5 Years Ago

Five years ago I was laying in a hospital bed in Milford, MA staring at this precious, tiny baby girl who came exactly on her due date and changed our lives in ways we couldn't imagine. Her story actually starts over 6 years ago when we decided that we were ready to go for it in terms of having a 3rd baby. Why not? I always wanted a big family I told Paul. Also adding, you know it has to be even numbers so if we have a 3rd we're also having a 4th. Somehow Paul agreed and we got lucky - so lucky, getting pregnant the first time trying. All was swell until I went in for my 12 week appointment and they couldn't find the babies heartbeat. Worst day of my life. Fast forward 3 months and we figured I'd healed (at least physically) and we'd try again. I got pregnant again. I was MUCH more cautious and I'm sure drove Paul absolutely crazy. I refused to do anything strenuous (like vacuuming) until I was like 24 weeks pregnant. And with 2 toddlers at home it was interesting to say the least. It was also winter, in New England with my family in NC and my husband working over an hour away from our home. I've never had so much anxiety. I begged, pleaded and even scored my OB a wii (this was 5 years ago when they were new and very in demand) to try to get her to plan my induction so I would know exactly when this precious baby would be born. No luck. As usual, God had different plans in mind. It was the weekend before my due date and my mom came up - thinking surely I would have the baby soon. Thankfully her timing was perfect. On Monday night we went to bed like usual. I remember a few days before having contractions but they never got organized. That night I awoke about midnight (gee..the older she gets the harder it is to remember the little details) with some contractions. They were pretty tough but I remember not wanting to wake Paul up just yet. Finally I decided to wake him up and have him help time them to see if this was it. This part I'll never forget - he got up to go to the bathroom and heard a POP. I had no idea what it was but I ran to the bathroom and realized it was my water breaking. Thankfully I made it to the toilet! Ha! I remember yelling to Paul to call the doctor and having to repeat the number several times. I then remember going to tell my mom we were leaving and heading to the hospital. I think was around 2:30am (ish). I remember that on the car ride the contractions started hurting in a way that I had never felt and as soon as we walked into the ER I begged them to call for my epidural. I got settled in a room and asked everyone who walked near me to please, please get the epidural. The doctor came in to check on me and I wasn't dilated too much. Finally I got the epidural (though it seemed like it took forever. It did not.). And literally about 20 min after I got the epidural I needed to push. And a few minutes later our precious baby was born.

We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl with her. Emma (who was 3 at the time) was convinced it was a girl. She would tell anyone it was a girl and her name was going to be Julia. When we did indeed have a baby girl it only seemed right to name her Julia. Claire was just a name we liked and it seemed to fit. On January 23, 2007 at 4:31am Julia Claire was welcomed into our family.