Jan 18 2006
On this very day four years ago…
I pushed a nine pound baby out of my hoo-nanner (how d’ya like that new word I just picked up?). My husband and I worked hard for this child, f****** like bunnies for years to get pregnant. Ultimately, it took more than just doing the nasty. We had to do some other things like him switching to boxers and me staying in bed with my ass in the air for 20 minutes after doing the deed. We had to get my tubes blasted clean and use special lubricant in case my cervical mucus wasn’t doing its job. All these things were pretty easy, though, and after 4+ years of f****** like bunnies, once we made these easy sorts of changes, we got knocked up pretty quickly.
It was Mother’s Day in 2001 and I had taken the three bigger girls to WalMart, because I can think of no better way to spend Mother’s Day than fighting my way through chaos at the local hellhole that is our WalMart. I suddenly got very, very dizzy. I had to sit down. Once the dizziness passed, on a whim, I bought a home pregnancy test. I took it right when I got home - OH- MY - GOD… after nearly 5 years of ‘trying’ we were knocked up! I was on cloud nine. We agreed not to tell anyone for awhile and then I promptly told EVERYONE because, well, I was just bursting at the seams.
The pregnancy started out pretty uneventful. No morning sickness (I never had it). Tired, yes, very tired. Sore boobs this time, though I’d never had them before in previous pregnancies. Everything was fine. And then, somewhere around half way through, I started to have the horrible awful pain - pelvic pain, hip pain. Walking was difficult. I learned that what I had was symphasis pubis dysfuntion, where the hormone relaxin released during pregnancy is released in such quantities that your joints become way too soft and your pubic bone, normally held firmly in place by cartiledge, begins to pull apart. By the end of the pregnancy, I wanted a freaking wheel chair and was in constant pain.
So when labor started late on the 17th of January, I was glad. My doctor had actually scheduled me for induction on the 18th however my body did its job in advance of the forced induction. When we arrived at 7:30AM on the 18th of January, I was already 4 centimeters dialated. Two hours later, I was holding an 8 pound, 15 ounce baby who we called Jadyn Elizabeth.
In celebration of her 4th birthday, I want to share some of my favorite pictures with you. The girl is a fireball, but has the softest core you ever saw. She is feisty and stubborn, and yet somehow delicate, too. Her first year was one of the most hellish things I’ve ever gone through for she was not a happy baby, but we’ve left all that FAR behind us and when we’re stressed out over a temper tantrum, we just think back to those early months and are grateful that temper tantrums are as bad as it gets these days.
My Jadyn… happy birthday, honey. Mommy loves you more than you could possibly know.
Many pictures, in no particular order…
Jadyn’s first bath:
Jadyn at 5 Weeks:
Hugging Bonnie Lolita on her 3rd Birthday:
Ah, yes…. that looks familiar.
Blue, blue eyes sparkling in the sun…
Yum, spaghetti (we don’t need no stinkin’ FORK)
Plum tuckered out (bouncing is hard, hard work):
One year ago today:
Man, is she CUTE or what?
What a little beauty:
The long hair that was our battleground:
I think this one is portentous of her college years:
Where’d my baby go? I think I’m going to cry now.
