Remembering...

Two years ago we were admitted to the hospital (after hours of walking the maternity ward!) Our family members started to show up around 10:00...I had a nice hot soak in the spa tub and shortly thereafter in my comfy hospital bed my water broke. Within minutes I was having intense contractions and by midnight my epidural was complete and I was determined to get a good night's sleep before meeting Baby Burns.

I consider myself to have a very terrible memory. That's the whole reason for this blog...it's for me, so that I don't forget all the precious (and not so precious) moments of raising my children. While my memory is pretty bad, I know I will never forget certain things about that night...Chris closely watching the monitors and trying to get comfortable on the couch. My in laws, grandparents, & sister in law waiting outside of our room. My mom coming in much later, then my brother sometime past midnight. I'll never forget my nurse who held my hand through the epidural and made me feel so comfortable and at ease. Waking all through the night as the nurse came to periodically check on my progress. Clicking the button for pain relief over and over because there was no way in HELL I wanted to feel this huge kid being ripped from my loins.

I remember waiting until about 5 am before telling the nurse that I had been feeling a lot of pressure. It had been building all night but I kept wanting more sleep! I remember everything happening so fast. Lights came blaring on, Chris holding one leg, being told to push for 10 seconds at a time (those were 10 very long seconds!) The doctor was called in and after just a couple more pushes we had a baby...I couldn't wait, was it a boy or girl?! I heard Chris say, "It's a girl!" and I nearly died with anticipation to get my arms around her. "Hi, Audrey, I love you!" I kept saying...I just couldn't believe it! I will always remember those moments.

They weighed her and cleaned her and I got to hold her again while Christopher told everyone the good news. Then they all came in to see our sweet Audrey Cate. I know that when I'm old and I look back on all of the best moments of my life, that will be one of my proudest.

Tomorrow Audrey will be two years old. Everyday I look at her and I know my purpose in life is to love and support her unconditionally. I am so thankful to her for teaching me how to love in that way. Happy birthday sweet Audrey Cate!