Happy 5th Birthday J!

I am proud to say the 5 years ago today my life changed FOREVER. I was given the gift of my daughter J. That day went a little like this:

It started as a typical morning; got up to go to the bathroom around 5ish and then back to bed. But wait, it felt like I was going to the bathroom more! In bed! What is going on here? I woke T up and told him about it and he just kind of laughed it off. We were clueless as to what was really going on here. After it happened a few more times we thought it would be a good idea to call the Labor & Delivery department of the hospital and make sure everything was alright. Turns out they wanted me to come in to be checked. Since J was not due until April 14th we did not have anything ready to go. I mean ANYTHING! We were rummaging through papers on the desk looking for the Lamaze packet that had a suggest list of things to bring to the hospital. We finally found that and packed a bag or two. We were running all over the place.

We made it to the hospital around 7:30ish. We admitted and then I was checked. They did a swab of the fluid to make sure that it was amniotic fluid and yep it sure was! J was on her way 2 ½ weeks early. SURPRISE! After sitting for about an hour or so T went out to our vehicle to get the rest of our stuff (or so I thought). Apparently there was some miscommunication and he thought he was supposed to go back home and get all the things that we forgot. So I sat there in the bed waiting for 15-20 minutes and he did not come back. After about 45 minutes of waiting I was getting a *little* mad and then after an hour I was mad. –Since our hospital (at the time) did not allow the use of cell phones I could not call him & if I would have called him from the room it would have been long distance or collect– Where the heck did he go? He finally (what seemed like hours to me) came back with all our things and then I found out what took him so long.

They started Pitocin and I was progressing; smooth and steady. We went for a walk (or two or three), rocked in a rocking chair, sat on one of the labor balls, and breathed through all the contractions. It did not seem like too long and next thing we knew J was here. She was born at 2:53 pm, weighed 6 lbs 8.3 ozs, and was 19 ¾ ins long. And she had a mop of RED curly hair! She was beautiful. My first experience as a parent began and it was perfect. We could not imagine our life without J, then or now. We love you ‘baby’ girl!