Happy Birthday Nature Girl!

Eight years ago today at this time Nature Girl was already 3 hours old! What an exciting time it was for mommy and daddy. And this is her story: My original due date for NG was May 7th. She had been in position to be born for at least a month. Wedged way down in my pelvis. I guess because she was my first baby I was scared to death about my water breaking. So, one night after work I was laying on the couch, I felt a little trickle. I started to get a little anxious. I called my SIL and she told me to go for a walk and if my water had broke I would start having contractions. I think we actually went to Taco Bell first and then daddy, Angel (the dog) and I went for a walk. When we got back from our walk nothing really had happened. But, I was still a little concerned. We decided to take a trip up to the hospital just to be sure. We saw our neighbors as we were leaving. I mention them because they have been such an important part of our kids lives starting with Nature Girl! Anyway, we get to triage and I get all hooked up to the monitors etc. Daddy and I are still pretty sure we are over reacting and that we will be sent home. Surely our baby will not be coming home a month early. This is our first one. She is suppose to be late! The midwife comes in eventually and checks me for any progress. The minute she does water comes rushing out. I was soooo freaked out. We were not leaving the hospital and we were going to be going home with a brand new baby girl! That was about 10PM. At about 12AM they gave me an epidural. At 2AM they gave me Staydol (which I never did again) and by 4 AM I was pushing. I remember daddy had worked that day (which always seems to happen). So up until the time I started pushing he was sound asleep on the hospital recliner. Pop Pop and Sissy came up in the middle of the night. NG was born around 5 that morning. She weighed 5 lbs 15 oz. It all happened so unexpectedly and so quickly that it all seems like a dream. They checked her out and she was healthy and happy. Even though she was early everything had developed the way it was suppose to. We had some nursing issues because of her being early. And a billruben problem. But nothing that a few extra days in the hospital wouldn't fix. During my stay daddy had a softball game and he wanted to go. I figured what the heck. Well, when he came back a couple hours later, he was on crutches. Apparently he had sprained his ankle! I am sure you can imagine my surprise! As Nature Girl just said "Wow, you both were in the hospital at the same time ;)" One of my last chores to do before NG was born was to find a pediatrician. But, I never got that far. We didn't have one so we were assigned one. His name was Dr. Henry and he was great! He made it so I could stay in the hospital an extra day and the night that we got home he called us from his house! (We could tell because we could hear the evening news in the background.) On April 11, 2001, we brought home a 5lb 4 oz baby the size of a bag of sugar. Life has never been the same . . .