Tye and Rachel

Yesterday was Tye's 6th birthday.  What a blessing he is!  He was beyond excited, and the fact that yesterday was also Groundhog's Day, AND the 100th day of school, AND the 1st Annual Freddy the Falcon (our mascot) Day left Tye just plain pooped last night!  He got several phone calls and lots of cards and some money in the mail, so he was thinking things were pretty great.  He reminded several people today that he was "still six" and I am guessing he was hoping to ride the birthday train into another day!  I can hardly believe he is 6!  The day was much better for me than the day before...you can read about that on my other blog Memories of 2004 and see that the day before was a bit rough on me.  Aside from a brief moment from Tye when he suddenly started wimpering about missing Daddy, the day was great.  He chose Pagliai's for his b-day supper and they even sang to him!

Today is a break before the big day tomorrow when I officially am the mother to a teenager! Whew!  I have so many wonderful memories of becoming a mom.  I worked all day on Feb. 3, 1997 (preschool teacher) and decided around noon I thought maybe, just maybe, my water might be leaking.  I wasn't due until Feb. 12.  The doc wanted to see me right after school because I had been dialated at my appt. early the week before.  Tim worked in the meat dept. at Hy-Vee, and we had tried to figure out a way to be discreet if I called in to the store to talk to him at an odd time.  Needless to say, me calling in the early afternoon sent up red flags for all our excited co-workers (I had previously worked there too before teaching), and there was no disguising anything when Tim took the call and then left work!  We went to the appt. and still we were both in denial.  I went back and she checked me, and I was between a 4 and a 5. Huh? This wasn't what I was expecting for labor (again, don't hate me if your labor wasn't like this).  I laugh now...she told me to go straight over to the hospital.  I asked...but what will you do if I don't go into labor?  I was so paranoid of being stuck there in labor for like 18 hours or something, and I REALLY didn't want to be induced.  She said...you are having this baby tonight, no matter what because you are too far progressed.  I was in shock.  This wasn't anything I imagined.  I came out of the exam room and into the waiting room and told Tim we needed to go to the hospital.  I can still see the look on his face!  I think he quit breathing for a little bit!  He was so nervous.  He would always say that he was really worried about holding the baby, and if it was a girl, he wouldn't know even what to do (very funny in hindsight, considering he now has 4 daughters).  He never hoped for a boy, or at least never said so.  Not to say he wouldn't have maybe loved to have a son, but all through my pregnancy he just hoped the baby would be healthy.  We went on to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors.  My mom was with us, and I will forever be thankful that I could share this with her (she was an OB nurse).  I was having contractions but I couldn't feel them.  I was loving that!  They kept pointing them out on the monitor, and I was thinking, are you serious?  Finally around 5pm or so, I was nearly at a 5 (no going back) so the doc broke my water.  The next hour was still spent watching contractions on the monitor.  I was hoping I could sail right on to a 10 just like this!  Finally around 7 I could feel some serious cramping, and I remember thinking that we never discussed at lamaze that labor would feel like menstral cramps.  I mean, it sounds logical and obvious, but I felt like I was back in high school with the really bad cramps that I hadn't had for years!  The nurses were a buzz about the fact that it was supposed to snow that night, but as far as we knew, it was a clear as could be.  Around 9pm, things started feeling a little more serious, and around this time we noticed that it was almost a blizzard outside!  I still laugh because Tim was trying to help me breathe and Rachel was anything but normal!  So much for the contractions that are 5 min. apart, the 4.5 min. then 4 and so on, or contractions that were 30 sec. long and then 45 long and then a min. long.  She was all over the place.  I would have a 30 sec contraction with a 4 min break, then turn around and have a 3 min. contraction with maybe 30 seconds in between.  That crap about having Tim count down until my contraction was over was NOT working, and Tim was on the verge of hyperventilating because he was trying to help me.  The nurses finally told him to just keep encouraging me, but stop trying to follow my breathing!  He kept looking at me and I was looking at him like what the hell is happening?  I guess when you go into it, you kind of hope it will follow like the book.  The next thing I knew, the 3-11 nurses were deciding to spend the night at the hospital because the roads were so bad, and I was slowly seeing Feb. 3 leave me behind.  I can't complain because 8 hours of labor with Rachel was my longest labor.  Amberlea was my hardest labor, but moved much faster, and Tye was probably my fastest and easiest.

I was stuck for a while at 8 and thinking it was time to get this child out.  Time seemed to stand still, and then suddenly everything was happening at once.  The doc was on the way (in the snowstorm) and when I started pushing, I only had one great push and the most amazingly beautiful child came into our lives at 1:00am on Feb. 4.  The Dukes of Hazzard was on the background, lol! Tim never blinked at what he should do with Rachel, he just jumped right in and never looked back.  We were both overwhelmed with how precious she was!  I am speaking for him too, but I know he and I both thoroughly enjoyed sharing our Baby Rachel with our families in the early hours of Feb. 4.  That day was a snow day from school, so I got a freebie to start my maternity leave!  She weighed in at 6lbs. 14 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.  It was the 2nd anniversary of the death of a very special grandpa in my life, and that helped Grandma Eickholt even better enjoy her new great-granddaughter.  Rachel was the first grandchild on my side and on Tim's mom's side, and Tim's dad's first aside from his wife's grandchildren that he also considers his.  She was the first great-grandchild on the Heflin side and I think she was the first on the Langley side, but I can't recall now.  She was spoiled from the get go, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thank you God for blessing my life with this beautiful, smart, funny, amazing child.  I love you Rachel!

Tomorrow night will be one of Rachel's favorites, fake chicken fajitas (I use chicken and rotel with lime and cilantro) and then also fruit and chocolate fondue.  Looking forward to another special day in our lives...