Happy Birthday Olivia Grace

The other day Liv said "Mom I'm so excited that my birthday is on thanksgiving this year, because that means it's a special day". "It sure is Liv!" I said.

Five years ago tonight I was playing a painfully long game of clue with Jord and Taryn and was a day over due with Olivia and ready to pop. I say painful, at no offense to the company I was with, because it wasn't them or the game that really was painful. I was convinced that I was merely suffering from constipation, which I figured was my own fault for eating so much of the delicious thanksgiving dinner that Taryn's mom had so kindly made for us.  I kept making trips to the toilet with no success. I remember eating loads of organic raisens that Taryn's mom kept offering to me in an attempt to help.  It makes me laugh now that I think about it. 

Little did I know that little Liv was on her way. It wasn't until about midnight, when the "constipation pains" started happening about every five minutes, that it dawned on me that I was not constipated, but was in fact in labor.

And thus began the adventure of Olivia coming to earth.  It was a hard and emotional delivery. There were some complications.  For a little while we were worried about the health of both the baby and me. Prayers were sent from all across the nation from loved ones and family members gathered together for thanksgiving day, including my parents who were on a mission in Argentina at the time.

After a traumatic 26 hours, our little Liv made her arrival in the world. And she was the prettiest little black haired baby that I ever saw. Her dad and I wept as we saw her little body for the first time.

Because of the traumatic birth, Olivia had to stay in the hospital two days longer than I did, but we were determined not to leave her there without us. After I was discharged from the hospital we talked to some staff members about paying to stay in the hospital while our baby was there.  So, they let us pay to stay a night in the pediatric unit of the hospital.  The next night, they had to use the room, so we slept on a couch in one of the waiting rooms.  I think that was the longest night of my life. I was sore and tired. I remember waddling to the public bathroom with my peri-bottle, tucks pads, and other accutraments. Then I would waddle down to the NICU with Jaron, wash my hands and go to the little incubater where Liv was laying under the billilights.  I hated that NICU room. I just wanted to hold my new baby so bad, but she had to be under the lights as much as possible. On top of that, they wanted to monitor her heart and almost everytime I tried to nurse her, one of her EKG wires would come disconnected and this machine would let out an obnoxiously loud beeping noise.  Furthermore, she got her little heal pricked more than any human being should have to in a life time while she was in that NICU. I hold no animosity towards those nurses, because I know that they were just doing their job, but it was still hard to see.

I remember crying to Jaron "I just want to take her home, I just want to show her that this world is a beautiful place".  Those 4 days in the hospital felt like a lifetime, but finally the day came when we got to take our little new born baby to her new home. 

Since the day she was born Liv has been, and continues to be, a light and a blessing in our life. She keeps us laughing with her silliness. She impresses us with her ability to learn things quickly, as well as her ability to observe and remember things that we don't even realize she is observing or learning.  She amazes us with her diligence and determination to conquer hard tasks.  She makes us so happy when we watch her take care of her little brothers. She keeps us entertained when she sings at the top of her lungs and makes up new songs as she dances around the house.  She brings so much joy to our life with her bright, fun, creative, social, friendly, sweet, and faithful little spirit.

On this thanksgiving day, I'm grateful for a lot of things, but I just want to say that today I'm most grateful for our little Livie.