Seven years? Has it really been seven years? Today my baby boy turns seven years old. I can't believe how fast time goes by. Seven years ago, I was lying in the hospital bed, waiting to see if they were going to send me home (again) or take him by c-section. I had been in the hospital three weeks prior with high blood pressure, but instead of taking him then, they sent me home to be on bed rest. I went in the Tuesday after Memorial Day to be admitted in the hospital and put on pitocin. After a day on it, and nothing happening, they took me off of it for the night and started it back in the morning. Gina and Roxey were great to keep me company, waxing my legs since I hadn't been able to reach them to shave them in quite some time, and painting my toenails, all while laughing hysterically. Contractions on pitocin? Nope, not me. The nurse called the doctor to say that it wasn't working. I was giddy as a schoolgirl, as she put it, when I should have been in pain. The doctor came in shortly after five to tell me that the baby just wasn't ready yet. As you can imagine, I was ready. I told him that I wasn't leaving the hospital without a baby and that I'd steal one from the nursery but would rather have my own. He smiled and told me that c-section was the only option since nothing was happening naturally. I told him to do it, then broke down in tears. I had never had a surgery of any sort. The only time a needle had been in me was from a shot, the time I had sewn through my finger with the sewing machine, and when they sewed me up after a dog bite. I had never been cut open intentionally. I was afraid that I was going to die on the table. I had no idea what to expect. I really never read anything about the c-section in the birthing books because that wasn't in my plan. I had my first son naturally without any pain medication, and had the same plans for Brickman. Little did I know that he would weigh over thirteen pounds at birth. 13 pounds 8.6 ounces to be exact. It never would have worked to have him naturally. He got lots of attention from everyone in the hospital. He was four ounces shy of the hospital record. We had random people stopping by our room to see the "big baby." He was quite the spectacle. Jerad's grandma loved to tell people that in the nursery, there was small (a little premie), medium (an average baby weighing 7-8 lbs), large (a ten pound baby from a girl who was in our birthing class), and supersize (Brickman). He looked exactly like my husband, minus the goatee. My big baby has turned into a big boy.
We celebrated his birthday on Wednesday with a shared Shrek Forever After movie party at the local theater. Brickman and his cousin Hadley are near birthday buddies, being 364 days apart. They shared a party three years ago when Shrek the Third came out...or as Hadley called it, Shrek da turd. She was turning three and her speech hadn't fully developed yet. It was great to spend time with friends and family practically the entire day. Today, being Brickman's birthday, we haven't done a lot to celebrate, but he's called it a fantastic day. I love it that he's easily pleased. Because it's his birthday, Braylon has been especially nice to him. I wish that they always treated each other with such respect.
He still has his gifts to open this evening. He and Braylon went to Bible School at the Wesleyan church. I'm hoping that he'll settle on something simple for supper since he picked out lunch today. He really wanted steak or ribs, but that's more of Jerad's specialty, and he hasn't made it home yet. He told me earlier that he really wanted to come home and everyone to jump out from hiding places and yell surprise. I think it's a bit too late for a surprise party at this point. Maybe another year.
Happy Birthday, Hadley and Brickman!
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