Happy Birthday Emily!

For a mom, each of your child's birthday's bring a whole host of memories along with it. You seem to remember strange things though.... and each child is different.

This morning, Shawn and I were reminiscing about 8 years ago today, when Emily was born. He remembers watching the Howie Mandell Show in the hospital room. The first and only time he had seen the show.... and I remember having small, irritating, sometimes strong, contractions while he was watching television.

Emily was induced. I had pneumonia for two weeks prior and I had to have weighed about a million pounds and I was sooooo ready to have her. I was excited to be induced, but nervous about the pain! I remember having had a conversation with my doctor a few weeks prior. I told him that I didn't have any drugs with the other kids, did it all natural. But, that was years ago, I was older now, it had been 7 years since I had a child, and didn't care about being tough, I wanted all the drugs possible!

We also at that time talked about what this baby was. I already had three daughters so I promptly and matter of factly told the doctor that it had BETTER be a boy. And if for some reason it wasn't a boy, I'd take a girl with red curly hair. He said "I'll do what I can"... and chuckled.

We had an ultrasound when I was pregnant and they told us that it was an 80% chance that it was a girl. Shawn saw the picture of the ultrasound and named her Emily. I fought it...thinking we still had a 20% chance it was a boy. Of course, the ultrasound tech most likely just said 80% because she knew we had 3 girls at home already.

So, the morning of the delivery, typical of me, I did my hair and makeup and got ready to be induced. I even put on lipstick. We started early, around 8am, and it took a while to get going. I was only in labor for a short time- a couple hours - before the pains got stronger. I was beginning to get quite uncomfortable and the doc informed me that shortly after 11 or so I could have the intrathecal (I am pretty sure I slaughtered the spelling of that word). He gave me a shot in my back and told me that it would only last 3-4 hours so he'd check on me in a while and make sure I was doing okay. I knew that as soon as I dilated to 5, the baby would be there in a matter of minutes and I told him that. He was unsure (I had a different doctor for the other three girls) and he decided he'd go home and come back and check on me later. I told him not to go too far as it wouldn't be long. He smiled and "knew better".

Let me tell you.... that shot worked. I was relaxed and comfortable... laughing... having a good old time. The nurse came in and checked me shortly after 11:30 and said "do you feel any pressure?" I said...oh not a lot ...maybe some. The baby was crowning and she needed to get the doc in there right away. I almost chuckled. This delivery was so much different than any of the other three.

It was 12:04pm when the baby was born. The first words were "It's a Girl" and the second sentence was... "oh my gosh...she has red hair, and I think it's curly!".

So, that's the story of our Little Red M. She has been a bundle of joy in our lives. We have completely enjoyed being given the chance to be her parents. She has so much love and so much joy and energy. Her personality is fun and she never has to be entertained...

At age 8 her favorite things are her video camera and her cd player. She wants to be a Rock Star when she grows up or a movie star on the Disney Channel. She could totally do it! She loves to dance and sing and make up songs. She loves crafts and anything Chinese.

Her aunt gave her a Chinese dress from Chinatown a couple of years ago and when her sister went to China last year, she brought back a few real Chinese things. So, her birthday party this year was going to be a Chinese party.... except that there is terrible ice storm now and a Blizzard on it's way.... so China will have to wait until a later date. We will be iced and snowed in today with enough chinese food and birthday cake to last us days...possibly even weeks. :)

Happy Birthday Rock Star! I love you!