The day the world stood still.

I heard the birds chirping yesterday as I was driving around town. I was in the midst of the hustle and bustle of trying to clean the house and do last minute errands for the dinner we had in honor of Cole's 3rd birthday. Normally, I don't feel any peace waiting til the last minute to do anything. But that day, I could hear the birds chirping and I smelled the flowers. It was Cole's birthday yesterday. And I would've blogged about it. I desperately wanted to blog, in his honor. But I was smelling the roses and playing with my little birthday boy. It was seriously the weirdest thing. It started the day before his birthday. I was driving home from lunch and I saw the clock. It read 12:35 and I thought back to where I was 3 years ago at 12:35 pm. So I texted Will:

Right now, 3 years ago today we were being told that our baby boy was debuting early.

Cole's due date was February 24th, 2007. When we went in on the 7th for the weekly OBGYN appt. we were told that my amniotic fluid was very low and that we needed to go to the hospital. It was nothing like we had expected. We went home and packed our bags and drove to the hospital. No rushing. No speeding past lights. No pain.

He was born at 5:35 am on February 8th, 2007. I heard the birds chirping that day too. I remember looking out the window at the car speeding down the expressway wondering how on earth they were going so fast. It was as if the world had stood still. It was me and Will and Cole in that room and we saw nothing else and we heard nothing else. Such a peace. So hard to describe. It was so hard to believe that there was life outside those 4 walls.

So I felt that again on his birthday. All day Will and I kept looking at the clock, letting our thoughts wander back to that day, in that hospital room, and wonder what we were doing at that moment in time.

I wished I blogged then. I would love to have an account of all those moments. The exact moment I got my epidural, the first push, the final push, the first black diaper, the fainting, the first suckle,....

So I guess this account will have to do. But I thought what a fun tradition it would be for Cole on his birthday to play this game with us when he's a little older. We could recount his birth to him (including Mimi's contribution) throughout the day.I should mention that Mom was there throughout the whole birth as well. Maybe she heard the birds chirping too. I was looking through my photos and I found this one. It was as if right away, Cole knew his Nana was a kindred spirit. I think Cole heard the birds too:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!!!!!!