Memory

It is starting to hit me that our baby is going to be turning one this week. I am filled with mixed emotions about it…I am excited to celebrate such a significant milestone, heartbroken that her year as a baby is over, and eager to begin our journey into “toddler land”.

Lately, my mind has been flooded with memories of the past year…some of the memories are a little foggier than others, so I am glad that we took several million pictures and were able to write down a few details here and there in a journal and then later in this blog.

Looking through our pics from the past year, I found this one of me. It was the second to last picture taken before Lyla entered our lives. (The last picture taken was of me on a break in between contractions and I am looking pretty rough…I will keep that one to myself.)



This was taken just 4 days before Lyla arrived. I was putting a few plants in a special garden we were making for Lyla. (Incidentally, that garden no longer exists as we never had time to care for it after she was born.)
Wow, how could the doctor not know Lyla was going to be a little on the big side…look at me!

One of my favorite memories is of course the day/night and following day Lyla decided it was her time to officially meet her mommies. The Tuesday before she arrived was our big 4th grade TAKS test at school and I was totally disappointed that Lyla hadn’t come yet (even though her due date was still 6 days away) because I was dreading a long day of administering this test. However, my principal was giving me special treatment and brought on a substitute teacher specifically to relieve me every hour, so it really wasn’t all that bad…however by the end of the day, my already swollen ankles where the size of logs and I was praying that Lyla would come before the second TAKS test the following day. On my way home, I took a detour to buy a special gift for Lyla that I had been eyeing for months (her hippo Chloe) as I had this strong feeling that if I didn’t get it right then, I wouldn’t be able to get it for her. That evening Amber’s sister, Chan, came over to go for a walk around the block with us. As I walked through the door on our way out I felt a contraction that was a little bit different than the regular Braxton hicks contractions I had been getting off and on over the past week or so. I didn’t mention it to Amber or her sister as I didn’t want to get my (or their) hopes up…although Chan said several times while she was over, “whatever you do, don’t have that baby tonight!” Later that night we were watching American Idol, and I felt a few more of those same contractions. After a few more, I mentioned them to Amber telling her they were a little different than what I was used to…and they kept coming. We got out the stop watch and started to track them as they got more and more regular. I don’t remember how long we did this for (I’m sure Amber knows) but after a few hours we were on our way to the hospital. The contractions came on much stronger and faster than I had imagined they would. I finally got an epidural (which was great for a few hours which allowed me to sleep) but then it wore off twice and then numbed everything except for the contractions. The next few hours where full of moaning, vomiting, laughing, crying, focusing, screaming, cursing, and then finally rejoicing when at 10:14 Wednesday morning Lyla had finally arrived. What an unbelievably amazing memory!