story219.xml

story219.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-03-11

I was scheduled to be induced on Sept.11. My husband and I arrived at Reston Hospital midnight that Tuesday morning and by 3:30 a.m., my water broke but it wasn't until 8:30 or so that I was given an epidural to ease the pain of the contractions! I remember how quickly the epidural kicked in and just as I was feeling comfortable and relaxed, the nurse ran in and told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. My husband turned on the t.v. and for the next few hours, everyone and everything around us in the hospital seemed to shut down and nothing but the replays of the planes hitting the 2 buildings and then that of the Pentagon, the towers collapsing, images of people running for their lives, were all that seemed to mattered. Eventually, it was really too much for me to take/handle. Of course, at the same time, rumors were rampant of a hijacked plane still in the air around Dulles International airport. Reston Hospital is about a 10 minute drive, if that, from the airport. It was a little nervewracking. I must say that this day was supposed to be the most important day of my life and yet, I found myself concentrating and worrying about my family, my friends, the people of D.C. and New York, the safety of the world etc. I was doing everything but concentrating on my unborn son who I was anxious to meet. I finally had enough and asked my husband to turn the tv off. That lasted about an hour and the t.v came back on and it stayed on until 4pm when we were told that I was fully dilated and could start pushing. Our son, Riley Edward, was born that awful yet blessed day of Sept. 11 at 6:09 pm. I have saved every newspaper, magazine clipping I could get my hands on to share with him when he gets older to show him what a blessing he was to us on such an awful day filled with tradgedies.