Happy 3rd Birthday Lulu!!

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Three years ago today Lulu was born!! Thank you Jesus for the blessing she is!! I was 10 days over due with her at that point. I felt like I was going to be pregnant forever. My labor started the evening before while we were leaving a restaurant that we had eaten dinner at. For dinner I ordered "whatever, just make it SPICY", so they brought me the spiciest hot sauce they had. We were done with our dinner and while we were walking out to our car I had my first contraction. This was at 7pm Monday, April 16th 2007. After our dinner Mark and I went for a drive while we were timing the contractions. After an hour of driving we went home and got ready for bed. I still wasn't sure if I was actually in labor, even though my contractions were like 8 min. apart and not stopping. It didn't hurt at all so in my mind I wasn't in labor......first time mom...LOL. As we were lying in bed I asked Mark to start tracking my contractions to see how far apart they were. My contractions at that point were about 3-4 min apart and not stopping. I still felt great and I actually fell asleep. Mark was so funny because he said to me "Kimmy, I don't know what to do, according to my notes your should be having this baby right now." So we tried to get some sleep and at this point it was about midnight. At 3am I woke up and noticed stronger contractions (but they still didn't hurt). In my mind if there was no pain, how in the world was I even close to having a baby? Actually I was closer then I knew. I called my midwife around 4am to tell her all that was and had been going on. Since I was a first time mom she thought I had a while too. So she told me to call back when things had changed and she reassured me I was actually in labor.....I was still in denial so hearing this was good. I called my mom to tell her not to go to work and to come over, this was about 5:30am. I decided to take a shower and get ready for the long "labor" ahead of me. Little did I know but I was actually getting close to transition at this point and most of my "labor" was almost done. Once I got out of the shower I started drying my hair and ate some breakfast that Mark made me. Then I lost the breakfast (sorry TMI) and I had a whopper of a contraction. Now I finally knew what everyone was talking about.....THIS HURTS!! I told my mom and Mark that I didn't want to do this anymore. At this point my poor mother was freaking out inside but keeping her cool on the outside. Later she told me how she was really thinking and preparing herself to catch the baby. So Mark at this point called our midwife back and said that we should "probably" meet her at the birth center. And my mom was thinking "PROBABLY!!!!!! We should have been there hours ago!!!!" so our midwife said she would meet us there in 45min....this was at 6am, we only live about 6min from the birth center. My poor mom......she was the only one thinking logically at this point. Both Mark and I were still a bit in denial and not thinking clearly. My mom wanted to jump in the car right then and go but we still had 45min until the midwife would get there, what's the rush?...LOL. So after more strong contractions we finally piled in the vehicles and headed to the birth center. My mom was in her car behind us anticipating Mark pulling over to deliver our baby on the side of the road. I honestly still thought I has hours and hours of labor ahead of me. Oh, by the way my mom's a trained doula.....she knew what she was seeing and she was seeing a baby being born any minute. Well, we made it to the birth center, this was at 7am. I asked to have the tub filled because I wanted into that nice warm water. Not too much longer I was in the tub and started pushing! My midwife was a bit surprised but when she examined me she had me reach down and feel Lulu's head for the first time. WOW!!! We were all so shocked that her head was right there. I will never forget that feeling. A few more pushes and she was out at 7:59am. Mark announced that "It's a girl.". We were all so excited. We didn't know what we were having. Lulu was a total surprise and such a blessing for us. Later that day we went home and rested. Lulu's birth was picture perfect and I truly enjoyed it.

Lulu, you are a gift from God. He has formed you and made you so incredibly special. I'm so excited to see what the Lord's plans are for your life. But no rush! I love you, your daddy loves you and please know that God loves you even more! Happy Birthday. Love Mommy ♥