Friday, August 1, 2008

Happy Birthday, Dearest Margot!


It's tomorrow in China and Margot is now 29 years old.

So, 29 years ago, we were living in Lebanon (Ohio). I woke up early in the morning thinking something was a little off (won't get into the graphic details). This was about 6:00 AM. I woke John and said I thought he needed to take the boys to the sitter. He ambled around while I woke the boys and started to get ready. Finally, I had to get a bit forceful and tell him I was not fooling around.

A bit startled, he took the boys the few blocks to Jackie's house and returned. We set off about 6:30 AM. As we drove down to Cincinnati in rush hour traffic, I began to panic a bit because I could figure out exactly where I was in the process. I was using trucks we were passing at 80 miles an hour as transitory focal points.

We got lost on the way to the hospital and ended up with a police escort. We arrived at the hospital at 7 which is pretty unbelievable if you know the distance and the fact that we had to recover from getting lost (we'd never actually visited the hospital and the boys were born in Columbus). They admitted me, took me to the room, and I had to let them know that I thought I was about in transition.

"Yes, dear," they patted me on the head until the Resident came in to check me and said, "Get her into delivery NOW."

I had asked for a Leboyer delivery, since Lamaze was old hat by that time. Well, no Leboyer happened. Things went too fast. They took me into the delivery room, got me into position (with the slums of Cinncy visible outside the picture window in front of me) and left me. Yep. John was in the bathroom, the doc wasn't there yet and I laid there thinking, hmm, if this baby should emerge, I hope the floor is soft.

The short ending is that Margot was born about 7:40. Sunnyside up and on her due date. The cool part was that I didn't have to go through any of the preliminaries (except for the IV) including any type of anesthesia or pain meds.

And so began the most precious of relationships. I adore my sons. They are the BEST!!! But there is something about having a daughter that has me thanking God on a daily basis that we were blessed with three children.

So our little baby has grown up to be an Olympic contender. Perhaps that is why she was eager to emerge quickly and get started on her path!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Margot!
Hang in there and happy rowing.
You are amazing.
Love,
Brian, Kelly, & Clarissa.

p.s. Grandma R would be proud.

Anonymous said...

Happiest of birthdays to you. Was talking with your dad yesterday while you were talking with your mom. He certainly is a deservedly proud father of three great kids. He certainly has got a few interesting activities going now that he is approaching retirement. Linda and I are wishing you nothing but the best in China. Hope you get to do some traveling with your folks in china and show off the gold medal. Since there are 4 of you rowing, how do you decide which week of the month each of you get to keep the medal?

Saw the Lacerne video. Don't you think it would make more sense to sit he other direction so you could see where you are going rather than where you have been? Last time I was in a row boat I hit a lot of stuff rowing backwords. Putting a motor on the boat didn't help much either. The motor worked pretty well till I ran out of gas, then it was back to rowing till the paddle broke, but the water wasn't too deep so I towed it to shore while walking on the bottom of the lake. I hate squishey muddy lake bottoms-left big footprints.

Linda and I are going on vacation tomorrow. Everybody asks how do you go on vacation when you are retired? That's easy, we are going out of town and leaving the drums and band behind.

Have the most exciting time of your life the next couple of weeks and enjoy every minute of the experience. Your one of the special few in this world to dedicate so much time and effort for this wonderful opportunity. Best of Luck

Bob Rateno