date wasn't for another two weeks, so I was excited to be getting out of the house.  I was also a little worried, because I wasn't exactly the best of company.

We ended up having a nice evening and I remember laughing like crazy when my brother-in-law received a garden hat in the gift exchange and he decided to try it on.  We drove home in the snow I and remember my husband driving very carefully on back country roads. 

Around 4 in the morning, I had to get up and use the restroom.  I remember thinking "I feel great!"  I started to look forward to opening gifts, spending more time with family, and Christmas dinner.  About 30 minutes later, my water broke. 

I called the doctor and he said that it was okay to stay home for awhile, as long as we made it to the hospital in the next 12 hours, we were fine.  So, my husband made me a pancake breakfast and we opened our Christmas gifts we had purchased for each other. 

About two hours later, I was feeling contractions close enough together to head to the hospital.  We welcomed our little bundle of joy at 6:33 that evening and I was elated.  My own Christmas miracle!  How could it have been six years ago already? 

We had a party for him on Christmas Day this year.  Something we hadn't attempted before.  Since it was on a Saturday this year, though, and we were getting together with family anyway, I thought it would be nice to actually celebrate him on the actual day he was born. 

I made a traditional Christmas dinner (including homemade stuffing, which I had never attempted before) and we had birthday cake for desert.  My mom is quite an amazing woman and she lovingly makes all of the birthday cakes in our family.  She always manages to amaze me with them!  This year, Jonathan had his own zoo!

I know that having a Christmas birthday isn't always ideal and I know that my son will have issues about it his whole life.  I so will I.  It is hard not to overdo it in order to make it stand out.  I remember flippantly saying that if our baby is born on Christmas, I wanted to name him Christopher, but that was honestly the only time I ever thought about it.   It never occurred to me that it would actually happen!  I guess I should have know--his daddy was born on New Year's Eve!  Holiday birthdays just seem to run in the family!