My Life as Mommy: three

My sweet Haven Grace turned three years old on August 20th.

In honor of my little princess I thought I would tell her birth story for the first time.

August 7th, 2008, was my last day of a long, grueling year in cosmetology school.

Cosmetology school is tough for everybody that goes through it. It is extremely time consuming, very dramatic, and mentally AND physically tough. I'd like to think for me it was a lot more physically tough than it was for most girls as I was pregnant for all but 3 months of it. By the end of school, every single second of it was a struggle. I was 8 months pregnant. I didn't want to go in the morning, could barely make it until lunch, and coming back after lunch made me want to cry. (Those hour long lunch breaks to maid-rite may have contributed to the 50 pounds I gained...) But I did it, I graduated in one year to the day!

Me clocking out at cosmetology school for the last time.

13 days before I delivered.

Twelve days later on August 19th I attended a Jazzercise class with my mom and a couple other family members and I remember it being particularly bouncy. I had to hold the bottom of my stomach because it felt like it was just going to drop out at any second.

That night I went to sleep, got up around 1 a.m. for a potty break, got back in bed and splash!! - my water broke. I remember being shocked and not wanting to wake Luke up. But I did, and his reaction was priceless. He woke up with a start because at the time he was in police academy and he thought he had slept through his alarm, but no, it was "just" me waking him because my water broke. It was almost like he settled down when he realized he wasn't in trouble. But then I think it hit him because he got up and helped me up to stand in the bath tub where I continued to leak (sorry, tmi). He then packed my hospital bag that hadn't been packed yet while I shouted out things for him to remember.

We finally got to the hospital and checked in within another hour. I was given pitocin and my contractions slowly got stronger, but nothing I couldn't handle. After a little while they were strong enough that I couldn't sleep, so I was given a shot of some wonder drug that was supposedly like "drinking three margaritas." That really took the edge off and I was able to sleep for a good hour or so until the medicine wore off. They gave me a little more of that and then came time for my epidural. After my epidural I was feelin' good. No more contractions. I was sitting up, talking and laughing. The nurse came in and checked my cervix and I was fully dilated in no time.

We had to quickly call my family because only my mother-in-law was there at that point. I still don't know what was wrong with me - I am not one to keep secrets, but for some reason we didn't call anybody until I was almost ready to push. So our family hurried down to the hospital while I started to push. When my mom arrived they allowed her to run in and hug me. I had told her that she could stay in to watch but chickened out at the last second and banished her from the room. (Don't feel too bad for her - I made it up to her She was in the room when I delivered Parker.) After a total of 45 minutes pushing, out came Haven Grace weighing 8 pounds.