Day 17: {Birthday}
Her actual BIRTH DAY was pretty cray cray. I was induced so that my mom could be there. She was in town from California on my due and had to leave to get home to her job but I still was not progressing much. I remember BEGGING my doctor the week before (which I am sure included tears and maybe even a little foot stomping) to please induce me while my mom was in town. He told me that if I came in for my next appointment and had shown any amount of progress that he would schedule it. Sure enough, at my next appointment, I had progressed enough that he felt it was safe to induce labor. So early on the morning of April 11, 1995 I went to the hospital and they started me on pitosin. After hours of labor and little progression to the point that they were talking about sending me home, things FINALLY started happening. Honestly, I dont remember all the details. I was fairly drugged and I didn't understand a whole lot of what everything meant anyway but my mom and my Grandma were there with me the entire time supporting me, being my advocates and labor coaches. It was scary and it was really painful. Knowing what I know now as a nurse, inducing me was probably not the best idea for a 1st time mom, but I am so grateful that it worked the way it did so that my mom could be there with me. She was born late and I was so tired but I didn't want to sleep and I asked them to keep her with me so I could bathe her, feed her and take care of her while we were in the hospital.
Her actual BIRTH DAY was pretty cray cray. I was induced so that my mom could be there. She was in town from California on my due and had to leave to get home to her job but I still was not progressing much. I remember BEGGING my doctor the week before (which I am sure included tears and maybe even a little foot stomping) to please induce me while my mom was in town. He told me that if I came in for my next appointment and had shown any amount of progress that he would schedule it. Sure enough, at my next appointment, I had progressed enough that he felt it was safe to induce labor. So early on the morning of April 11, 1995 I went to the hospital and they started me on pitosin. After hours of labor and little progression to the point that they were talking about sending me home, things FINALLY started happening. Honestly, I dont remember all the details. I was fairly drugged and I didn't understand a whole lot of what everything meant anyway but my mom and my Grandma were there with me the entire time supporting me, being my advocates and labor coaches. It was scary and it was really painful. Knowing what I know now as a nurse, inducing me was probably not the best idea for a 1st time mom, but I am so grateful that it worked the way it did so that my mom could be there with me. She was born late and I was so tired but I didn't want to sleep and I asked them to keep her with me so I could bathe her, feed her and take care of her while we were in the hospital.
I got pictures up until her 1st birthday. Every year after that on her day I would sing her a quiet Happy Birthday song and often could expect an email or something from her birth dad telling me he was thinking about her too. As she got older I would try to picture in my head what she was looking like, what her favorite things were and what she was doing or getting for her birthday and I always knew they were thinking about me on her birthday too.
This year on her 19th birthday her mom sent me a beautiful message that I want to share: "Amy, April 11, 1995 was the best day of my life….because of you. You gave me the most precious gift a person can give to another, and I could never repay you enough. I can only say thank you. Thank you for being the answer to my most tender, sincere, heart-broken, prayer – to be a mother. Every year that she celebrates another birthday, I think of you – just as I am today."
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