Wednesday, October 8, 2008

It's A Girl!



Two weeks before my father-in-law passed away they were here visiting. He said to me: “So you think you will have another child?” I said: “I don’t think so; I think Bill wants to stop at five.” He replied, “Babe sure would like another granddaughter.” I said there would be no guarantee that it would be a girl. Now one thing you have to know is my father-in-law wanted us to stop after two, so the fact he was asking for number six was amazing. Several months after he died Bill and talked about having a sixth, I wanted one, he didn’t, so just when I thought no more, Bill changed his mind and really wanted another one.

I soon found out I was pregnant and we were very happy. All the kids wanted a sister and my mother-in-law REALLY wanted a girl. She always said “I am praying it’s a girl.” She also said if it was a girl, she would take us on a shopping spree (after 4 boys I didn’t have much girl stuff left).

We planned on having a VBAC at home. On the morning of Oct. 7 I went into labor, it started off almost backwards. It felt like I was almost in transition, when I knew I wasn’t. I encouraged Bill to go to work and was getting the kids off to school when I felt like I was going to vomit; Eric went running out of the house and yelled at Bill “Mom’s throwing up.” Bill said, “That’s it I am staying home.” I labored slowly most of the day. Late in the afternoon Bill called our midwife to come, I lie down and fell asleep and when I woke up my contractions had pretty much stopped. I walked out to the backyard where Bill was playing with kids and said “Call the midwife and tell her not to come, I am not having this baby today.” Bill told me don’t worry about it and to go rest again, I did but felt like I was disappointing the kids. Soon my contractions picked up again and around 11 p.m. Bill called the midwife, she asked to speak to me and thought I seemed pretty calm so said to call back in a few hours. At midnight she decided to call us back to see things were going and after talking to Bill decided she better drive up from Simi Valley. She arrived around 1 a.m. and I was 8 cm. The kids got tired and decided to go to bed, Alexa said “Wake me up if something happens.” I said “I might be busy.” All but Ian went to bed; Ian just sat in the corner of the room. About an hour later he came up on the bed and put his hands around mine and said “You are doing such a good job mom and I am so proud of you.” So sweet, considering he was an 11 year old boy, at the time.

Bill had music playing, a tape he had made me a few days earlier. We had slowed danced to a Santana song out in the garage, our kids watching and thinking “only our parents would do this.” I remember a Jimi Hendrix song coming on and thinking “I don’t really like Jimi Hendrix.” My midwife checked me and said I was almost complete, but had a little lip and would push it back with the next contraction. The Santana song came on and I felt so much emotion remembering Bill and I dancing a few days before. I had a contraction and my midwife pushed my cervix back and all of the sudden I felt a VERY strong urge to push. My midwife said “Oh you want to push.” I could not stop it. I pushed about 5 minutes. I was lying on my left side and Ian was on my left side and Bill behind me holding my leg. Alanna was posterior and when her head popped out Ian could see her face first. Alexa hearing all the noise came rushing into the bedroom just as she popped out. I remember looking down and seeing Bill and Ian looking at each other and both saying “It’s a girl!” Alexa said, “What?” Ian said, “IT 'S A GIRL!” and she replied, “Yes! We get to go shopping.” It was a little after 3 a.m. Because we didn’t have time to wake the other kids up, Bill went to wake them, they were disappointed they missed the birth, but were excited that it was a girl.

After the kids went back to bed and the midwife left, Bill asked me how I felt after having our sixth child and I said “Young.” I had told Bill if it was a girl I got to call his mom, so later that morning I called and because it was 5 a.m. she knew I must have had the baby. She asked “Did you have the baby?” and I said “Yes” She wanted to know if everything was alright and I said “Yes, she is alright.” She responded, “It’s a girl?” I said yes, she then asked what her name was and I said Alanna Saline, she started to cry, and said “First you give me another grandchild, then it is a girl and then you give her my middle name, I couldn’t have asked for more.”

A few days later she came down and all the girls went shopping, we really enjoyed ourselves.

Alanna is now 10 years old growing too quickly for all of us. I feel sorry for the guy who wants to date her, with 4 overprotective big brothers. She still has the sweet little face when she sleeps.

So glad my father-in-law seemed to know what would happen. Our family is so blessed to have this sweet beautiful young lady in it.

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