Happy Birthday, Alana!

Today, my oldest child turns 5!

I know, right? It seems like just yesterday--ok, not really. It actually feels like so long ago. It's hard to remember life before kids. The kids are sucking out my brain!!!!

Okay, I'm better now.

As I was saying, Alana is 5 today! I remember it all very clearly (except for about 12 hours during/after delivery). We had just moved to Fort Hood. We'd been in temporary housing for 3 weeks and had JUST got our house. It went like this: Friday, sign for housing; Monday, household goods arrived; Tuesday, go in for blood pressure check and get admitted to the hospital immediately.

Yeah, you can imagine the thoughts zooming through my head as the nurse wheeled me (in a wheelchair--as if I couldn't walk!) from the Women's Care Clinic upstairs to Labor and Delivery. I finally called my husband and somehow amidst my blubbering, he figured out that he needed to get to the hospital ASAP! Talk about freaked out! I could hardly think straight. It was my first child, we were on a new post where we knew no one, we had just got a house and nothing was unpacked.

Then my doctor comes and tells us that they aren't going to induce labor right now, but they are admitting me to the hospital, hopefully for two and a half weeks. Um...but my house isn't unpacked!

Well, that didn't last. Two days later, due to complications, they induced labor.

I won't go into the horrors of the labor/delivery, it might scare some people. Let's just say 21 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing, Alana finally made her appearance! At 5 lbs 11 oz, she was a tiny bundle of joy!

Groggy mommy didn't notice much for the next few hours as she came off of some meds and some shock effects to her body.

Today, she is a super smart pre-schooler who loves to learn and draw. When she's not curled up with her pencils/crayons, she likes to play dressup with her sister and running around outside!

Happy Birthday, Alley Cat! (it's what my dad nicknamed her b/c of how she sounded when she was born)