31 Years Ago Today.....

I was giving birth to my son. Yep, Beau is 31. I have to say that sometimes it really takes me by surprise that I have kids in their 30s, (not to mention the whole grandma part), yet it does seem so long ago when they were little.

But I do remember the day I had Beau; I was admitted the day before because they had him scheduled to be born on the 28th by c-section (backe then if you had one child c-section, you had 'em ALL c-section) and I remember how the timing rather sucked, because while I was in my 8th month of pregnancy I got off at noon every day and would head to my barracks room and watch soaps: All My Children (which I had watched off-and-on from the day it started, back in 1970), One Life To Live, and General Hospital. Now I didn't care so much about the first two, but I loved General Hospital and at that particular time was when Luke and Laura had just come back from being on the run and being confronted by everyone. And the episode I had seen that Friday before (I had Beau on a Tuesday) was when reporters were all over them and Laura said "Of course I'm still Mrs. Scotty Baldwin!" so I was dying to find out what happened. (Funny the things one remembers, right?)

But no, Monday I went to the hospital to get all checked in (and couldn't get to a tv...darn!) so I would be there at 0800 Tuesday to have the baby. I had no idea what it would be as they didn't do those kind of sonograms or tests to tell you what you were going to have. I did have an amniosintesis (that's probably spelled wrong) the week before and I asked the doctor if this could tell what I was having and he said yes, but the best test to have would be on Tuesday morning. Ha. Ha.

Even though I was having him c-section, they said that Ed could be in there with me. I wasn't too happy about that for various reasons, but in he went. When they started cutting me open, Ed was being a smart-ass and asked them if they could see what I had had for breakfast. Funny. Not. I can remember the surgical team discussing BAH and I was thinking you can ask me, I'm in Disbursing, but I didn't say it out loud. When they took Beau out, and him being blue, Ed was about to faint. (Real tough Marine there, huh?) I just recall he had a very big nose and said so, and Ed was like "No he doesn't!" Whatever.

We named him Edward Dean Thornton Jr., and at the very first we called him Ed. But not a whole lot later, his name became Beau, because of a name I had heard a couple of months earlier. This guy had come through Seps and his last name was Ricklebean, which I thought was funny. Being 7 months pregnant, I joked around and said when I had the baby I was going to name it Ricklebean.......Beauregard Ricklebean. Well the first time I took him to my office, my Gunny said "So this is Beau." and I thought that was really cute, and the name stuck. (Which was good because I didn't want people calling him Junior or Eddie anyway.) It did take Ed a very long time to call him Beau, but he finally had to give in since that was what Beau answered to.

So anyway, even though Beau can't read this, he is in my thoughts today. I know he isn't having a good birthday, but I am wishing him one anyway. I love you Beau.