When I was little, and even now to a certain extent, on the days leading up to my birthday, my dad would always say “At this time x years ago, your mom was really nervous about getting to the hospital because of the rain”… And, then on the 7th, “At this time x years ago, we were at the hospital just waiting and waiting but you wanted to wait until the 8th” … And, then on the 8th, “At this time x years ago, you were born, and the heavens rejoiced and the angels sang…” (Ok, I may have embellished on that last one!) I would always roll my eyes and shake my head at him in exasperation because come on, he did it every stinking year.
Yet… here I am… At this time, three years ago, at 3:49pm, my little girl was born… with a great big gush and a lucky catch by my OB.
I remember at my routine doctor’s appointment in the first of February a little over three years ago, during my exam, my OB said something to the effect of “Well, are you guys ready to have a baby today? You are 80% effaced and one centimeter dilated!” I’m sure she clearly recognized the shock and disbelief on both of our faces – we were definitely not prepared for that! She then went through the rundown again on what to expect to feel when I went into labor because she truly didn’t think we were going to make it to our next weekly appointment.
Boy, was she wrong! For a little girl who is so impatient now, she sure took her sweet time to make it down the canal. After a few more weeks, my OB finally decided that I could be induced and instructed me to begin calling the hospital daily until a slot opened up. We finally got in the following Friday.
Phone calls were made to the grandparents with instructions not to rush as I wasn’t in active labor. Grandma Ronnie and Pops really heeded that advice and almost beat us there! I remember Mike saying that Veronica was impatiently waiting for him in the driveway with the hazards on, and he had to practically jump into the moving car! My mother on the other-hand… actually decided to finish out most of her school day! Geez! I guess she remembered how long I took and knew that my baby wouldn’t be any different!
When we got to the hospital, low and behold I was actually already IN labor and didn’t even know it. They went ahead and gave me the pitosin and the epidural. (I know now that I have a slightly twisted spine after the anesthesiologist had to do the procedure twice before having to twist and bend and shimmy the needle up my spine – yeah, it was that pleasant.) After the meds took effect, I remember taking a nap and watching Cinderella and The Price is Right.
Around 3:00, sweet-pea finally decided she was ready, the room was cleared of visitors, and then a gaggle of nurses, doctors, techs all came in. It was all very surreal and overwhelming. After some serious pushing and some encouragement from the ‘vacuum’, out she came at 3:49! 7lbs, 7ozs, dark hair, long skinny legs, cute button nose, and a nice set of lungs. She was perfect.
Her Pa was apparently waiting right outside the door and couldn’t take the suspense anymore – he had heard the cry and was expecting someone to come out right away with the news. When no one came out, he just came on in! The nurses shooed him back out, but he did get confirmation that she had arrived and relayed the good news back to everyone! I really think he was looking for a name as we hadn’t officially decided. (Remember we were waffling between Jayla, Brianna, Brooke, and Kendra.) Travis had come up with ‘Carissa’ about a week before the due date and was set on it. I couldn’t imagine her being called anything else now.
Carissa was taken to the nursery and her daddy and grandparents followed close behind. (All I heard were crickets in the delivery room…) Rumor has it that she cried the whole time during her initial exam and bath. She was finally returned to me, and we attempted breast-feeding without much luck. Her Daddy ended up getting to feed her first with a bottle.
We were moved into our room (a private one – thank God!), and we attempted to get some sleep without much luck. There were the lactation consultants, nurses (hers and mine), doctors (hers and mine), visitors, and a new baby to contend with. What was I saying about it being all very surreal and overwhelming? Yeah, I had no clue.
When we were released from the hospital, Travis loaded up all of our junk. He had taken the last trip to the car, had just shut the door, and the passenger side window fell down. He had already repaired a faulty pulley in two of my windows and was none too happy about this third one falling down at a VERY inopportune moment! The hospital of course didn’t have any type of tools on hand to help so he taped it up as best he could with electrical and masking tape! Carissa took her first car ride ghetto style!
We made it home (without the window falling) with the new addition to our family. Those first few weeks were pretty tough while we worked through the adjustment period. And then… we discovered the power of the hair dryer! What a life-saver that thing was! Remember how we even had it recorded onto a CD? I just shake my head when I think about those crazy days!
All these memories… three years ago today.
Happy Birthday Carissa Ann! You surprise and amaze me every single day. I can't wait to see all the things you will do tomorrow and the next day and the next day after that. I love you more than you will ever know.
All my love,
Your Momma
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Carissa had her third birthday party this weekend! Since our house is still in some *ahem* disrepair, my parents kindly agreed to host us all and also prepared a fantastic lunch of grilled pork loin, corn casserole, pinto beans, potatoes, cold-slaw, fruit, and rolls. Delish!
Carissa’s daddy set up her bounce house for her and her cousins to play in. You should have seen Colton trying to bounce! It was really cute. Carissa wanted to get out her pink jeep that she parks in Pa’s garage (complete with a ‘Carissa’ nameplate on the back) to drive Hunter around in. That caused a little bit of discord between them as Carissa is definitely not used to having to share her stuff at Pa’s house. They worked it out though and everyone got to have a turn at driving it around the circle.
The birthday girl had requested a Mickey Mouse cake this year. I was planning to just buy a tacky character one from Walmart or Kroger, but they didn’t have any with Mickey on it! Can you believe that?! So, I searched the blessed internet and found one that I knew I could handle. Travis seemed a tad bit concerned with me attempting to do the cake myself. (Understandably I guess as I tend to get... um, just a little bit frustrated when things don’t work out just the way I expect them to.)
But, two gin and tonics later… I think the cake turned out pretty darn well if I do say so myself. (It is Mickey’s clubhouse if you aren’t subjected to the Disney channel on a daily basis.) And, judging by my mother and Dee’s reaction, they had the same concerns as Travis! Both of them said something to the effect of, “YOU made that?... By yourself?... You’re sure Travis didn’t do it?” Please! Carissa seemed satisfied with it (especially the blue cupcakes) and that is really all that matters, right?
Anyway, after lunch and cake, Carissa began opening her gaggle of gifts. For not needing a blessed thing, she really did rake it in! She received several really cute outfits, a new swim suit, a movie, a neat chalk-rake-thing, a Wonder Pets bath toy, and some duck food to take the park! She was also given some very nice contributions to her college 529 plan.
The ‘hit’ toys were the bulldozer given to her by Pops and a Walmart-toy grocery cart given to her by the McKnights. She passed right over the Barbie doll dressed in a cherry outfit and the fairy Barbie doll – sorry Grandma and Grandma Ronnie!
Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate Carissa’s birthday! She had a great time, and we truly appreciate the kind gifts and, more importantly, the time with our family and friends. We don’t get to see everyone as much as we would like to.
Tonight, we are baking some chocolate cupcakes for her to take to school tomorrow for her ‘real’ birthday. She specifically requested white frosting and blue sprinkles so that is how it shall be. Tomorrow night is the birthday girl’s choice for dinner, so Incredible Pizza here we come!
I can’t believe that at this time only three years ago, I was still gagging over the castor oil that Travis made me take to attempt an induction of labor! I still can’t drink orange juice to this day because of that horrid moment. *shudder*
Three years, wow, time sure flies when you’re having fun!
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I *heart* the food network. I could probably watch it all day long. Travis will probably say that I WOULD watch it all day long if we didn’t also live with a munchkin that demands her turn on the big tv. Anyway, Carissa has evidently caught on with my obsession…
Momma: Ok, Carissa, time for bed, let’s get you tucked in.
Carissa: Momma, can we watch a movie tonight?
(We recently got into a bad habit over the holidays of letting Carissa watch a movie in bed. We’ve been trying to break that.)
Momma: No, not tonight, it is a weeknight so we all have to go to bed now.
Carissa: How about the Clifford movie?
Momma: No, not tonight.
Carissa: Mickey Mouse then?
Momma: No
Carissa: The Chipmunks?
Momma, in my warning tone: Carissa… I said no, it is bedtime.
Carissa: Hmmm… Well, how about we watch some cookin’ on the tv?
(She evidently saw me wavering with this request because it was followed by…)
Carissa: Come on Momma, it’ll be ok, let’s watch some cookin’, just this once… please?
Awk! You know you have no discipline when you are being talked into things you know are wrong by an almost-three-year-old. She has found and exploited my weakness to her advantage…
Yes, we watched ‘cookin’.. and not just that one time either.
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I had bunco last night so Travis and Carissa had a daddy/daughter date night. They had Incredible Pizza for dinner, packed up her Valentine treat bags for her school friends, and then it was time for bath and bed.
This is a description of a conversation between the two of them before, told to me by Travis:
Travis explained to Carissa that she needed to lie down for bed by herself tonight (yes, in her sleeping bag again) because he was going to rip out the carpet.
Travis said that she got a funny look on her face, and said to him very sternly: “Daddy, Momma is going to be so mad at you. Do not rip out the carpet.”
He explained that we needed to pull the carpet out because we bought new floor to put in. He reassured her that Momma was well aware of what he was going to do.
She searched his face to be sure he was being truthful and said with a nod, “Well, ok, Daddy. But, just the living room, don’t pull the carpet in Momma’s room.” She turned and went to lie down.
She went about three steps, turned back to him, and hollered, “If you need help, Dad, you just call me.”
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We had another busy weekend! Carissa was requested for the weekend by Grandma Ronnie and Pops, so Travis and I had a good opportunity to begin working on the living room. Travis had already moved all the furniture out for me last weekend so I could attempt to steam-clean our horrid carpet one more time before finally giving up and admitting that we needed something new.
We found some flooring that we liked at Lowes and luckily Lowes happens to be listed as one of the ‘bonus-cashback’ stores for Discover card. You cash in your ‘cashback’ award for giftcards, but $40 in cashback turns into a $45 giftcard. We maxed out our cash back, and Travis found a 10% off coupon on Ebay for $3. With the giftcards and coupon, we saved almost $700. Wow!
After our big Lowes trip, Trav and I had dinner at a little Italian place. (I REALLY wanted to go hit up a local Cajun place for some crawfish, but Travis promised we could go and meet up with Dee and Jake at Vitos on Saturday instead.) We got home, unloaded our goods, worked a little bit, and went to bed.
Travis woke up early and began prepping the living room for painting. We have twenty-something foot ceilings so Travis said a couple of prayers and braved a borrowed gorilla ladder to put up the blue painter’s tape around the crown molding. We finished that up, went to buy paint (we forgot the sample and color the previous day), found some new ceiling fans too, and got to work. It took us much longer to prep the room then it did to paint it!
We finally finished, cleaned up, and headed out to Vitos for crawfish. We had just pulled into the parking lot when Jake received a call from Dee (she had gone up earlier for a going-away party). Vitos had just run out of crawfish. Grrr, you KNOW Travis got a ‘look’…. BUT, we did enjoy their yummy fried mushrooms, BBQ chicken pizza, and Miller Lite while playing dominos. Travis will just have to treat me to crawfish some other time – soon.
Dee and Jake then invited us over to their house for dessert which was delicious, and we played some poker. Guess who won? ME! Woohoo! I usually get really bored when playing poker, but it was fun. Probably because I walked away with a nice wad of cash!
Sunday, Travis let me sleep in while he worked on the movie room some more. (He had already repainted that room over the course of several days and nights.) I made yet another Lowes run, and we did a little more housework before Carissa came home.
We had dinner (steak and potatoes for us, chicken nuggets and mac for C), cleaned up, and went to bed.
Carissa decided tonight that she doesn’t like beds anymore (her words) so I set her up with her sleeping bag on the floor. She gathered up all her favorite stuffed toys (Clifford, Magenta, Pluto, Mickey, and the Chipmunks), wrapped her most favorite stuffed toy (Clifford) in her whoobie (the place of supreme honor), and had a slumber party.
All in all, it was a very productive weekend. But… Wow, we still have A LOT to do!
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