Happy 4th Birthday Katelyn

It's hard to believe my baby girl is four! I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and share her "birthday" story! When I was pregnant with Katelyn, I worked PT at Vancouver School District in the HR dept. It was a desk job and somewhat low stress, so I planned to work up to delivery (same as with Megan). It was a Friday, March 11th, I stopped at Albertson's on the way home from work and picked up a few groceries and a movie for our entertainment for the evening (Ladder 49). The young male checker asked me if I had any big plans for the weekend and I said "hopefully have a baby!" His eyes got big and I stepped back to show him my big belly...he kind of looked embarrassed and I thought it was funny!

I went home did dinner, played with Megan, put her to bed and it was around 9:30 and we plopped on the couch to watch our movie. Soon after it started I felt my first contraction. I'd had contraction on and off for a couple weeks,so I didn't make anything of it. But they didn't let up through the whole movie. So, it got over and it was almost midnight and I finally mentioned to Damon that I kept having contractions. He got a piece of paper and a watch and we started tracking them. We were at that moment of what do you think we should do??? We headed upstairs and I laid in bed still tracking them while he started shaving....yes, shaving. I was like, what are you doing? He says, well, if we are going to the hospital, I should probably shave.

I responded, maybe we should think about packing my bag (it was on my list of things to do that weekend), or maybe put the car seat in the car (also on the list). I wasn't due for 10 more days and Megan was only four days early, so I just didn't figure she would come this early.

It was now 1am and I realized my parents were overnight in McMinnville and my sister and her family were in Disneyland and that was ii for in town family...hmmm what to do for the 2 1/2 year old asleep in the room next to us??? The contractions were still coming, so we decided to call my parents in McMinnville. Their cel phones were turned off, so I had to wake up my aunt so she could go wake up my parents...I felt really bad, but what better reason to wake up a sleeping house than for the birth of a baby! This better be for real, I was thinking!

They got to Vancouver around 3am and off we went! The contractions were getting a little uncomfortable now which was good, it meant it was the real deal! Damon was excited to "speed to the hospital" because when else do you get a good excuse like that to speed? He wanted to safely "run" a red light too, but no one was on the streets and we got all greens :) Poor Damon!

We got to the hospital and what do you know...my neighbor the nurse checked us into triage! That was funny! It was great having a friend help us out like that. I was a keeper at 4-5 cm, so we transferred to our room. I sort of wanted to see how long I could go before an epidural, but after an hour or so, I thought bag this, I know I'm getting one, so let's cut to the chase! Let's get those fluids going and ring the anesthesiologist (ok, I just guessed at that spelling and spell check just said it was spelled right, so I'm impressed with myself!). I eventually got the guy with the large needle (around 6:30am) and can I just say, it was NOT the lovely experience that I had for the first child...bad nerve pain and for the first hour of the epidural, my blood pressure dropped and though for sure I was going to hurl, but I did not and I eventually stabilized. Gone was the pain, but also almost gone were the contractions....so here comes pitocin to get things going again. They broke my water and started pitocin when I was still at 6cm at 9:15am. They checked me at 9:50am and I was fully dialated and started to push. After pushing through two sets of contractions, they noticed the baby's heart rate was dropping, so they decided to help her out with a vacuum. On the third push, out she came at 10:03am! I was thrilled to see her so quickly (much better than 2 1/2 hours of pushing with big sister!). I learned a bit later, that her umbilical cord was pretty short, so as she was moving down the birth canal, it was stretching and causing stress to the heart rate, so the vacuum worked great to get her out quickly!

Our first impressions of her was that she was a little peanut and she had big bright eyes. She weighed in at a whopping 6lbs even. We weren't completely set on her name, so we took a look at her and decided she looked like a Katelyn!

I just happened to have Damon take this picture about four hours before labor started March 11 (it was in the 70's that week...far cry from this week!)

This was the next picture on my camera, about 14 hours after the above picture taken...it's actually 3/12/05, not sure why the camera date was wrong

new mom...

family of four!

Big sister

Two months old...by this time, I was being made aware of this little personality, or should I say big personality. She knew what she wanted and what she didn't want and that was that. She did NOT want a bottle, she did NOT want to sleep without screaming for a long time, she DID want to see me at least every three hours all night long...at this point, I think she was sleeping in the swing...whatever worked to get her to sleep. I was being made aware that me sleeping all night would not happen for a LONG time. But isn't she cute???

Megan loved being a big sister...she's been a great one since day one!

Katelyn's first birthday pictures

First birthday party....I made her a ladybug cake and little ladybug cupcakes

2nd birthday! Sleeping all night probably 5 out of 7 nights....whew!

reluctantly she'll smile for the camera!

3rd birthday...yes, finally getting a full head of hair...look at those curls!

cute girl!

My big four year old girl!

My dear Katelyn,
You are smart as a whip with the cutest belly laugh! You keep me on my toes and challenge me to be the best mom I can be! You are persistent and rarely give up when you want something which will serve you well in the future, but it can be hard on a mom! Even when you are in a "mood" I can always pick you up and you just melt in my arms for a sweet sweet hug. I don't mind when you sneak into our bed in the middle of the night to cuddle, these days will soon be gone. I love to watch your little mind at work, always thinking. You love puzzles, games and playing with your big sister. I love being your mom and I'm so thankful God chose you to be my daughter. Even though he's blessed me with the opportunity to raise you, you are God's first and foremost. Happy Birthday sweet daughter, I cherish each moment with you and I love you with all my heart!

Love,
Mom