A Weekend to Remember

I started this post out by saying that I worked a 12 hour shift from 3pm to 3am the other day and this was the reason for my missing the Thankful Thursday post. But, I couldn't even remember what day I worked this shift, so I started the post over!

Anyway, I do remember that it was my first baby girl's 8th birthday Saturday. My heart can barely take it. She is the reason I became a mother, the best job I have. And, something about the number eight doesn't sound so little anymore.....she is officially a "tween". I can't believe it. I was at work at a dialysis center when I started having blood pressure issues and visual problems with her eight years ago. Ron came to pick me up and we headed to the hospital around six p.m. Around midnight, my water broke with a VERY strong contraction and I proceeded to labor WITHOUT ANY medication, not even nubain, because of the doctor I had. I no longer have this doctor! Thank freaking God that it was only a five hour labor and I had a doula present. I kept telling the nurses that the contractions were harder than they were trying to tell me they were, but they wouldn't believe me since I wasn't dilating and it was my first baby. I made them check me just before 5 am and what do you know? I was 10 cm and the nurse tried to make excuses by saying my cervix "just melted away" while she was checking me! Anyway, three pushes and Kaylee was born. The most beautiful thing I had ever seen and the most awesome emotion I had ever felt. She was perfect, and she was ours. Kaylee was 7lbs,7ounces and born at 5:10am. She had a little bit of dark hair and her legs were turned inward as well as her feet (from the cramped quarters she had to endure that none of the others had to! Jillian had PLENTY of room!) She did have torticollis and a hip subluxation. We did physical therapy for one year. Kaylee has been the best child one could ask for since she was a baby (after we got through the colic).

Early in the morning of her birthday, I followed my good friend Jillian's advice, and Ron and I bought Kaylee a guinea pig and put it in a cage and snuck it into her room so she would wake up to it. I tied balloons to the outside. Kaylee has been begging for one for a LONG time. She woke up and I had just gotten the video camera out to record it. She was standing in the doorway with the biggest smile on her face. She told me later she couldn't even think of anything to say she was so surprised. She kept saying thank you and "when I close my eyes, all I see is my guinea pig!" and "this is the best birthday ever!". She is so sweet. Then we went to Ryan's soccer game and picked up her best friend Samantha and went to Build a Bear and Chick-Fil-A. We came home and ate cake and ice cream and she opened up presents that were pj's, a robe, and a Coconut tshirt. She also got her room re-painted in orange and pink (thank you Ron!). She got new sheets from Aunt Mary, which she loved, money from Samantha and her grandparents, and a gift card to Toys R Us from Beth, our neighbor. She is a lucky girl! WE are lucky to have her, our first born. I wonder what her future has in store for her. Happy Birthday, Kaylee!