Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri
Katy is represented by
Rachelle Gardner at
WordServe Literary
Read more Katy at
LateBoomer.net
Recent Posts
- Soul Train
- Live Out Your Dream And Discard The Box
- Tears In A Bottle
- From The Young Mom I Once Was, To You
- I Can’t Help Falling
- What A Difference Ten Years Makes
- The Next Best Thing To Robert Redford
- The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
- Where Have All The Years Gone
- Fun With Kiki Cullen
- Stuck On Mom
- Ten Years Later, Our Girls From Northern Ireland Remembered
- The Thrift of Grief
- Job Security
- The Party’s Over
Syndicate
E me at katy @ ngenius.com
It Only Hurt When I Laughed
Only three times in my life have I produced something so beautiful, brilliant, and original that the events themselves became annual holidays.
Twenty-two years ago today was the third time. I don’t expect ever in my life to feel as happy again as Kevin Patrick Raymond made me feel that day.
They induced labor, since I was a gestational diabetic and they didn’t want the baby to be overdue. I protested for the first six hours or so that if they didn’t crank that drip up several severe notches, the child would never be born. I was used to hard labor in the early stages, and figured unless suffering was intense, progress would not occur.
“Relax,” the nurse would say at regularly scheduled five-minute intervals. “You’re moving right along. We don’t need to increase the drip as long as you’re continuing to dilate.”
How could I be dilating? I wasn’t even having to do ridiculous breathing techniques, not that I would have submitted to them anyway. Let’s just say I am NOT a big Lamaze aficionado, the proof being that during labor with my first son, I threatened to kill my poor “It’s-not-pain-it’s-discomfort” instructor for “lying.”
At two in the afternoon on Kev’s birthday, my mother and three sisters—all of whom had taken the day off to be with me and Doug—decided to turn on my then favorite TV program, The Guiding Light. Right there in the room where I was trying to get them to turn up the drip, trying to make myself work harder than God intended, trying to be a serious mother.
I don’t remember what the episode was about. Josh and Reva’s storyline was the entertaining one, so likely they were involved in what became high shenanigans surrounding my bed. Mom and the girls got me laughing SO HARD about my soap opera that the labor pains (and they really ARE pains, for the uninitiated) were horribly magnified.
In between spasms of laughter and contractions off the chart, I said to Doug, “Get them OUT of here! NOW!! And turn OFF the blasted TV!”
It only hurt, you see, when I laughed.
I still credit the women in my family for making my labor kick into high gear, without which I might still be dripping with little more than irony in that earth-toned room, sucking ice. Oh, wait. They didn’t let us have ice back then.
Within two more hours, Kevin was here in all his adorable glory. Before long, I forgot all about The Guiding Light. Kev’s been making me laugh all these years, and since that very first day, it’s never hurt a bit.
Happy Birthday, Dear Kevin.
thank you mom. my life would truly not be the same without you. i love you so much and will see you soon. 11 days actually!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/10/07 at 11:52 AMBaby, baby—Eleven days and counting every minute. Missing you today, but thrilled to be seeing you soon. Were your friends in Switzerland good to you on your birthday?
Posted by Katy on 01/10/07 at 11:59 AMI remember that day (even though I was very young) because Scott and i were fighting about whether it was going to be a boy or a girl. Even though I really wanted a sister, I have realized that no sister would hold a candle to Kev. Miss you, bud!
Posted by Carrie Raymond on 01/10/07 at 11:06 PMThat is such a GREAT story. And an even better birthday gift! I love your pics in the sidebar, Katy. You look so happy and ... for lack of better word? ... purposeful. As in purpose filled.
Posted by Jennifer on 01/12/07 at 09:07 AMCarrie—You really remember when Kev was born? You were two months shy of your third birthday! That’s amazing.
Jennifer—See, THIS is why I like you! I look purposeful???? No one’s EVER accused me of being purposeful!! Thank you. :)
Posted by Katy on 01/13/07 at 04:54 PM
