Happy Birthday TO ME!!!!!

Today has been WAY better than I expected. Because, well, I expected nothing, and received much.

The Husband woke me up with breakfast (he went into work late so he could make me breakfast), a wonderful omelet, bagel with nutella, fruit, and bacon. Oh and of course coffee and a large Mimosa. Yes please.

(I would never drink a Mimosa at 7:45am, not me!)

He had arranged to take The Child over to a friends for the day and said that my birthday surprise would be arriving around 9am. Off they went, and I enjoyed a quiet breakfast and then my Mimosa or two in the garden.

The birthday surprise just showed up... two wonderful ladies that are going to clean scrub scour spic & span my entire house. Sigh. Do you know how wonderful of a gift that is? Some women are 'cleaning inspired'. I am not one of those women, it is a serious chore for me. I remember when I was young, my mom would often lament how all she wanted for her birthday, or Mother's Day, or any special day, was a clean house. I didn't really understand it then, but now, as a Mother myself, I completely get it. Right now, I am so incredible grateful to The Husband for being so wonderful to me. I was not pouting all day yesterday because I thought he forgot.

I also received a very special email from my Mom, a recollection of my birth story. I was waiting for her permission to post it on my blog, but I can't wait any longer. Enjoy!

Skyla Jo Rebecca Poulette/Hall- Helfrick-Bradley

Written by: Gloria

"...I thought for your birthday I would take you back to the day of your birth and recap what it was like for me.

I can’t remember exactly the day your due date was predicted, but I do remember being excited that it was going to be somewhere around my birthday, and naturally hoping it would be on the same day. Yet my birthday came and went, with a surprise that was not expected at all. It was from that day on that I realized I was on my own with you as your birth dad decided it was a good day to disappear. That week was pretty much a blur, and as I should have been enjoying the “nesting’ time before you came, instead I found myself smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day and frantically trying to figure out what went wrong with my so called marriage. My mom and dad though were incredible. My mom put up with my constant questioning and worry every day, and was the best listener and most patient person in the world. And as much as she wanted to really give a piece of her mind as to what she really thought about Brad taking off, she kept her peace and kept her focus on the fact that I was about to give birth. She knew what was ahead; me on the other hand, I didn’t have a clue.

June 25^th 1981 – Thursday

6am - I awoke to go to the bathroom and got up from my waterbed. Yes, a waterbed…I pretty much had to rock myself out of bed every morning…and felt like a beached whale. As soon as I walked to the bathroom, my water broke. I called to my mom who had been staying with me, and she called the hospital right away. I didn’t understand why she was calling the hospital, as I didn’t think that I would be having you yet just because my water broke. It didn’t follow along with all the prenatal classes I went too as I was told labor was supposed to happen first. But my mom reassured me that we would be going to the hospital that day and to get myself ready. In the meantime she got my dad going as well, he was the driver. He was incredibly calm, almost too much so. He took a long time getting ready, and then slowly made his way to the car. Even though he was driving, he was also driving my mom crazy as she kept on telling him to hurry up. I think he was trying to overcompensate because my mom was pretty intense and he wanted to be calm on my account. I also was very calm and still didn’t see the need to go to the hospital, but wasn’t about to go against my mom.

So off we went. We arrived around 9am. They checked me in and took me to the labor room. I still hadn’t started labor and was getting restless, so I decided to join my Dad out in the waiting room. By this time Sharon had arrived as well. I was still kinda stunned at everything that was going on and still not sure if I was going to have you that day. I asked Dad for a smoke, he was nervous by that point, and gave me two. So there we were all sitting in the waiting room smoking, when all of a sudden the contractions started. They came on really fast, so much so that I had a hard time walking back to the labor room. Sharon, wasn’t sure she was going to be allowed to come into the labor room with me, I thought they were only going to allow my mom to come in. But she was thrilled when the nurse came out and told her to scrub up and come in as well.

I had a lot of back labor, and my energy was a bit zapped due to my walk to the waiting room, and having a smoke didn’t help either. They decided to give me a shot of Demerol.

The next couple hours were so peaceful. Sharon and Grandma kept taking turns rubbing my back. Lorraine, my cousin also came in for a short time to give them a break. After about 4 hours of labor the Demerol wore off and I wasn’t quite prepared for the pain. I wanted more drugs, but was too close to delivery, so they just humored me by giving me “laughing” gas to take the edge off.

At around 5pm they said I was fully dilated and took me into the delivery room. Only Sharon and my mom were allowed to come with me. As soon as I got there, my urge to “push” and my contractions subsided. It was so funny as I remember the doctor sitting in the corner with his arms crossed waiting. I started to get antsy and worried that they would send me home if I didn’t start pushing. So I asked him “are you going to send me home?” I think he laughed, and replied, “no, you’re going to have the baby tonight”, which was a relief to hear….

6pm - Sure enough you came out, 7lbs 11oz. Your little hand reached up and grabbed onto the forceps (yes, they used those back then). They placed you on my tummy for a few minutes then whisked you away to get you all cleaned up. When they brought you to me I couldn’t believe how beautiful you were. Partly because you were a dry birth. Your skin was so soft and smooth and glowy. So precious. And the hair…so cute, it stood straight up.

From that point on everything seemed to work like clockwork. You were an easy baby and seemed to have an ability to ease my worry. At times it almost seemed like you knew how to help me care for you. God knew in creating you that you would be strong, and sensitive. You had a way about you that made me feel like you understood some of the tragedy that had happened and I felt that you and I could weather any storm as long as we weathered it together.

So there you have it…a full recount to the best of my ablity and memory…Even though most of it you know and we’ve shared I thought it would be good to have it in writing."

Oh, and I just discovered a wonderful new bloggity-blog friend, and surprise surprise, its her birthday today TOO! How fun! Happy Birthday Kimber!!!