AaronSpring: Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a big deal around here. Big sister was born on Mother's Day, making me a mommy for the first time! How many people can say that? She had a family party last week with little brother, and you've already seen the pics from her friend party yesterday. She is rather celebrated. It occurs to me that I've never really written down her "birth story". Since this is our family journal, I'm going to write a few things while I can still remember.

I finished my last day of full time work on Friday, May 7, 2004. B was due on May 12. I was excited to have a few days off before the baby came. I also wanted to give into the nesting instincts, since I hadn't had time while I was working. My sister was in town with her family, so on Saturday, we went and ate some delicious Mexican food and then went to the mall. She was determined to walk me to death so that I would have the baby before she had to go back to NV. She walked me all over the mall, and all over Target. I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for several months, but my sister noticed that I was having them every twenty minutes and my face was going red. I was in labor! Great. I was really not ready! I wanted my few days off! Ah, well. We went back to my parents for a BBQ. Husband had been sad that he was missing dinner with family because he was working. I called him to tell him I was in labor. It wasn't hard labor by any means (yet), but I figured having him there with me would be best. So he got off work and came to have dinner. I ate so much! I knew they wouldn't want me eating during labor at the hospital, so I stuffed myself silly. I could barely move. We got home a little late, and since we hadn't packed a bag yet, we got everything together. Around midnight, we were still consistently 20 minutes apart, so we went to bed hoping to get some good sleep before our new baby arrived. Around 2am, I felt a little trickle of water. Barely. I nudged husband and told him my water broke. He was still very much asleep and asked if I was sure that I didn't just wet the bed. (He claims that was/is a valid question to ask someone who's never had a baby.) I assured him this was the real deal. My contractions were still not coming any stronger or faster. We went to the hospital and they had to check and make sure that my water had really broken. They found a "trace", and so they started the pitocin. That sure got the juices going. I knew I wanted an epidural, but I wanted to see how far I could go without. Not very far. Around 4 the nurse told me that I didn't have to be a martyr. I wholeheartedly agreed. Husband looked so tired, and I could tell my contractions were taking a toll on him, too. The anesthesiologist was my new best friend about 20 minutes later. Husband and I were both able to sleep for awhile. Around 8, we called everyone to let them know we were at the hospital. Husband went to get breakfast and I had a popsicle. They told me it was a treat compared to ice chips. (I hate popsicles.) That was about the time that we remembered my doctor was out of town for Mother's Day. She should have been back in time, but she missed her flight. I don't remember the name of the doctor who actually delivered me. At around 1, the rest of my water broke. It was green, which mean B had had a bowel movement in the womb. Which is bad. It can cause some major infections if they breathe it into their lungs at birth. So they got everything ready so that she could be rushed to the respiratory therapist immediately after birth and get intubated before she could really take a breath. At about 2, they declared me fully dilated and said let's start pushing. I pushed for about half an hour, and then they called the on-call doctor. She lived close, thanks heavens! She was there in about 5 minutes, and then it took another 5 minutes of pushing. Big sister was born at 2:41pm, weighing in at 6 lb 14 ounces. Husband rushed with the medical personnel down to the respiratory therapist. He says she gagged a little (obviously), but fortunately did not take a full breath until they were done. She was perfectly healthy. Husband then got to bring her back down the hall and place her in my arms. (That's a tradition we've kept with all of them - he holds them first, then passes them to me. We heard once that when John Stockton's wife was asked about her husband being the all time leader in assists, she said that the greatest assists he'd ever had was handing each of their children to her after they were born. I loved that, and decided that I loved the idea of Husband holding them first.) We also got to be on the news. Channel 2 wanted to do a "fluff" story on women becoming mother's on Mother's Day, so they interviewed us! I agreed to it because the hospital assured me I'd have time to clean up a little before the crew got there. Not so. They came in very quick and I had not been able to even brush my hair yet. The effects of being up most of the night and then giving birth looked lovely. Whatever. Big sister was beautiful then, and is incredibly beautiful now. She loves to help, and is so good with her sister and brother. They love when she plays with them. She has a very kind spirit and wants to be friends with everybody. She is really good at reading. She surprised us a few weeks ago during Primary with that skill! We knew she'd been learning and doing well with her reading, but we had no idea how well. She was assigned a talk on Joseph Smith. So we wrote the talk together but didn't really have time to practice. During Primary, she read the entire thing by herself. Mommy had to help her with "Hill Cumorah", but I think that one's understandable since she'd only heard the term once the night before! She is cuddly and loves to look through her scrapbooks as well as her siblings' scrapbooks. We love our little girl, and can't believe she's already 6! Happy Birthday big girl!

And for your viewing pleasure, some pics I just scanned in of Big sister as a baby: