Funny New Year's Eve Memories

New Year's Eve is meant to be a fun and exciting time. A time to make new plans and promises. December 31, 1980 was probably my most memorable and fun event. It was the day my oldest daughter Heather was born.

Normally our New Year's Eve plans included spending the evening and night with friends. Living in Chapel Hill, N.C. our standard fare of friends lived way out in the country. With my then 4 year old son at a babysitter, we would be off to the New Year's festivities. Most of the time it was a pig pickin at one of those friends homes. We would have fireworks and eat and drink and celebrate. It was a get together we always looked forward to each year.

This year, my oldest daughter Heather, decided to make her grand entrance to the world on New Year's Eve, 1980. I woke up up at 3 a.m. with labor pains beginning. By 5:30 a.m., I was sure it was time to call my midwife and get to the hospital. Because I chose a midwife, I had also made the decision to go through all natural labor. I had gone the other route of having pain medicine and lying down through the entire labor with my son. That is absolutely not the way to have a baby. With the natural labor process, the only way to beat the pain is to walk and breathe.

We arrived at the hospital about 6:15 a.m. My husband was not ready for this adventure. After we checked in and got instructions, we were on our own for the next 5 or so hours. As I walked up and down the hall dealing with the labor pains, he ducked in the waiting room and got a nap. I continued to walk until almost noon. When it was time, my husband woke up and joined the rest of the fun. My daughter was born loud and a little angry to be in the cold world. She was as beautiful as she is today.

After the initial "oohhs" and "aahhs" and we all got fresh and clean, my husband was off to get ready for the big New Year's Eve celebration at our friends. My beautiful baby and I settled into a hospital room in front of the TV. Going through the midwife process, also meant Heather was not in a regular nursery, she stayed in the same room I was in. With the exception of medical attention, I was responsible for her diapers and feeding and comforting.I ate, she ate, we slept. Well, I slept some, she cried. She dozed some but not much.

By the time the TV celebrations started, we were both crying. I had done pretty much everything I knew to do. My son was an easy baby and never really had colic or any issues. He didn't cry much and was in general a good baby. My daughter was not going to go that way. As I am blatantly aware now, she is her own person and thinks totally the way she wants to. A trait that I love now. However, colicky and mad, she was going to bring the New Year in her way.

As the TV sang Auld Lang Syne, Heather and I cried through the ringing in of the New Year. Looking back so many years later, I laugh at the entire situation. To have a child on New Years Eve is funny to begin with, to ring it in the way we did brings back great memories. The joy I have gotten time and again from her being my daughter has been worth the beginning.