Celebrating the Wonder of Birth!

       Haddie Ann Kreider
             Born Today!

WORTH IT ALL

 

First there was the long awaited joy discovering

That you were a mere fetal speck.

Months of pampered excitement

Watching my belly slowly swell

Then balloon beyond belief.

Impatient, I longed to peek inside myself

To see the secret you,

Your sex, your skin, your forming face

With x-ray eyes

In those pre-sonogram years.

Week by wondrous week

I felt you growing, strengthening,

As you poked me from within

With fidgety feet and fists.

Imagined a hundred scenarios

Of the you you were becoming.

Laid hands upon my rumbling stomach,

Prayed blessings

Penetrating pre-born you.

 

Then, arrived the day of

Tremulous wonder.

Contracting crescendos,

Long hours in a surrealistic haze

Climaxing in pushing, pushing, pushing you out

Of my cozy womb into my waiting arms.

Labor blurred sweetly into joy’s

Highest measure. You emerged,

Perfect. Miraculous.

 

Then followed years of diverse labor stages

So intense, childbirth’s memory

Paled into small inconsequential aches,

And star spangled ecstasies catapulted me

Far, far into glittery galaxies.

 

You’re adult now, on your own,

Still developing, discovering,

Dazzling, surprising,

Still nudging me

Within and without.

I still long to peek

Into places I cannot,

To know you even more

Than I know you,

And who knows you more?

That’s how it is for mothers.

That’s how it’s always been.

Umbilicals are only severed

In the physical sense.

 

Maude Carolan

 

Welcome to my brand new great niece, Haddie Ann, who was born this morning, October 27, 2012.  She's the daughter of Carrie & Troy Kreider and she's sooooo beautiful! God bless her and her little family.

 

This poem was written years ago in remembrance of the times I awaited the birth of my own three children.