It won't be a girl.....

     For 9 long months I listened as most people do about what the gender might be of the baby I was so anticipating giving birth to.  It was the "olden days" not everyone made the choice to find out about the baby, not everyone even got an ultrasound, old school - deliver the baby and be surprised.  Robert and I were married in May of 1982 and I was pregnant by the end of the year - I was over the moon happy.  During Thanksgiving of 1982 I was far enough along to announce to everyone that a baby was indeed on the way and we couldn't be happier.  The Bustamante family reaction, first off, was of course it will be a boy "we don't have girls" - period, end of discussion.   Well, don't give me a challenge, because I am down with going against the grain, bucking the system, making you eat your words.  I would be having a girl.
     The entire time I was pregnant I knew it would be a girl.  I had no boys names picked, we didn't even discuss it.  I had dreams about delivering a girl and telling everyone that the delivery wasn't bad, it was the lace on the dress that the baby was wearing that bothered me.  If that wasn't a sign, what was?  I thought about girl names, I day dreamed about a daughter - I knew it was a girl.  I often wondered after she arrived what I would have thought had it been a boy.  It didn't bother me much, and a couple years later when I was pregnant with Phillip - I knew he was a boy, no doubt in my mind, no girls names picked out - I know my body - I knew my children, before they came to me.  
     So, on this very day June 6, 1983, 31 years ago today ~ I gave birth to Christine Ashley at 6:22 a.m. weighing in at 7 lbs. 10 oz.  and my world changed forever, and I can remember it as if it were yesterday.   I remember that I wanted to get up off the delivery table and tell the Bustamante family that they did indeed have girls, and they were lucky enough to have a beautiful granddaughter in Christine.
     It was an easy delivery, especially after the dreams I had about the "lace being hard".  After a bumpy ride along the streets of Huntington Beach, Christine arrived about 25 minutes after arriving at Hoag Hospital - in the elevator up to delivery the nurse said - "we have a baby - the Dr. has it easy this morning".  So with Mimi standing outside the delivery room and everyone hustling around to get ready for the delivery, I had Christine in the elevator and was waiting for them all to catch up.  I have no horror stories about hours and hours in labor - I know that I went to the hospital, my water hadn't broken and a nice nurse reached in and broke the water - leading to one of the most wonderful feelings in the world - and 10 minutes later ~ I had a baby.  The most wonderful day in my life ~ I was a mom.
     After delivery they took me to recovery and I kept hearing phone calls coming in that I knew were for me but they wouldn't let me have them.  My daddy called - he had been in Huntington Beach that Monday morning when I went in to labor but he was working in Bakersfield and so he left for work.  He called to see how I was while I was in recovery, and after working a full day - he returned that evening to see me and his new granddaughter - I will never forget the look in his eyes.  If you could take a snapshot of pure love ~ it would have been the look I saw in my daddys eyes that night.  He looked at his daughter and granddaughter as if taking a picture that would be etched in his eyes forever and ever.
     Some things are meant to be remembered forever.  The birth of Christine is one of those days.  You changed my life forever Christine - I love being your mom.