Happy Birthday Amy!

My sweet, sweet Amy turns 7 today! 7?!?!? Where has the time gone? How could she possibly 7?

I love my Amy, my wonderful "middle child". She is growing to be such a neat young lady. She is so creative, so gifted in drawing and creating. And while she might be timid in social settings she is not afraid to tackle many of the things that come her way. She might not want to initially do something but 9 times out of 10 she'll step up and try it anyway; whether it be new foods, sports, or school work .... I love that about her!

Here is the story of her arrival as I shared with my online group of mommy friends:

Here are the stats:
IT"S A GIRL!
Amy Lynn Albert
born 11:58 am, October 16, 2002
8lbs 5oz
20.5 inches

....Amy is just too sweet and precious for words. I kinda was hoping for a boy but now that she's here I am sooooooooo happy to have two girls. The labor was so fast. The doctor was telling me to push and I kept telling her I wasn't ready to have a baby yet, that I was supposed to have it later in the afternoon. She is still laughing at me.....

Here's the story in a nutshell: We got to the hospital at 7, they had me checked in, water broken and starting IV's and all that by 7:30. I sent David on his merry way to go get a bite of breakfast for himself and mail some stuff. I was at 4cm when I checked in and they said I could have my epidural whenever I wanted but I hadn't had any "real" contractions yet so I felt silly asking for it and I waited, even though I had been warned that pitocin contractions are of a different breed. Around 9:15 or so the contractions had started. The first few weren't bad but oh my goodness - did they ever get bad fast. By the time they were giving me the epidural I was about to cry, shaking and beyond a place of pain I have ever known before. It took them forever to do the epidural, it was NOT fun and I WON'T go into detail. Suffice it to say, David later confessed, he was about to start crying at the sight of it all. But the epidural soon went to work and all was better. I called a few people, laid down to nap while I could and my nurse and doctor headed out to lunch. A little while later, another nurse came in to adjust the baby's heart rate monitor (Amy kept moving around and they kept losing her heart rate) and I told the nurse I kind of felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. She said my regular nurse would be back in 15 minutes and she'd let her do the catheter (sp?) but if I really felt a strong urge to "push" to let her know. I laid back down and closed my eyes. When my nurse came in I told her about feeling pressure and said, it's getting stronger and it seems to come and go like a contraction. Her eyes got kinda big, she checked me and said I was ready to go. I was barely awake and kept saying "What?!?" In walks my doc to check me and the nurse tells her I am ready. They are trying to rouse David who was also napping and then she tells me we're going to push. I was still in such shock. I told her "I'm not ready, I don't have a boy name picked..." One push and the head was there. Two more and the head was out and then one more and all of her was out. My nurse said it took all of 14 minutes from when she checked me until when Amy was all the way out. 14 minutes!!!!! That is still so unreal to me!!!! I barely tore this time (only 2 degree), I feel GREAT and Amy is doing super so far with nursing and sleeping.