Two decades old

With all the baby stories I've been reading lately I was thinking that this is the perfect opportunity to tell one of mine. After all my oldest will be two decades old tomorrow (the 27th).

Okay where to start....First off, let me say that she really wanted to show up. The first time I did anything I got pregnant. I could have sworn I was dying. I was constantly sick the first couple months.

During much of this pregnancy I basically ate one thing. Spanish rice sandwiches with lots of salsa. People Joke that that is why Josie's hair is so red.

I gained a great deal of weight during my 10 months of feeling like an elephant. I'm six month along in the picture to the left. I went from wearing size 5 jeans to wear sweats that wouldn't stay on me to save my life. Every bit of that weight I gained was all out front. And yes, I did say 10 months. She was 3 weeks overdue. John and I tried just about every thing to help encourage this baby to come. She just didn't want to.

We were living in Mississippi near Kessler AFB. Which in case you aren't aware, let me say Kessler is a training hospital.

For the last couple months of my pregnancy I had major back pains on and off. And on the 26th of Oct I thought I was getting to experience another one of the joys that come with being pregnant. A leaky bladder. I think John thought I had lost my mind and was imagining it. Later that night, I started having contractions. We considered a couple times going to the hospital, then I'd chicken out. Finally a point came where I said forget it we're going. I had to stop a couple times on the way into the hospital. The pain was so bad. When the doctor came in I was a little taken back, I swear not only did he look 12 (I was 20 at the time) he looked like one of my brother's friends growing up. Talk about awkward.

He did his exam. Told me that my water hadn't broke but that it was leaking. Unfortunately I was not very dilated at all. I believe he sent us home at that point and said come back later. Later, a couple hours (the 27th )we were back cause I was in a great deal of pain. Eventually the doctor decided to break my water to help get things moving. For the record I lost 40 pounds that day, most of it water.

When they did finally break my water they discovered that my baby was stressed and had pooped already. Go figure, after all she was 3 weeks overdue - DUH! Gross thing is they save a couple tubes of the water because of that. I have no clue why. Anyway, My labor really wasn't moving along so they gave me a drug to speed it up. Additional doctors stated showing up as thee workday began as well as pediatric doctors because she was stressed. Eventually the finally offered me an epidural. I wanted it and I wanted it NOW. So they told John to help steady me and hold me so I didn't move while they injected it. So he was, they stuck the needle in me and that was about the time I asked someone to catch John cause he had fainted. In his defense he had just worked a 24 hour shift, before all this baby stuff started and hadn't eaten anything.

I'm told by the time she actually came there we 30 people in the room. My girls have always like to be the center of attention. She finally arrived at 10:27 on the 27th of Oct. The was fine although in the when it was all said and done they said I should have been induced weeks ago and that they should have done a c-section because of all the cutting they ended up having to do to get her out. She weighed in a 7lb 8oz The first night with her in the hospital I was told to wake her up to feed her. After we got home I said forget it and let her sleep. So from the very beginning she slept through the night. Except for one week where she had colic. Anyway, that for the most part is what happened the day Josie May Zelasko arrived. Even though I hadn't been told her gender before she was born, I knew what she was the whole time.

Now my baby is getting ready to leave to and join the Air Force. Happy Birthday Josie!!