Happy birthday, Violet!

This is the conversation that Scott told me he and Milo had last night:

Scott: Tomorrow is Violet's birthday. She is going to be one year old!

Milo: Her birthday is tomorrow? She will be one we can call her beautiful. She's so beautiful!

Happy, happy birthday my sweet, sweet baby girl. So far, she's celebrated by sleeping all night last night, nursing a good long time this morning, and eating "cra-kah"s to her heart's content.

This past year seems like a blink -- time had flown by faster than I ever anticipated. Last year, right about this time we were getting ready to go grocery shopping for the week. I had been having contractions every five minutes for the entire week, but wasn't making any progress with dilation. I discussed with Dr. Z that I wasn't ready to be induced because I was hopeful that by going into labor on my own I would be able to avoid a difficult epidural and minimize the amount of medication in my system so that I could have a better shot of breastfeeding.

Scott, Milo and I headed into town. We walked through Menard's looking for something that I can't remember now. I could feel the contractions getting a little more ouch-y, but they weren't exactly painful. And I carried Milo through half of the store. On to Target for groceries! Scott and Milo high-tailed it to look at Halloween decorations while I went to the restroom. I noticed bloody show and started to think that today just might be the day that we get to meet you! I didn't feel that birth was eminent, but also knew that we were dangerously low on food, so I continued shopping. After about fifteen minutes, Scott and Milo came upon me in the frozen food section, breathing through a stronger contraction. I told Scott, "You'd better call Mike to watch Milo, we're going to have a baby today!" He blinked and asked me if I was sure, I said "Yep!' and he got on the phone to Mike and Corey right away. Grandma Dianne and Grandpa Richard were supposed to have watched Milo, but they decided they needed a weekend away after Matt and Sasha's wedding, so they had driven down to Branson, MO to visit some of their "cruise friends".

I decided that we had enough time to get home and unload the groceries, which we did. We loaded back up and drove to the Blair's Ferry Walmart parking lot to meet Aunt Corey, who was headed back to Mount Vernon for a football game. Scott had asked me if I'd rather stay at home until the game was done, but I didn't think we'd make it that long. I was right!

We got to the hospital about 1:15 or so, checked in and nurse Jenny said I was about 2cm, but the bag of water was bulging. The monitor said I was contracting every 90 seconds or so. She said I needed to walk the halls for about an hour because they couldn't admit me until I was 4cm. I walked for about 45 minutes and I was starting to get really uncomfortable. Dr. M (our pediatrician) ran into us, but he stopped to say "Hi!" as I was in the middle of a contraction, so he wished us well and said he was excited to meet our new little one! Nurse Jenny checked me again and said I was at 4cm, so I was allowed to be admitted. I laughed and said, "If you weren't going to admit me, I wasn't going any farther than the parking garage because we will be having this baby today!"

I got all settled into a room and Dr. JKO came along to check us out. He disagreed with Nurse Jenny and said I was only at 2cm, but he wasn't going to discharge me. He broke my water and it was meconium stained, so I wasn't going be able to get too far away from the bed this time, either. After about an hour, Scott's favorite nurse Ann and her student came in to take over the labor/delivery part. We asked nurse Jenny to take pictures, and she was glad to do so.

Labor went very quickly. I went from the doc's 2cm to complete in about 3 hours. A couple of pushes and a leg cramp later, Violet came whooshing out! She was gorgeous! She took to nursing as soon as I was able to try (about 15 minutes after birth).

So, that is the story of Miss Violet's beginning. It was as easy as she has been this year -- I couldn't as for a more wonderful daughter. Her gentle spirit and sweet disposition make loving her oh so easy. She's been the healthiest, happiest, most easily contented child I have ever known and Milo, Scott and I adore her. She thinks her big brother is the bee's knees and is quick to follow him wherever he goes.

Today Violet is one and she IS beautiful!