Day 16 -- The Day Of A Child's Birth

Well, there are 3 that I could choose from and all of them have a little piece of drama in them but I'll choose my 2nd child. 

Picture it...Richmond, April 11th, 1994. 

I was 2 1/2 weeks from my due date and everything was good. I woke up feeling great with no indication of what was to come. My daughter, LaSean, who was 3 at the time, had a dentist appointment and was staying with her dad that day, so I went over to pick her up and drive to the office. Back then, they advised against driving after a certain point in pregnancy but hell, I drove while in labor with my daughter, so whatever. 

Okay, so we arrive at the dentist and sign in and the dental assistant calls us back. She tells me to wait outside the room because they have to do X-rays on Seanie and, of course, I couldn't be in there. So they do the X-rays and the assistant says to me, "we're done. You can come in, Mom." So I do. She said, "you look like you need to sit" and offered me a chair. So I sat. And that's when it happened...

SPLOOSH!

I let out a big gasp and said, "oh shit" and the assistant asked me what was wrong. I told her my water broke and her eyes got huge. She calls for the dentist, Dr. Bussey and Dr. Bussey tells me to go up front and have the receptionist call my doctor. She does and the receptionist at my doctor's office asks me how do I know my water broke. I looked at the phone for a good 3 seconds and said, "because I'm both too old and too young to piss on myself." So she advises me to head to the hospital. 

But me, being Maria, that was too easy. Besides, I wasn't feeling any pain, so I dropped Sean off with her dad, went home to change, picked up my...ugh...husband and then went to the hospital. 

8 hours later, Damian James Henderson was born. I don't have a newborn pic of him. After delivering him, he developed jaundice and I lost so much blood, I was anemic, so pictures were the last thing on our minds. But this is his high school graduation pic from last year. 

*Funny side note to this story...fast forward 6 weeks later. I rescheduled Seanie's dentist appointment and I take her and DJ for her checkup.  The dentist wasn't as quick as she was the first time so we waited awhile in the waiting area. There were two ladies also waiting and Seanie decided that she was bored (remember, she was 3) and went over to the women and started talking. NONE of my kids are shy, btw. 

She said, "my name is LaSean and this is my brother Damian. The last time we were here, my mommy almost had him here. He was in her stomach and wanted to come out but he wasn't supposed to come that day." The ladies laughed and asked me was her story true. I nodded and each of them gave her $5. ALL of my kids are charming as well. Wonder where they get it from? *smile*