Ryan with Kevin in 2006

Nineteen years ago yesterday, I was waiting for the contractions to come.

And come they did, faster and stronger and faster and stronger, until by the end of the day, I was lying in a hospital bed discussing the very large baby inside me who’d somehow turned himself around in the previous day or two.

Yep, you were breech. And you were so very large that Dr. Ellis said he didn’t see any hope in turning you in utero. I’d have to have a C-section, rendering all those Lamaze classes to naught.

We waited until just after midnight to start the surgery, since the doctor hoped that insurance would pay for the extra day that way. He sat with us, talking and laughing (myself included, after the epidural).

And then, at 12:38 AM, you were born — my firstborn, my beautiful Ryan Andrew. <3