HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAUGHTER!!!

Dear Daughter:
Twenty-two years ago my due date was September 22th and we'd scheduled the necessary c-section for the week before, on September 16th. My mom was flying down to help out for a few weeks.

It had been a rough pregnancy with you saying "Ick!" to just about everything I ate and making me throw it back up. So your early arrival was welcomed in more ways than one!

The contractions started on Monday but I thought it was false labor because the pain was so light, and then they stopped altogether during the night. So on Tuesday your dad got up and went to work as usual.

And then my water broke.

We knew it would take him two hours to get home so a neighbor kindly took me to the hospital where we met up with your dad. The staff didn't think I was really ready to have you and started talking about sending us home when the contractions started back in a BIG way.

Now I had planned to avoid the whole labor pain this second time around since we knew you'd have to be delivered by c-section. But even then it was in your nature to be in a hurry, rushing around :-)

At that time in Florida, because lawsuits were already a big problem, the hospital required that three doctors be in the operating room when you were born: my regular OB/GYN, his back-up, and the pediatrician to hand you off to the moment you were born. My OB/GYN had informed me (rather haughtily I might add) during my first prenatal visit, "I don't "do" babies." Well, LaTeDa! It took a while to assemble the assemblage so you weren't born until early afternoon.

When they brought you to me, the first thing I saw was the back of your head which was covered with thick dark hair. I groggily told them, "That's the wrong baby." Because I had been born blonde, your dad had been born blonde, and your brother had been born blonde. Where'd the dark hair come from?!

But as soon as they turned you so I could see your face, all doubt vanished. That smushed bull-dog face so familiar from your dad and brother's baby pics stared back at me. Dark hair or not, you were most definitely ours!

[Although we did discover that they posted a big sign at the nurses station warning the staff to be careful not to confuse you with another baby born with an almost identical name a few hours later.]

We came home from the hospital the day before your grandma arrived to help out, which was supposed to be the day before you were to be born.

You've never been one to sit back and wait for things to happen on schedule. If there's any way you can make it happen sooner, you do!

You have blessed us greatly over the years and we thank God for His gift of YOU!

We hope and pray that your birthday this year is one filled with happy memories -- and lots of yummy desserts!