Monday, April 30, 2012

"Leaving your Birth Place" Waxing Nostalgic...

I just read a beautiful blog post on leaving the birth place.... http://www.anktangle.com/2012/04/dear-daniel-on-leaving-your-birthplace.html?showComment=1335798097098#c4948304106715130888

With our still very recent move to a new home, and then celebrating Liam's 6th Birthday yesterday this was a very touching post for me.

 I have moved from my child's birth place on several occasions before... the first time was from Ft. Irwin, Calif.  Our beautiful Sariah was our first baby born at home.  There, we were supported by a couple of friends and we had her birth in our large laundry room on a double bed we borrowed from another dear friend Tandy (who missed our birth as she had gone 'home' to TX to be able to have her baby due the same day but born two weeks apart, with a MW at a Beautiful Birthing Center in Dallas http://birthcenter.net/).

Our sweet Hannah was born at our home at White Sands Missile Range, NM.  My dear friend Tandy was able to come (from Maryland this time) and be with us for this birth.  She was a wonderful help, along with the other friend and Midwives that we had to assist us during this birth on a bright Saturday morning as well.

I remember it being a bittersweet moment knowing that we have 'lived' with those memories of where our baby(s) was born, in the house with us that we'd reflect on as we went throughout our days.

Yesterday morning dad was talking to Liam.  He asked him if he knew where he was born... he had to 'think' about his answer for just a moment and then said, "in the Kitchen!"  and he sort of pointed his finger. Yes we agreed, but not 'this' kitchen, the kitchen in our old house... then dad asked him further, and he said in a tub!  Yes, son, you were born in a pool of warm water, to the welcoming arms of your parents and your sisters who were so excited to see you and to know 'who' you were!

I watched your birth slide show again last night and tears ran down my face at the memories of that beautiful Spring Saturday morning, surrounded by family and friends.  Their love and support for me in that moment were wonderful.

http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1989/46946/liam_birth.zip 
(this is a large file, and it takes a bit to download.  The slide show with accompanying music were put together by Kristin at http://www.whispersphotography.com/ it is about 8 minutes long. For the more squeemish, it isn't very graphic at all.  What little you see, is under water, so very distorted, and a baby's head is covering most anything anyway in the pic's).

It's a bit hard, and like I said, bittersweet to move and leave the place that was so special to us. I somehow want to take just a bit of that place with us as a memory... of course, the beautiful pictures and of course YOU are wonderful reminders of that very special day! It's fun to remember, even if it brings tears to my eyes... they are mostly tears of joy at the memories. I LOVE you son and can not imagine what my life would be like without YOU in it!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Home birth seems to have such a different set of memories attached to it, doesn't it? Having occurred in the place where we then continue to live and grow together: it just feels like such a naturally flowing way to move through the stages of life as a family.

Thanks for sharing the link to my story, and for writing about yours!