Gabriel Is Six

Today is Gabriel Joseph's sixth birthday.

Six years ago today I had the perfect last day of pregnancy.

I slept in. Daddy D and Seth woke me up with breakfast in bed. I sat on the couch in the living room and watched the two of them build a Thomas the Tank Engine track and play together. Daddy D drew me a bubble bath to help with the aches and pains of the last month of pregnancy. We watched some TV. I took a nap.

I got up and made an early dinner. Daddy D worked from 4 to 12 back then. It was 3:30 and I had just put the chicken fajitas on the table. We sat down and prayed. I made the fajitas up and placed them on our plates. The phone rang.

It was my obgyn. It was a call back to discuss some of the symptoms I was having, as I was a high risk pregnancy and had been hospitalized previously in the pregnancy. When we discussed it, and the fact that I was to have a c-section within the next week, she said "we'll do it now".

I almost fell off of my chair. As in now, now? Yep. She asked me if I had eaten anything, and I had not since breakfast. Good. We were having a baby tonight. I went to tell Daddy D and Seth. Somehow the smell of the fajitas became incredibly delectable with the knowledge I would not eat for another eighteen or so hours.

We grabbed Seth & my already packed bags. We stopped at my mom's job and dropped Seth with her, complete with his Build-a-Bear he had made for his new baby brother. And we were off to the hospital. A one hour trek to the hospital, blood work, prep and everything considered about four hours later I was in the operating room.

At exactly 8:00 PM Gabriel Joseph was born. The first things they said while I lay behind a drape just listening were that he was a peanut and that he had a ton of dark hair. The peanut status was slightly surprising, as they had been monitoring me weekly via ultrasound and were convinced he was 6 1/2 pounds. Apparently he was that small percentage that they can be off as much as a pound. He was born at 5 lbs 9 oz at 38 weeks.

The ton of dark hair, well that was my favorite part. Seth is the spitting image of his father. Blond hair. In many ways a carbon copy. I always joked that my genes had lost out and I had just been in a glorified incubator in the production.

So when they brought me this little baby and showed me underneath his impossibly tiny little cap, well there was an enormous amount of dark brown hair. Like me. A week later at my follow up appointment the nurse at the doctors office would tell me a phrase I will never forget. He makes you look like you belong in your own family. Four sons, three of which have versions of blond or dark blond hair, it is still the case. Gabriel is the me in the clan.

Six years have flown by. He is accident prone. Four sets of stitches later. He is a sports fanatic. He tells you they make his heart happy. He has had two surgeries. Become a big brother twice. Gone away across two states for a week of summer camp. Flown from the trapeze three stories up at the tender age of three. Is fearless and brave. Headstrong and stubborn. The romantic of the group.

He has a smile that makes his eyes sparkle and my favorite thing we noticed that first night in the hospital. A single deep dimple in his right cheek. Of the four, he is the Momma's Boy and has me wrapped around his finger. Just don't tell him that!

Gabriel Joseph, happy sixth birthday!

Gabriel's First Birthday

Gabriel's Sixth Birthday