Happy Birthday Chloe

On December 28th our little caboose turned one! And this is how her first year went down...

It all started early in the morning on December 28, 2007. My contractions woke me up. They had already been 3-5 minutes apart for 8 weeks, just like they were with my other two babies. They had already monitored me at my last doctor visit to make sure the baby wasn't in danger. The baby was fine but they said my contractions looked like those of someone who was about to give birth. The doctors are always baffled by my silly body. It never does what the charts say it is supposed to do, but on the morning of Chloe's birth my contractions finally felt like the ones that were spiking off the charts.

I woke Seth up at 4AM and told him I wanted to hang out for another hour or so and then we could head to the hospital. Then I started getting nauseous so Seth told me we were leaving for the hospital immediately. Luckily my sister, Kelly arrived in town on the 26th because we would not have had time to drop our kids off at a friends' house.

We arrived at the hospital at 4:20 AM and I was dilated 7cm. The nurse told me she would be right back to admit me to the hospital. The door had barely closed behind her when I had the most insane contraction I have ever experienced. It was so intense that it broke my water. The nurse hurried back in to find that I was dilated to 10 cm and ready to push. Only one small dilemma, there was no doctor. The on call doctor was at home sleeping and they told me I would have to wait until she arrived to push.

Trying not to push a baby that is ready to deliver itself was the most painful and frustrating task. It was the most intense 30 minutes of my life. I was seriously ready to punch the doctor when she sauntered in looking sleepy. I started pushing while she was scrubbing her hands and all she had to do was walk over and catch the baby at 5:01 AM.

Miss Chloe was our biggest baby at 8 lbs. 1 oz., which I attribute to the fact that she ate too many treats off of the Christmas cookie tray during the week leading up to her birth.

Although adding a third child to our family was not something that we planned to do...EVER, it did not take long for Chloe to fit perfectly into our hearts. Fitting her into our lives, however, took a little time. First we had to get a minivan. Then I had to figure out how in the world to bundle 3 kids, get them in and out of car seats, and into the store without all of us freezing. I really thought I would never leave my house again and I would look at other 3 kid moms in awe. But soon enough it just felt like Chloe had always been here.

Chloe had a stressful beginning. She had colds that started at 3 days old and would not go away. She had horrible diaper rash for 2 months. She had eczema so bad that she looked burned. Then she got pink eye and passed it around. By March she had been to the doctor more times than I have been in my life. Although I was coming unglued, all of these little trials bonded me with my little girl. I realized that the baby I didn't want was the baby I couldn't be without.

Chloe has continued to charm us for the past year. Every day I am thankful that she is part of our family. I couldn't see a place for her in my visions for the future, and now I can't imagine how we ever felt whole without her.

These days she spends her days smiling that big, still toothless smile, climbing around the house, but still not walking, and blowing kisses to everyone (real kisses, not baby kisses). She gets a little anxious if I leave the room and I must admit that I love it!

I know I've said it before but the only thing this little child could do to be more perfect is...sleep through the night, or even just take a nap every day. Oh well, I am grateful for her asleep or awake.

Happy Birthday Chooch! I love you!!!!

Sidenote: Why we call Chloe Chooch. When Chloe was born my mom was sad because we named her Chloe Ann (Ann is Seth's mom). She felt left out. So, when Chloe was a few weeks old, my mom (who is terrified of air travel), rode 84 hours on the Choo-Choo train to come see her. In honor of this sacrifice, and because we didn't name Chloe after her, I nicknamed her Choo-Choo and it quickly became just Chooch.