my baby is 1!

i cannot believe this girl is one years old already! it truly seems like she was just born. In many ways we treat her so much younger than we treated the others at this age. Seeing how quickly they grow up, i so appreciate her babyness.

some thoughts on stella at 1....

*she LOVES her brown bunny. If we don't know where she has disappeared to, we can usually find her in her room trying to pull it through the crib slats. If they are separated for a period of time, she lets out a loud squeal when she sees it.

*she loves her brothers and sisters and follow them around wherever they go. She has a special fondness for Dylan (oddly enough) even though he bugs her the most.

*she takes 2 naps a day

*she likes to eat....alot

*her nickname is "grill" (Dylan started it when she was born b/c he always says girl wrong.)

*says mamama, dadada, bababa (said mama first:)

*she has a love/hate relationship with dog food

*she has already learned her colors and won't eat anything green you toss on her high chair:)

*she wakes up every night crying- some nights she's up every half hour

*she has 5 teeth- 2 on the bottom, 3 on top

*she is the latest walker of all of our kids- perhaps she's carried around too much:)

*her personality is very sweet, yet demanding- she definately knows what she wants!

Stella, you are so loved! You make us laugh our heads off all the time with the funny things you do. You amaze us when you learn new tricks. The kids look out for you and still fight over who gets to play with you and hold you. You are such an important part of our family.... Happy Birthday Grill! We love you!

for my own record keeping i thought i would post her birth story, so feel free to tune out....

We found out the good news the Friday of Fathers Day weekend 2007. We went camping with the kids for the weekend in Pentwater, and I took a test just before we left. We were very excited to be pregnant! After having a miscarriage in December we were ready, and had been trying for a couple months. My due date was February 12. I had an ultrasound right away to make sure everything was okay this time. The ultrasound bumped my due date date up to February 5. (In my mind I still went with Feb 12 with the hopes of not being overdue:)Everything progressed normally. We camped a bit over the summer and I went to New York with friends in the fall. It was fun to share this pregnancy with Michelle and Michelle and Jamie.

In preparation we fixed up the basement bedroom. Tim laid the new carpet over New Years, and we moved the boys downstairs. They did really well. We left the babys room the blue checkerboard that it was, b/c if we were having a boy it would be perfect!

Two weeks before my due date I was dialated to "a good 2, close to 3". We got our hopes up and thought for sure this baby would be on time. The next week at my appointment I was still only dialated to 2. My due date came and went, I was dialated to 3. Tims dad was due to fly out to Brazil for a mission trip on Feb 12. He had not missed the birth of any of our February kids, though he was gone to Brazil on both of their due dates! Dylan was born 2 weeks late and Sydney 3 days early. Well his flight to Brazil was delayed a day b/c of a snow storm, so I thought maybe I would have the baby before he left after all... no such luck. I thought perhaps Valentines Day- nope. If I didn’t have the baby on my own I was scheduled for an induction on February 20. This made me sad b/c I would be in the hospital over Sydneys birthday, and I really didn’t want to be induced again after Dylan.

Anyhow, I had a non- stress test the on Wednesday Feb 13. They were concerned b/c the baby didn’t move around much, so they ordered an ultrasound to check my water levels. The ultrasound showed that everything was fine, but the tech told me it looked like the baby was around 9 lbs. (give or take a lb. of course) Nothing happened. I was scheduled for another non- stress test Friday, Feb 15. I was actually having light contractions during this test, and I watched them on the screen. Everything was fine and they sent me on my way again. I left there and ran some errands. I started having more contractions as the day went on, and I started to suspect that this might actually be the real deal. Tim took the excavator home with big plans to start digging the hole for our house addition in the morning. We had pizza for dinner, and made plans to go look at windows and some flooring in the morning. We both had a feeling that since we were making all these plans, they weren’t going to happen. By 10:00pm that night my contractions were 10 minutes apart and painful. We went to bed, but I hopped out every 8-10 minutes to walk the contractions off. I finally gave up on sleep around 2am and just wandered around the house. They stayed 10 minutes apart through the night, although they lasted about 2 minutes, so it felt like they were closer. The night progressed on and at 4:30am I heard Dylan crying downstairs in his bed, which was an every night occurance for him at this point. Since I didn’t have the energy to deal with him, I woke Tim up and sent him down. When he came back up I started to feel really nauseous. This made me nervous, b/c I always throw up shortly before I deliver. We called Tims mom and she came over.

When we got up to triage I threw up a few times. They said I was only dialated to 6, but said they would keep me since i was sick. I got admitted to a room just before 7 am and I had my mind made up that I wanted an epidural this time. It was shift change, but the doctor that left reassured me the anesthesiologist was on his way up. When the next nurse came on I asked her again, and she told me she was sorry I got some bad information- the anesthesiologist was at home and they would call him. This new information made me a little desperate, one might say i went into wuss mode, so they gave me a shot of demerol to get me by. This helped me to calm down until I got an epidural. After the epidural, they broke my water and then kind of left me alone. They came back around 9am to see how I was doing. They shut my epidural off b/c I wanted to have some feeling . I was complete, but the baby was still up high. They had me push once to see what would happen. I did, and they all freaked out and told me to stop because her head was already there. They got the room all ready, and we waited for another contraction. The next contraction came and in one controlled push I had her out. They were holding her at such an angle that I couldn’t see if she was a boy or a girl. She didn’t breath right away, and i was so concerned that i forgot to ask what she was. After she cried, I asked Tim why nobody was telling me what we had…he said it’s a girl! They gave her to me and Tim cut the cord.

Stella Jane was born at 9:33am Feb 16 8lbs12 oz with a head full of black curly hair.