My birth story with Thomas is probably the most unique of the three and the one that most people have a hard time believing. Since he was my first baby I never understood the amazement by it until after I had the others and realized that our story was strange and a bit out of the ordinary.

My pregnancy was pretty non-eventful. I was healthy and had no problems throughout. I worked full time as a Produce Manager at a store that I had been employed with for 14 years. I never missed work...I never felt that my pregnancy was in any sort of danger by all the lifting, unloading of trucks, staying on my feet for 8 hours, or anything else involved with my job. I was due on January 27 and had decided that after the Christmas rush I would retire myself to the cash register for the last month of my pregnancy just to be safe. I had December 25 & 26 off and was supposed to return on the 27th. We had a house full of company through the holidays and I couldn't seem to even stay awake long enough to talk to anyone. I would wander off and when Mark would come looking for me he usually found me somewhere sound asleep. I didn't think too much about it because we had been so busy. We had just moved into our new house on the 24th, we had last minute pre-holiday preparations, we were still getting ready for the new baby, and we had lots of company.

But as it turns out the tiredness was not from any of the for-mentioned reasons. I woke up very early on December 27 (like 2am or something) feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. About two steps away from the bed on the way to the bathroom my water broke. I was so out of it I didn't even realize that's what had happened, the only thing that was on my mind was "I'm too tired to even change my p.j.'s...I wonder if it's ok to just get back in bed with these wet ones on". When I figured out that I hadn't in fact "wet myself" that my water had broke thats when I woke up. Of course as every first timer does...I panicked. I yelled for Mark to get up and started freaking out because it was too early. He calmed me down enough to call the hospital and they reassured me that everything was fine and that "sometimes babies just come early". I wasn't in labor but since it was so early the hospital wanted me to come right in. So we went...no white knuckle ride, just a calm, quiet, nerve-racking drive with all kinds of thoughts and questions running through our minds.

When we got all checked in the nurse assured us that the baby was fine and that once the water breaks, labor "usually" starts within 24 hours. We were so excited and they were so wrong! On December 31st the doctor kindly let me return home with strict orders to be careful in everything I did (the risk of infection is so high after your water breaks) and appointments lined up for every day to get a non-stress test. He thought I should go home, relax, enjoy welcoming in the new year, and hopefully start labor on my own. I followed all his instructions, had appointed "babysitters", and checked in at the hospital for testing daily. On January 5th my doctor had decided we waited long enough and induced labor.

My pitocin drip was started at 7am and things remained fairly calm all day. I was sure that I wanted to go through labor drug free and confident that all that I had learned in lamaze class would get me through the rough parts. Although I didn't use the breathing techniques all that much, I had lots of luck with the drug free thing until the very end. Right before it was time to push the doctor gave me a shot of something to help me relax between contractions. He was worried that I wouldn't have enough strength to push since I wasn't getting any breaks. I don't remember what he gave me, I just remember it made me throw up and it did seem to relax me. When it came time to push my reaction was "Already? Are you sure?" I had heard so much about that "urge to push" but had yet to experience it. But they knew what they were doing. At 2:14 that afternoon after about 6 pushes Thomas popped right out. He weighed in at 5lbs. 15oz. Small but very healthy. His weight was an issue for the first year of his life, but I'll save that story for another day!

From the moment he was handed to me that afternoon I knew my life was changed forever. I thought I knew all there was to know about love. I had loved others...and been loved by others. I had experienced different kinds of love from different kinds of people but never the kind that I experienced the very second that my first child was placed in my arms. I feel very fortunate to be able to say that I still feel that love today. When I look in the eyes of my children I feel that love over and over.