My Happy Birthday Girl!

Can it be true? Can I really have a 5 year old? I guess it's true (at least that's what she keeps telling me.)

So here is her birth story: 

"Once upon a time . . . my husband and I found out I was pregnant. It was a complete surprise. We weren't trying at all and had been married all most three years. 

We were excited and nervous.

This was the first grand baby on both sides, so lots of excitement and spoiling from the extended family.

Christmas Eve I felt her drop. There was so much pressure, I was incredibly uncomfortable (even more then before although I could finally breath for the first time in months), and I started having contractions. I found out shortly after that they were not braxton hicks but pre-labor contractions. 

I wasn't due until January 30th, so at my first doctors appointment after all this started, my doctor confirmed that it could be anytime. She was very low and ready. This of course meant we had to hurry and get the last things ready. I hadn't had a single baby shower yet, so I didn't have much more then a crib and carseat and a few clothes. 

Well I spent the next few weeks having constant contractions; some very strong contractions and many mild ones. Finally on January 20th at about 4:30 in the morning, I woke up feeling awful and went to the bathroom. When I came back to bed, I still felt horribly uncomfortable. Shortly after I had a strong contraction. At that point I started feeling wetness. As I ran to the bathroom, I was confident that my water had just broke. 

Well off to the hospital we went and sure enough my water had broke. In all the birth classes we were told it rarely happens and we don't really need to worry about it. Well I sure wish they would have told me that the pain tends to be much more intense after your water breaks. Wow did it go from mild to extreme pain in about 5 minutes. 

Well at about 5:30 at night I was finally able to start pushing. At 7:54 she was finally born. Yes if you did the math, I pushed for about 2.5 hours. She was not facing down but to the side and I couldn't get her pushed out very far. Her shoulders couldn't get past my hips. She was crowning for half that time at least. You can imagine that the recovery was very long for me. 

Well here we are 5 years later with a happy and healthy girl. She loves being a princess and a daddy's girl. There is a real desire in her to learn and she is full of questions. She is an awesome big sister and a good helper to me.

We went to the fabric store and picked out the fabric for her birthday dress a few weeks ago. She also picked out the pattern.

For her 5th birthday we decided she could get her ears pierced. She did awesome. Just a few tears. She picked out 4 additional pairs of earrings to wear when her 6 weeks were up.

All done crying and very excited. (I'm so glad she picked out the cheapest pair of studs on her own. Boy do they get expensive for only wearing them for 6 weeks.)