Ok so this is a little late, but Rachel, child number three turned 9 this month (I know it is the last day, but still March, so there!) March is FULL of birthdays for this family. Grami is on the 11th, I am the 17th, Pops' the 19th and Rachel decided to have her own day on the 20th. There are about 40 other days filled with Aunts, Uncles, and cousins as well, but needless to say, there are only about 5 days in the month without someone to celebrate. However, Rachel has her OWN day and that makes her special - because she is just that, SPECIAL!
She was my sweet baby girl for so long that she always will hold a special spot as the baby even though her little sister technically has the honor now.
My pregnancy with her started out like the other two - in the toilet! However, it progressed to much worse for much longer. It became so bad that if I wasn't asleep I was throwing up! So, I would get up, dress the two munchkins, pour sippy cups with juice and milk, half open string cheese, bag dry cereal or crackers and rewind all VHS movies we owned and stack them by the TV and go back to bed, after making sure dead bolt locked on front door. They would watch movies and eat all day until the food or movies were gone then wake me up for refills. Might be why they still think they can do whatever they want!
After the puking stopped, we had an ultrasound. Even though this is going to sound horrible, the whole family was hoping for a little boy as Johnathen was only two so he needed a buddy close to his age. Ashten being 5 was going to be a mommy not a sister either way, so a boy we wanted! Or so we thought at the time, and for a few days later until I came to terms with another little girl. She made me pay for those few days of uncertainty by trying to come 6 weeks early! But of course she was just teasing and decided that she would continue baking until four days before she was due! Of course she didn't let me rest in between there - contractions constantly but not good enough for progress! Until we were at Pop's birthday party and I had a few really hard ones. The night was filled with them, but not enough to go to the hospital.
FINALLY the day really arrived ( the next morning) and we headed to the hospital around 6:30 a.m. We called Grami on the way and she met us there ready to be my coach with Daddy for the second time in person (she was there for Ashten, but we got her on the phone for Johnathen). We had a great doctor that showed up on time and liked to play with the lights in the ceiling with his remote! I know, weird thing to remember on such a momentous occasion! We also had two nursing students along for the ride. They were very quiet and stayed out of the way just like they were told, but now that I have been through school myself I should have made it harder on them! hehe JK. After about 7:30 I was very tired of feeling contractions so I got an epidural. I was going to try natural again, but didn't have it in me this time. I was able to rest for a bit. But then all of a sudden I had pain on one side that REALLY HURT! I was starting to cry and the nurse was like" you shouldn't be feeling anything right now, let me see what is going on" and then"holy Cow, that's a baby!" She called in the doc and turned up the epidural all at the same time and at 9:30 a.m. you were born! A beautiful, red baby with no cone head at all! Just popped out and crying so sweet! The day was cloudy, windy and cold, but we were toasty warm on the inside and out!
We wanted to name you Rebekah, but your mean Aunt Toi had a dumb dream (still not bitter can't you tell!) about here pregnancy and HER baby's name was Rebekah and I refused to have two babies in the same family born in the same year with the same name - dumb! So anyway, you were not named on the first day of your life. We went back and forth all that first day and then finally Rachel was decided. We let Ashten kindof choose your middle name. Her fave movie at the time was The Little Mermaid 2 with Melody. We didn't like Rachel Melody, so we changed a couple of letters and got Rachel Melany. It fit perfectly to our cute bundle of joy and never mind that we called you Rebekah on accident at least 50 times in the first few months of your life. Now you get called Tera or Ashten so what's the difference, right?! Just kidding, darling. You are Rachel through and through!
SOOO, for your birthday this year you got to choose what to do for the day. You choose to spend it with Dad and Mom and Tera. First we went to In N Out for "the best burger ever!" You love them! Then we went to Walmart and you got to pick out some new shirts for school and a new toy. Of course Tera got a little toy as well so she would leave yours alone. We then went to the theatre at the mall but the movie was full so we bought tickets for a later time and went into the mall. You decided you were ready for earrings so we went to Claire's and got your ears pierced. They look so cute! You are adorable with your little pink daisy earrings! You were a little scared at first but you didn't hardly cry - just some tear filled eyes for a second! Then it was all over - except my squeezed hand is still a little sore! You told me I needed to get my own done since I said it wouldn't hurt but it did and I needed to see what it REALLY felt like! You are so funny sometimes, Girly! We left Claire's and went to Sear's so Daddy could look at shoes and you decided playing on the escalator was more fun - until you caught your knee on one of the steps and started bleeding everywhere! Then we bandaged you up and went to see A Tale of Desperaux. We ate popcorn and mike & ikes. It was almost dark when we got out and you wanted ice cream so off to Golden Spoon for some frozen yogurt - you had cookies and cream with chunks of oreos. Then we went home and crashed! What a fun day! I loved every minute (well, except for the bleeding part of course!)
Right after the piercing! Trying to be brave with a smile!
SO CUTE!
Happy Birthday, Baby Girl! Thanks for letting us share in your special day. I love you tons and tons!!
Ashten tried for 20 hours to get Mr. Shelley to let her see his hat. By hour 26 he finally gave in but told her not to tell anyone else! So of course a picture of the evidence was in order!
