HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAN!!

Ok....I'm 2 days late, sorry! Eileen's 7th birthday was Saturday and unfortunately got a bit overlooked because of the party. But not entirely, after all she had a LOT of people at her party too! ;o)

Michelle asked me NOT to have anything written on her graduation cake because she wanted it to be Eileen's cake too. We all sang Eileen happy birthday and quite a few people at the party ended up forking over some dough to her that normally wouldn't have. (a few people brought her gifts also) Michelle and her friends were great to Eileen and made sure she knew that THEY knew it was her special day too. One of Michelle's friends who is a BIG kid hoisted her up onto his shoulders so she could be the tallest person at the party. I don't know how he could keep her up there so long and still have a working back, but he did. She was tickled.

Now onto Eileen's birth story.
Her stats...

Eileen Jane
July 16, 1998
3:45pm
8lbs 7oz

Since coming up with the idea of writing out birth stories on their birthdays this year I've been a bit bugged by the thought of writing Eileen's birth story. As hard as I've tried since March to think of it, I don't recall a lot of details of her pregnancy and birth. I guess that could be construed as a good thing and that things were perfectly boring and normal.

At my first prenatal appointment we talked about Jake's birth (story coming in a few weeks) and how it wasn't a great experience. How we'd do things differently and what to avoid so it wouldn't happen again. Since I had Gestational diabetes with the last 2 pregnanccies, I was following the diet and treated as though I had GD from the beginning. We never did do any of the glucose tolerance testing...lucky me! My blood pressure wasn't too much a problem until the last few weeks. I did keep track of it at home and restricted myself when it seemed to be climbing. I also made sure I laid on my left side a few times a day.

The induction was scheduled for my due date. We arrived a while after they said to because I knew I'd have to wait through shift change and report before they'd even talk to me. They finally hooked me up around 9am and the pitocin was slowly started. I spent a lot of time in the rocking chair and walking around the room. Around 2 they came in to break my water and it did the trick. I went from 2cm to 4 in about an hour. At 3:15 I asked for some pain medication. We had talked about staying away from the Demerol and going with Stadol instead. I was nervous about having it since the demerol messed up my labor with Jake. I got the shot and started feeling woozy, like a really strong drink had just hit me all at once. Almost as soon as I felt it starting to hit I also started feeling pressure. They broke everything down and got ready in record time. I then started pushing and she was born in 2 pushes. Tom cut the cord.

He brought her over to me to see and I didn't trust myself to hold her because of how groggy I felt. I heard a nurse in the background agree that I looked a bit drunk still. Tom helped me give her a snuggle, a kiss and examine her to be sure everything was as it should be. Then I merrily went off into a post delivery snooze being wrapped in my nice warm heated blankets to ward off the shakes.