At 12:17 this morning, Petunia turned seven years old.
Last night, while I was tucking her into bed, she wanted to hear the story of her looonnnng birth just one more time. I love how she can't get enough of hearing about it and wonder when Dash will be old enough to want to hear his story.
Here's Petunia's: The Guv and I had been together for ten years (married for three) when Petunia came on the scene. She was to be born at the start of his second year of graduate school, due on September 11. Due to mild PIH (high blood pressure during pregnancy), I went on bedrest Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately, September 11 came and went without me having my own Labor Day. Shortly thereafter, my Very Nervous Mother arrived. My 27th birthday, September 20, came and went as well. On September 22, a routine doctor's visit showed that I was actually having contractions, but they were so far apart that she sent me home. One of our friends was hosting a birthday party a block away. I gave myself permission to walk over there. I told him that his present was that I might just have this overdue baby in his apartment. He started boiling water.
On the morning of September 23, I woke up still unaware that I was having contractions. The doc suggested that I come into the hospital so that she could speed things up with induction drugs, which she slipped into my arm around 9 am. The Guv and I walked laps around the hospital for hours. Around noon, my knees buckled when I felt my first contraction, finally. Petunia was posterior (facing the wrong way), which adds a lot of pain to the delivery process, so, after five more hours of unsuccessful and incredibly painful contractions, I opted for an epidural at 5 pm. No matter how the anesthesiologist adjusted it, it still only numbed my left side. When I started throwing up from the pain, the doc suggested a C-section. I told her no, this baby's coming out the long way, and that she did: I started pushing around 10 pm, and, after almost two and a half hours, Petunia grudgingly came into the world at 8 pounds, 7 ounces, 21 3/4 inches long. She smiled at her dad before being whisked away to the NICU to be deep-suctioned (NOT by the med student that the Guv had ordered from the room after noticing that they had the same student ID!). An hour later, she was in my arms, all big eyes and rosy cheeks just like she is today.
After I told Petunia that story last night, I watched her fall asleep, and it is not so hard to remember her as a small baby. Dash is special too, of course, but there's something about a first baby that can't be replaced by others. As she thanked me sweetly this morning for ironing her special birthday dress, I couldn't help but get down on my knees, look her straight into the eyes, and thank her for teaching me how to be a mom. It's been a real pleasure navigating parenthood with such a sweet little girl by my side.
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