Eight Years Ago...

Eight years ago, in the very wee hours of the morning, I checked into the hospital. They were expecting me as I was scheduled to be induced. I was quickly approaching week 42 of being pregnant and my body showed no signs of being ready anytime soon.

We arrived to the hospital shortly before 4:30, and by 5:30, I was hooked up to Pitocin and the dosage was increased every half an hour. It wasn't until around 9:00 that it started to kick in.

Over the course of the next three house, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and some lasting as long as 2 minutes. Somewhere in the midst of this chaos, it was strongly suggested that perhaps Hannah would be an only child.

Shortly after noon, my OB came in and broke my water and announced that my dilation had progressed to 5 cm, I was finally far enough along for my OB to grant me my request of an epidural. Once the epidural was in place, I was much more bearable and there was perhaps hope for one more child after Hannah.

Around 3:00, my nurse returned to check on me and I was making progress.

Forty five minutes later, the monitors showed a decrease in the baby's heartbeat which alarmed my nurse which caused her to return to exam me. In just 45 minutes I had dilated from a 6 to 10 cm, however, the baby was still too high to start pushing.

Three hours later and no progress in bringing the baby down on its own, my OB had to use suction to get the baby to come. An hour later, and after several pushes, Hannah Rose made her grand entrance into the world, at 7:49 pm. And our lives have never been the same. She's a gift from the Lord, one that is greatly treasured in our family.

Happy 8th Birthday Hannah Rose!!!

Birthday Tea Party

This year for Hannah's birthday, I did a tea party. The invitations read to wear your favorite princess dress or your Sunday Best, and all the girls came dressed so perfectly and girly for tea, some even wore gloves, and one a hat. They all looked so cute. Emma arrived early and helped keep Hannah and Rachel occupied for a while before the rest of the party guests arrived. A lot of preparation and work went into this party and I am so happy with how it turned out. Thanks to Gramie who found and bought the cute polka dot tea cups (they were really espresso cups, but worked just perfectly), and with a few added pieces from Gramma, everything pulled together and the tables looked just beautiful. Upon arriving, the girls decorated a foam crown with stickers. Some wore theirs to the party table, others saved theirs for taking home. But I think they all enjoyed it and it was fun to see how differently each girl decorated their crown.Once the majority of the girls were here, and the crowns had been made, it was time to make their way out to the patio to the long tea party table. Every girl had a place setting set for them and even had fancy little place settings with their name. On the menu: chocolate chip scones, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, grapes, and veggie kabobs with little Ranch dressing cups. And for dessert, birthday cupcakes and chocolate chip ice cream. Although it was a tea party, the teapots held pink lemonade and fruit punch, although tea was available upon request. But seeing how it was 95 here today, not many were longing for a hot drink.The girls ate and giggled and talked and giggled and talked. Singing silly songs and sayings they say at school. After they were done eating, each girl got a bag of beads and a string to make a necklace that allowed them to sit at the table and talk and giggle some more. After beading, the girls remained at the table and Hannah opened presents. Having the girls remain at their seats worked out really nice and it allowed everyone to be able to see what was being opened, etc. Hannah got some really cool things and can't wait to play with them.Following the presents, I was going to bring out the cupcakes, but the girls asked for 'recess'. Steven said perhaps they needed a chance to get up and run around a bit and work off from having sat at a table for over an hour. So 'recess' it was and off they went to play on the swingset, played some handball against the house until the ball went over the fence, and even did bubbles. Finally, when they were all hot and wanted something cool to drink, I was able to regroup them to the table and bring out the cupcakes and we were able to sing to the birthday girl. Towards the end of the party, I asked Hannah if she was having a good time, she said yes, but then got quiet, when I asked her what was wrong, she said she hated that the time was coming that everyone would leave. She loved having all her friends and her cousins over for a tea party.

Conversations with Hannah

On the way home from school, Hannah usually asks what's for dinner. This way she can determine then if she's going to be hungry or not come the time dinner is done. Today, she asked her usual question, and most days I have an answer for her, but with getting things done and ready for her tea party on Saturday, I hadn't given dinner a thought as of yet. This is how our conversation went today:

H: "What's for dinner"

Mom: "I don't know yet"

H: "Can we have macaroni and cheese?"

Mom: "Probably not"

H: "You always get to choose what we eat for dinner!"

Mom: "I do the cooking, I get to decide what's for dinner."

H: "Nuh, uh."

Mom: "I make the menus (and once in a while I'll ask if there's anything anyone would like me to make), I do the grocery shopping, who do you think should get to decide what to cook?"

H: "Me"



She wasn't going to let this subject go, and there was no point in continuing to argue who decides what we eat for dinner.

California State Testing

Today, at Hannah's school begins the 2 week course of California State Testing, aka "The Big Test" to the kids.

Despite it not affecting Hannah's grades on her report card next month, she is pretty nervous. I'm so thankful she has a teacher who is in tune to her kids and is aware of how much stress this test can cause for the kids. They have no homework for the next couple of weeks so their afternoons can be free and relaxing. She also is having parents bring in healthy snacks to give the kids just prior to taking the test. Today we are bringing sliced apples. She also told the kids they'd take a walk around the playground for fresh air when they need it.

Please be praying for Hannah and her classmates as they take this big test over the next few weeks that ultimately tells the state of California how our school is doing.

Skool Districk Speling

Every year, I must go to the school district in which we live and get permission to leave the school district. I then have to take that form to the school district in which her school belongs to and get the inter district transfer approved.

We got our approval letter in the mail today stating that the following conditions must be kept in order for our transfer to be valid:

* Satisfactory attendance as determined by the Site Administrator
* Satisfactory academic progress
* Satisfactory citizenship
* No falsification of information
* Furnish your own transpiration

Hannah has no problem in following the first four conditions. But that fourth one, "Furnish your own transpiration", might be a tough one as the definition of transpiration is 'the evaporation of water from the aerial parts of plants'.

Obviously it should have read we were to furnish our own transportation, but reading the letter, from the school district with such a spelling error really made me laugh. Someone obviously wasn't paying attention, or wasn't using spell check.

April Fool's Day

This morning I was explaining to Hannah that today is the start of a new month, only 15 days til her birthday, 12 days until her tea party, etc, etc. I told her that today is also April's Fool Day. Not knowing what that means, I explained to her that people might try and play silly jokes on her all day long. You could tell she was trying to process that information.

So I went about getting breakfast around, getting into the refrigerator, when Hannah tells me I have a hole in my pants.My first thought was NO! That's not possible, I just bought these pants and I didn't remember snagging them on anything, etc.

I turned around to find Hannah with this huge ear to ear smile and her response, "April Fools".

The girl catches on fast!