Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Birthday Luke

Today, our son Luke is thirty-four years old. You might remember that Luke is a parent himself to one of our two beautiful granddaughters. His lovely daughter, Kara, will be two months old this Sunday. When Kara was born, I wrote a guest post about Luke's birth for Parental Discretion Advised, a Parent's Magazine professional blog written by Luke's wife and Kara's mom, Bree. When I wrote my entry, I thought that the post was to be no longer than 200 words. However, my story was 619 words. Trying to stay in the lines while coloring. I pared this story down to 200 words. The following is the rest of the story minus the Parental Discretion Advised as I signed some e-document stating that my story would not be published elsewhere. The picture is from Luke's birth announcement.

Welcome to the World Baby Luke
Luke was not actually due to arrive until the first week of March, but on morning of February 14th on Valentine’s Day our second child decided to begin his grand entrance to the world. There were no clues or indicators that our second son was to arrive especially early. There was no early water breaking. There were no early contractions. Nor, did the doctor mention that little Luke would be arriving early.

The day before his birth, I felt a little tired and perhaps a little nauseous. I did feel well enough to pull his older brother around the neighborhood on a red, white, and blue sled. As I watched from a window his brother and dad make a snowman in the twilight, waves of nausea swept over my being. The night before Luke’s birth was uneventful so my husband, Miles went to work to his job as a high school chemistry teacher. Around eight o’clock in the morning, I began to feel ill again and then felt definite contractions. I called the high school. The principal’s secretary went personally to my husband’s classroom to tell him that the baby was coming and that he needed to leave right NOW. After taking our three year old son to a friend’s house, we were on our way to the hospital.




One of the delivery room nurses asked if we had chosen a name. She suggested if we did not have a name for our son born on Valentine’s Day that we could call him Valentino. When my husband Miles first saw our Valentine baby, he had a heart sticker on his forehead that apparently had been placed there by the nurses. We decided to forego the suggestion to name him Valentino; instead, we named our brand new son, Luke Byron. Luke was just a name that we liked. We choose his middle name after my father, Byron.

Although Luke was born three weeks early, he was a full-sized baby weighing 7 pounds and 6 ounces and was 21 inches long. Furthermore, his early arrival did not seem to slow down our Luke Byron. Today, he is almost six foot five and will be thirty-four this coming Valentine’s Day. Furthermore, he is a father himself to a brand new baby girl.

15 comments:

Luke said...

I sure am glad that I am not named Valentino. Or Wesley.

Happy Valentine's Day, Mom!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to Luke, and his mom! I had a similar experience with Josh's insistence in not waiting for the doctor, and he hasn't stopped since.

Happy Valentine's Day, Molly.

Junebug said...

Valentino would have been a little bit much probably for this day and age. At least Byron is a poet's name:

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

Margaret said...

Luke had a lucky escape from the moniker Valentino. Oh, dear. He is very tall; is Daddy D also tall? Great story.

daddy d said...

Great story. I thought that heart sticker was a birth mark at first.

ChrisB said...

Happy belated Birthday to Luke.

Beccy said...

I remember pushing when told not to, I just had to listen to my body.

Happy belated Birthday to Luke.

Yolanda said...

Happy birthday to Luke and for the wonderful memories you hared here.

captain corky said...

Now that's the best Valentine's Day gift. Much, much better than a gold chain. ;)

Unknown said...

Luke Byron is better than Valentino. :) Happy birthday to the new papa. :)

debi said...

Loved your story.Read them both. Time flies when you are watching your babies grow. That grandbaby of yours is so pretty. Hard to believe she has been here for 2 months now. Love to see the pics of her.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Luke!

Robocop said...

Happy Birthday!

Cazzie!!! said...

Happy birthday Luke :) I had a card just like that as a birth card, only PINK! :)

Kila said...

Belated Happy Birthday to Luke Byron! I like both those names :)