A Party of Five--THREE girls and two boys...

Welp. I'm now a mother of three. The baby held on until Wednesday morning when I had an appointment to be induced. Brian and I drove over to Eugene to the hospital and checked in around 5:00 a.m. Coincidentally, I was having light contractions about five minutes apart on the way there. At around 6:00 a.m. I was settled in my room,
and shortly after that I was started on patosin (anyone know how to spell that?). My doctor arrived a little after 6:30 and broke my water--he asked if there had been any action over the weekend to which Brian proudly replied that there HAD been just the previous night. Brian is seriously out of control. Anyway, we had really been hoping that things would go quickly because my doctor was having to leave town around 10 or 11 am, and we really didn't want to have another doctor deliver the baby. Well, quickly things went because by around 8 o'clock I was given an intrathecal (again, sorry for my spelling inabilities--not even spell check has any suggestions) and by nine I was ready to push. I started pushing at 9:11 and the baby was out before 9:14. That's right. Wham, whir. Thank you, sir-- And Dr. Green was free to go.

The baby was 7 lbs 11 0z and 19 1/2 inches long and nameless until today around noon, at which time we finally named her Danin Ellis. So there you go. Isn't she perfect?

Ten Years

Yeah, so like I said before, Brian and I graduated ten years ago. This last weekend we flew to Vegas for our reunion. People were surprised that I would be flying even though I am nine months pregnant, but the airline people never batted an eye about it. It may have helped that there was some sort of bomb scare or terrorist suitcase thing going on at our airport when we flew out--but whatever. We made it safely there and back with no baby coming out. Fabulous. Anyway, on Friday night, we got together at a park with Travis and Lila, Kenny and Ashlee, Alan and Megan, Tyson and Sandy, Meghan, and all of our kids, and it was really cool. It was cool to get together and feel like all of us have grown up and matured and are happy and living relatively similar lives--i mean chasing kids around and working hard to earn a living. Granted, it was just a small group of us, but I felt no pressure to look cool or act cool or compete for attention, etc. We were just all moms and dads making sure our kids were happy and safe and out of trouble. Totally laid back. Cool.

And the reunion was cool, too. There were not a ton of people there, but it was still fun to see those that were there and just sit back and people watch a little. You know what I mean? It's just super interesting to see what ten years has done to people. It was funny, too, to go walking into the reunion draped in tons of fabric while a good majority of the other girls had boobs and legs hanging out everywhere. I seriously couldn't have been more covered. In fact, I was probably mistaken for part of the black drapery a few times, but that's alright. So I felt a little out of place--no biggy. My options for a "cocktail attire" nine-month-pregnant-modest outfit were slim. Everyone is better off not having seen my big, white, vericose veiny body, anyway. And Brian said he was glad that his wife didn't look like someone he had ordered off a 1-800 number--and that's really all that matters.

But anyway, it was fun, and I'm glad I went. I feel happy and super, super grateful to have marked my ten-years-after-graduation milestone at a time when I am so happy. I really could not ask for a better life.