It was October and Aaron and I had moved to Owensboro the previous June. We had started talking about the idea of starting a family in the near future but were still taking measures to prevent that. That August I started my first year teaching. I was teaching 4th and 5th grade reading in a small country school in Henderson Co. (My 4th and 5th graders that were in my class will start 7th and 8th grade next school year ) The commute was tiring and the lack of job opportunities for Aaron was very stressful. He was waiting tables from like 3-11-and i left home in the mornings about 6:15-6:30. Needless to say we rarely saw each other and I at times felt as if my world was crumbling. One September night, I met a Murray friend (whose family lives in O'boro) for coffee at Starbucks. During the conversation we talked about anything and everything but before we were finished we began discussing babies. She and her husband had been married just a little bit after Aaron and I had. We both expressed our fear of having trouble getting pregnant. Mid October the same friend I had coffee with, called me to tell me she was expecting. I was overjoyed for her and told her it wouldn't be long until we started trying that we were no longer taking birth control. I then began to think and decided that actually i could be pregnant already because i was a few days late. She encouraged me to take a test-so i rushed out and bought one (all while Aaron was at work) and sure enough I was. My friend and I were due within a week apart. (We calculated and figured out that God was already forming our little miracles inside our wombs during our conversation back in September.) There are lots of moments when I am very thankful my life is not recorded on video but when that stick said "pregnant" I would have loved to have had that recorded. I went back and forth between freaking out and rejoicing. Like a mad woman I jumped back in my car and raced to walmart to get more tests (I had to be sure) and just in case I really was I picked up a card for Aaron. The tests all confirmed that i was so I wrote in the "Congratulations on the new baby" card and literally paced the floor until he came home. I remember him coming home and taking forever to empty his pockets-which back then he did every night when he got home (to count his tips) . I told him I picked up this card "just because"-he sat on the chair reading it -looked at me and said- "Are you for real?" (I played several tricks on him before :)) I showed him the stick and I remember him just hugging me as tight as he could.
 |
| The night we told our parents |
Then .. May arrived -Riley Kate was not due until June 17th.. but May was a huge marking point because it meant school was almost over. We had finished testing -so all that was left was field day, water day. rewards day, talent show,etc.. I was looking forward to finishing up and having the next few weeks to rest up before the arrival of our baby. Oh i should say here that sometime between Jan-May I had an ultrasound which revealed that baby girl was breech. So my doctor had informed me that unless she turned that i would be having a dreaded C-section. I had opted to have my doctor try to turn her (as painful as I had heard that was -I thought it would be worth it). Anyway May 27th was the last day of school and boy was I ready... i think that was rewards day...anyway it came and went and we said goodbye to the students by doing a kick line as the busses rolled away. Yes, thats right preggers in a kick line=attractive :) I stayed a little after and packed up my car with a lot of my things so that I wouldn't have to do it the next day (teacher's closing day). On my way home I talked to several people rejoicing that it was my last day of school-including my friend who is a labor and delivery nurse. I had told her about some "symptoms" that had been going on with me earlier that day-and she told me she thought I needed to go to labor and delivery. I had thought my water was broken once before at 29 wks -and had gone up there-and it wasn't. We actually had just gotten the bill and i was determined not to pay an unnecessary visit up there again. So I went to her house... she confirmed that she thought my water was broken..and I needed to go.
Aaron was at work-my friend Annie drove me and dropped me off (so we wouldn't have two cars)-and Aaron met me up there. My mom was trying to make it to see me before they took me back but she was about 7 minutes late (they wouldn't wait for her-apparently its not good to be hanging out with a broken bag of water ??)
And at 6:59pm my precious baby girl took her first breath. She cried and it was the sweetest noise i have ever heard. They held her up for me to see and Aaron quickly got her and brought her to me .. When I laid eyes on her I was in love. She was 5lbs 8oz and 181/2inches long-turns out i had a septum in my uterus which gave her only a little space to grow. Friends and family were all waiting with cameras when we got to our room. Due to her being early we had some feeding issues to work through and she had a touch of jaundice. And while those things seemed so hard at the time (like feeding her around the clock every 21/2 hrs with a special needs feeder and then pumping after that) those days seem so short lived now. The day after Riley Kate was born, Aaron got a a job offer with OPD.
These past two years she has filled our hearts with so much joy-she is spunky but sweet-aggressive but gentle. Its fun to see how uniquely God has made her but how we can pick out various attributes of the two of us in her both physically and in her disposition.
My Top Ten Favorite Things About Riley Kate
10. She loves her "B" (her blanket) and rubs it so sweetly when she is sleepy.
9. She gets slap happy and can't stop laughing when its passed her bedtime
8. She is very sharp and doesn't miss anything.
7. She repeats EVERYTHING
6. She mocks me especially
5. She like routine
4. She is really weird about messes and dirt (overly so)
3. She loves her sleep
2. She loves her baby dolls
1. She is a performer and LOVES being the center of attention
No comments:
Post a Comment