What makes me smile...

Today what makes me smile is thinking of Tate and the person she is becoming. She turned nine on the 7th and had her birthday party last Saturday with five good friends and her sister. It was a movie party highlighted by a trip to the theater to see Ramona and Beezus based on the Beverly Cleary books. Cute movie! Tate said the two hours felt like fifteen minutes. While the girls teared up when Ramona's beloved cat died, I teared up watching the relationship between Ramona and her Dad. Sweet! I am so thankful Scott is not only a "provider Dad" but a Dad who loves to be with his kids and adores the people they are. There is very little he will not do for them...one thing being as of late dancing to the new Wii game Tate got for her birthday. She doesn't realize it but his not dancing is a good thing even though I would love a good chuckle. She requested a shell birthday cake this year. It is always interesting to see what cake she will want. I've done jewelry boxes, castles, and now a shell. I actually bought the pan for this one because I had no idea how to create the ridges of a shell. It ridges ended up being covered up by the icing so I just outlined the details in chocolate icing. After the movie, the girls decorated small pocketbooks Tate had picked out at AC Moore with puffy paint, buttons, and tye dye ribbon. I think fun was had by all.

Her actual birthday was spent going to the first soccer practices of the season. It was blazing hot outside, but Dane held up well being shuttled around. Scott and I gave her the skateboard she asked for and Paige gave her the Bop It game she fell in love with at Sophie's party. She picked Red Robin for dinner. This was our first time going out with Dane. He slept through the whole thing but woke up at the end. I gave him a bottle before leaving and he proceeded to projectile spit up on the booth. My shorts got soaked too. The girls said it was because his bottle was cold. Tate is the official bottle warmer of the house, so maybe she is right. After dinner, Scott took Dane home and the girls and I went to Justice for Tate to spend some birthday money. After shopping, we stopped for ice cream and made it home in time for Tate to show Scott her skateboard. It was a great family day!

In the last few weeks Tate has changed before my eyes. She has recently developed her own style. Just a few months ago I could pick out her clothes because she just didn't care much what she wore. Now she enjoys picking it out and asks me if things match or if they look good. It's fun to see her come into her own. Scott brought home a coupon to Justice (a tween clothing store) and I promised her that we could go and pick out an outfit for her party. We had so much fun. She picked out three outfits and we went into the dressing room (first time for us...I always pick out her clothes and bring them home). She tried each one on, twirled, stuck her hip out, pulled her chin down and posed. I loved it! She got a pink and black plaid dress with tiered ruffles on the bottom. She also got some 80s fingerless gloves. What a sight. She has since gone shopping with her Nana and asked for money to go back to Justice...a fashionista has emerged.

My final Tate story to commerate her birthday happened the morning the girls came to meet Dane for the first time. Before they arrived someone (can't remember who) asked me who was going to hold Dane first. My stomach sank. I had planned for so much before Dane came in order for the girls to feel included but I had not thought of this. My mind sprang into action but I could think of no way to solve the problem. I gave up and decided that I would just put the baby between them on both their laps. The girls arrived and it was time for the big hold. I think my Mom or Dad said, "Who is going to hold him first?" I was about to dive into my explanation when Tate said, "Paige, you can hold him. I got to hold you first." That comment brought me to tears...so simple but loaded with memories and kindness. That is how I think most of Tate. I learned to be a mom with Tate. I got to experience all the "firsts" with Tate. We will always have that special something. And even this weekend, she went to spend the weekend with Granny B. She was so excited, but she always gets weepy when it is time to leave me or her house. She loves home. Even though I want her to experience so many new things that will take her away from the safety of  home, my heart swells when that unconditional love comes to the surface. She'll always be my Taterbug!

Dane Michael is here!

On July 20, 2010 at 12:42 AM, Dane joined us...finally! Below is his birth story.

   On Monday July 19th, I had my 40 week appointment with Dr. Collins. The week before she had sent me home with inconsistent contractions, so I was a little worried that she would have me wait an extra week to make any plans for inducing. Thank goodness I was wrong. Luckily I had started to thin out and was dilated between 3 and 4cm, so the irregular contractions were now called "early labor" and after hearing me talk about the woes of no sleep and being uncomfortable, she asked me if I wanted to head over to the hospital now. Even though it is what I wanted, I was in shock and asked her if not now what would be our plan. She said that I would likely not get into the hospital for an induction until Thursday, Friday or Monday. I could not imagine waiting that long, so I accepted her invitation to head over to the hospital after going home to get my bags, leave notes for my Dad and the girls, and meet Scott so we could drive over in the same car. We were actually going to have a baby. I was the last of the four women (due within the same two weeks) on my street to have their baby.

   We gathered our things, left instructions for the girls, sent out an email and jumped back in the car. Yes, I drove. Ha! Control freak me needed to be in charge of something before the events of the day started. When we arrived at the hospital at around 2pm time seemed to stop and crawl by. The following hours became the hours of Eileen, the pro-natural nurse. Luckily, after having two babies I knew that the shift changes around 7pm so she would not be the nurse to help me deliver the baby...and thank my lucky stars I only had to deal with her for a few hours. From five to seven o'clock this woman had me walking for at least two of those hours and not one other pregnant woman was in the halls pushing an IV pole in a hospital gown. What a sight I was. I did not complain because it did keep me busy and passed the time. She was doing everything she could think of to keep me from having pitocin and especially the epidural she claimed may halt my labor. I quickly found out her daughter had recently birthed a 10 pound baby without meds.

   Needless to say, I swear an angel with light all around her appeared when the shift changed and Cindy, the night nurse, walked in the room having gotten the low down from Eileen about my afternoon. Within minutes of her arrival, Dr. Clark broke my water and soon after pitocin was running through my veins stabilizing my contractions. Cindy told me that the head anesthesiologist was on duty who gave the best epidurals. Soon the contractions were strong enough that I requested his services and while I did have a contraction while he was working within millimeters of my spinal cord, the procedure went fine. The only downfall was that we had to turn off the TV during the last ten minutes of The Bachelorette so I didn't get to see the end. Ha! I was so glad to get that over with. I swear I had more anxiety about the epidural than having the baby.

   The epidural always seems to speed my labor up, so the contractions started coming much faster. This would have been OK, but I had what the nurse called a hot spot, an area where the epidural did not take, so there was this searing pain on my right hip each time I had a contraction. She put me on my side and let gravity move the medicine down and thankfully that worked after thirty minutes or so. The final hurdle was my blood pressure issue. I have low blood pressure and the epidural can make your blood pressure go even lower. I told the nurse and anesthesiologist that I had to have two shots of adrenaline during Paige's birth because my blood pressure got dangerously low. Thank goodness this got everyone prepared because it happened again this time. At this point my mom was watching the monitors because I started to feel clammy and light headed. Mom pointed and the nurse quickly put the meds in my IV. My blood pressure had dropped to 66 over 30. Wowsers! After that I was fine. No more BP issues. Soon I was ready to push.

   After having two babies at 4 in the afternoon, it was weird having one right after midnight. As we waited for Dr. Collins to arrive, I told the nurse I had two babies while Oprah was on the TV and now I felt like Jimmy Kimmel was seeing way too much of me on the TV screen. Weird the things you remember from having babies. Dr. Collins arrived once again in her protective garb. She also delivered Tate and I remember being a little freaked out because she looked like she was going into battle with a splatter mask and gown over her scrubs. Dr. Littleton delivered Paige and he was in his scrubs and spider man cap. Very different docs for sure but I like both.

   It took around thirty minutes for Dane to join us. The big difference with him was that the contractions had big gaps between them. With the girls I felt like I was pushing the whole time. With Dane I had these breaks where we waited for another contraction to come. He arrived wiggling his head full of dark hair. They placed him on my chest and I just marveled that he was inside of me moments before. Scott says I have gotten the same look on my face at that moment with each child. I said it is a moment of amazement and relief. I was so excited that he was safe and healthy. Scott cut his umbilical cord and they did the first exam and bath right in the room with us. It was a great experience. I would rank it as the second best delivery with Tate's being the easiest. So, today he is two weeks old and life if different but wonderful. I'll update soon on life with his sisters.