“A daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to give.” — Laurel Atherton
Some years ago very early on this very day, the first pangs of labor woke me up in the middle of the night. As best I can remember, a storm was brewing. That wasn’t all that was brewing. My baby was making signs of being ready to come into the world. Since I had always been told the second baby came faster than the first baby, I was up and packing up my 20 month old son to take to my mom’s house so we could head for the hospital.
Turns out what everybody tells you isn’t always right. I could have finished dozing through the night, taken my time getting dressed, fixed my hair, fed my son breakfast, maybe enjoyed a nice cup of tea, and my husband could have driven us leisurely to the hospital. No hurry at all.
Of course, if we’d done that, my husband would have had a nervous meltdown. And I might have too. LOL. The only one not concerned was my son who was happy to go to granny’s house and my daughter who was not in as much hurry as I thought she might be. I didn’t know at that time she was going to be my daughter.
That was way before the doctors took pictures of your babies months before they were born. Now people name their babies and have baby showers for the named baby. Times have changed. Back then, we guessed by how a mother was carrying the baby. High meant a girl. Low meant a boy. Or maybe it was the other way around. And it certainly did often turn out to be opposite the guess. Then there was even something you could do by tying something (I don’t remember if it was just a weight or something special) on a string and holding it over the expectant mother’s belly while she was lying down. If the weight started swinging right to left it meant girl and up and down a boy or vice versa. Actually, what happened is that we had to wait and see and pick out a boy’s name and a girl’s name if we wanted to be prepared.
We had our girl’s name picked out. In fact we picked it out before we even married. My husband had heard the name, Tarasa, on the radio or tv. Probably wasn’t spelled that way, but I liked the sound of the name and how it looked with all those a’s. So we filed that one away for the future. This day in March was the future when our little girl finally decided to be born lat in the afternoon after a long day of laboring to get her here. But she was worth every pain.
She was the best baby ever. Rarely cried. Smiled about everything. And was beautiful on top of that. She took after her mother in that she loved dogs from the time she could pet one. And she has had some dogs that took special loving, like Sumo who she and her husband brought home after his parents passed away. Sumo had arthritic legs that made it hard for him to go on his own, but he always managed to get everywhere with his loving people.
Our daughter is a blessing to me and her father. She’s a fabulous aunt to her nieces and nephews. A wonderful wife and friend.
“A daughter is God’s way of saying, ‘Thought you could use a lifelong friend.’” — Unknown
“A mother’s treasure is her daughter.” — Catherine Pulsifer
So happy, happy birthday to my daughter, my lifelong friend and my treasure.
Do you have a daughter or daughters you treasure or perhaps you were the treasured daughter of your mother?
My mother always made me feel treasured as she did my sisters too.
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I miss my mom calling me her precious one. I was blessed to be her treasure and I’m blessed with a precious daughter and granddaughter.
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But that love will always be with you and the echo of your mom calling you her precious one, Lucy. Now it’s great the love has expanded to include your precious daughter and granddaughter.
I love your words about your daughter! We have two sons and a daughter that came along last, eight years after our younger son. I am so thankful to have both sons and a daughter, and am so grateful for the fact that she lives close to us, and She is not only a daughter, but a friend , and we have a wonderful mom-daughter relationship.
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My daughter lives the farthest away from us, Lynda. Around a 6 hour drive, but she’s willing to make that drive pretty often which makes us happy. You’re fortunate that your daughter lives near you and the same as me, blessed that you have a great mother-daughter relationship. Mom had that with all three of us girls. She would have done anything for us and we returned that love to her.
I only have one son but no daughters. I think if I had it to do over again I would have tried for a daughter too. There were only two kids in my family growing up, my brother and myself.
You’re very lucky to have your daughter and your great relationship with her. Enjoy!
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I am very blessed to have such a loving daughter, Connie. And to top that off with two great sons and their wives. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like for me to have had another baby and if that had been another girl. But at the time, I was pretty sure three was a perfect number. 🙂
Happy Birthday to your daughter; she looks so much like you!! Yes I have a wonderful daughter that I cherish ( as well as a son that I adore!). Labor is hard but oh so worth it!
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So true, Pamela. Babies are such a blessing. Girl babies or boy babies. Each to be cherished.
Happy birthday to your daughter!
My second child is a girl too. She was due to be born on my grandmothers birthday. So when labor pains started late that afternoon, we rushed out to the hospital. Living out in the country, it took nearly an hour to get to there. But after checking my progress the doctor informed me it was only false labor and sent me back hime. But I guess my daughter didn’t care. A few hours later (early the next morning) my water broke. And 2 contractions later my sweet girl made her entrance, assisted by just her daddy. She doesn’t share a birthday with her great grandma, but they had 35 shared birthday celebrations before Mamaw went home to heaven 10 years ago.
My daughter is a true blessing to me and everyone who knows her.
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Wow, Lavon. That had to have been a little scary for your husband and maybe you too. Obviously, you weren’t having false labor. You needed one of the Frontier nurse midwives with you. Once they showed up on the scene with a mother in labor they didn’t leave until the baby came even if it was a couple of days.
Glad everything turned out all right for you and your daughter and your husband too. 🙂
My daughter was born four days before her grandmother’s birthday. A special grandmother gift.
Happy birthday to your daughter! I had to smile at your thinking that the second baby is easier and comes more quickly, because I thought the same thing and was wrong. My son was over 9lbs and came in less than 6 hrs and then my daughter came along at only a little over 6 pounds and took nearly 14 hours of labor to make her appearance. They gave me an epidural which my husband said I signed the paperwork for, but I don’t remember doing it or the needle (thankfully). We didn’t find out she was a girl until she was born because my husband wanted to be surprised, but I felt like she was a girl and so did her big brother who was 3 at the time and went around telling everyone he was getting a baby sister…his excitement about that changed a bit after the first time she cried and when he had to be quiet because “the baby is sleeping”. lol They are grown up now too, but those memories of their births do stick with us…one of the hardest things a woman can go through and yet, one of the biggest blessings of life.
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That’s so cute about big brother wanting a sister, Hope. Sometimes that excitement does change after the baby is actually in Mama’s lap. LOL. My son was so young that he still got plenty of lap time, and that my daughter was such a good baby made that lap time for him easy. She did the most crying right after we came home for the hospital. So much that my little boy thought her name was “crying” because everybody kept letting him peek at her while telling him she was crying.
Your daughter is beautiful. Looks like you!
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Thank you, Shirley. I’m always happy when someone says we look alike. I used to wish people would say I looked like my mother but they rarely did. But I see more of mom in me now when I look in the mirror. She was a special lady.
Thanks for sharing about your lovely daughter. I agree with all the daughter quotes. I am certainly thankful for my daughter. I love my son very much too but there is something special about a daughter.
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Sons are special too, Pam, but a daughter can be a special friend after she becomes an adult. Sons too but in a different way.
Yes, I have a daughter that we treasure–an adopted daughter who came to us when she was 9 years old. She is our only child. I was like an only daughter/child to my parents since my two sisters were 5 and 7 years older than I was. They had both left home, so I enjoyed my high school years without another sibling at home.
I did feel treasured. Mother always referred to us as her “favorite __ year old”, with all of us being different ages from each other. So, we were all special!
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I do that with my kids too, Suzanne. My daughter is my very favorite daughter since she happens to be my only daughter but I tell her she would have been my favorite anyway. 🙂 My older son is my favorite oldest son and his little brother is my favorite youngest son. It works. They are all my favorites.
Happy Birthday to Your Daughter I have 3 Daughters and my middle daughters Birthday is the 25 of March and my youngest Granddaughter will be 2 March the 17th! Have a Blessed week!
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March is a good month for birthdays, Sarah. My mom’s birthday was the 16th. I hope you will enjoy celebrating with your dauther and granddaughter this month. A 2 year old’s birthday can be a fun time for everyone but especially grandmothers. 🙂