My youngest baby is 18 today...

...and originally I'd planned to make a filmstrip for this entry. I was going to choose a picture from each of the last 18 years but it's a project I should have started like ... last month? I was able to find pictures but then I decided I wanted birthday pictures and so it's taking longer than I thought. Well...it'll get done late and I'll post it when it's done.

Today, my youngest baby is 18 and now all my kids are technically adults! She's having a party--a group of her closest friends--this evening and right now, she and her best friend are just waiting for them to show up.

Meanwhile, I decided to blog about the day she was born.

I remember I started having contractions on Thursday, January 23. It was right around my due date and so I was feeling pretty pleased. Kristin would be #3 and I'd had such an easy time with Heidi, I was anticipating the same experience again. The contractions weren't bad and they were irregular. There was no reason to call my first DH, Rich, yet. He was at work.

I was still having pretty mild contractions all that evening. I'd told Rich about them. When they didn't get stronger, he decided to try and get some sleep. Poor guy had congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy as a resulting complication of Marfan Syndrome and so he tired very very easily. If my contractions didn't move closer together, we figured we were seeing the midwife the following day.

All throughout the night, contractions woke me up. They were completely irregular, sometimes 10 minutes apart and sometimes 20 or a half hour. It was kind of frustrating. They weren't really painful but were strong enough to wake me up every few minutes. I didn't wake Rich.

The next day, we went off to the midwife. I had a feeling we'd need to drop the kids with a friend and so we took them with us. I was completely shocked, though, when the midwife said I was about 7 cm dilated. Rich had to get the kids to our friends' house and I had a feeling the baby might be born before he got back. Ellen, my midwife, was thinking along the same lines.

Here's the thing though ... once I was in the labor and delivery room, everything stopped. WTF is up with that, I wondered. This is my third baby, this is ridiculous! I got up and walked around with Ellen until Rich got there. The contractions hadn't started again so we agreed she should break my water.

That started everything again but the contractions were still kind of weird. They'd start and stop. Sometimes they were intense, sometimes not. I was really getting sleepy and decided I wanted a warm shower. The water on my back felt really nice and it did help bring on more contractions.

Finally the active labor began. I began to whine, though. "Okay, I want to go home now and sleep," I said. "I'm so tired."

Ellen said, "You can't, sweetie, it's time to push."

I actually answered, "I don't want to. You push!"

Women in labor can be irrational. ;) At one point, late in my labor, Rich and Ellen actually did help push on my abdomen a little. Our baby did not seem to want to be born. I guess she was happy where she was.

Finally, I heard Ellen exclaim, "I can see the head!" A few minutes later: "Oh, my goodness, she's sunny side up!"

Later, Ellen explained that I'd been experiencing back labor. The reason was because Kristin was positioned different from most babies. Most are born face down. Kristin, however, wanted to be born seeing what she was getting herself into. Ellen said if she'd suspected what was going on, she probably would have recommended calling in a doctor to do a C-section.

I'm just as glad she didn't.

Ellen delivered each of my kids and was there with Rich and me almost every minute. My deliveries were all different and beautiful. I wouldn't have had them any other way.

This is Kristin on January 24, 1992:



This is Kristin today:



Is that an awesome cow or what? Ted made it from scrap wood he'd gotten from Freecycle. It's only the second piece Ted's ever made. The first one is a bird he made, also from scrap wood, and gave to me for Christmas. That cow meant a lot to Kristin and I'm glad.

Boy. I have three young adult children now...but I don't feel old. In a way, I feel ... young!