They Say it's your Birthday!

5 Years ago today, I became a Mom. I just can't believe it has already been 5 years! ALREADY!!!

Since I've never blogged her story, I will on this special day.

BTW-This is totally off the top of my head so this information may or may not be 100% accurate.

This is me half way through my very first pregnancy. Sure it looks great but after this photo, I placed my self on bed rest and ate ice cream every night. I got so BIG!

I thought I was in labor like 3 times before the actual day arrived! I actually went to the Hospital twice and was sent home twice. I even kept the discharge forms and they are nestled away in Cori's baby book, (in a box, somewhere in FL). I was just so excited to be a mom and I didn't know what labor felt like so I was a wee bit anxious.

On The night of October 18th, 2004 I sat out side my in-laws home crying to my Mom on the phone because my Stupid Doctor wasn't gonna induce me. I was a couple days shy of week 42 and miserable! Jared came outside and saw that I was on an "emotional high", so to cheer me up, he took me out for ice cream (hahaha... can we say HEIFER?). We ate Ice Cream, I cried, and then we some how ended up at Best Buy to get a computer. As we were walking through all the isles I noticed that my stomach really, really, really hurt. I was trying to think of what I could have eaten to make it hurt so bad. I laugh now because for someone who had previously gone to the hospital twice, it never dawned on me that my "stomach ache" was contractions. So after complaining about my stomach ache for about 45 minutes, we finally went home. At this point it was about 10pm and all I wanted to do was go to bed. We got into bed and of course I couldn't sleep, so I got up and headed out to the living room to watch the tube.

Around 3:30am (Oct. 19th) I finally thought to my self, Hey, these "stomach pains" are about 5 min apart. I went into our room woke Jared up and told him that I think that I'm in labor. He told me to get into bed and he would help me time them. It took about 30 min of contractions every 5 min for him to take me seriously (remember he did have the right to question me). We both got up and I took a shower while he got ready for work "just in case" I was wrong. We were out the door at about 4:30am heading to the hospital.

By the time I got up to the maternity floor and hooked up to the machines, it was close to 5am. After about an hour of monitoring me and the baby of course the nurses thought it was false labor and I was crying because I thought I was dying!!! I promised them that this was real labor and cried, cried, and cried so she said they would monitor me for another hour. At about 6:30am the nurse came in to check me and was very surprised at the amount of dilating my body had produced in just 30min. The nurses were in the middle of a shift change but they officially admitted me anyways. We called our parents to let them know this was for real. Jared's mom was there before I knew it and his sister Kristin checked in with me when she was done with her shift.

At this point everything happened so fast. The pain was so intense and I was begging for an epidural so they called for the anesthesiologist and she was taking her sweet time getting there. She finally got there and had forgotten one thing so she ran out to grab it. While she was gone my nurse came in to check me and I was there and ready. She told me I could still get the epidural but I was dilated to a 10 and the Doctor was on his way. With the help of encouragement from everyone I decided that I was so close to the end and that I always wanted to have a baby with no epidural so I didn't get it. (so crazy!)

My Nurse immediately sat me up and tried to get me to push. It was chaos! I was in panic mode, everyone was telling me what to do, at the same time and I was basically freaking out! I had gone to the prebirth classes at the hospital a month before and had only missed one of the classes. That class just happened to be the one about the actual labor and the breathing. Since I missed how to breath, I just did what they did on TV. Which was the wrong way, and made me hyperventilate, (wow I actually spelled that right the first time) my chest went numb and I couldn't breath. (The women on General Hospital don't know how to breath during labor!) Then the nurse got even more feisty than before and was telling me to stop screaming, and take deep slow breaths. Everyone continued to give there opinions of what to do, Jared kept asking me what I wanted him to do, I didn't know what I was doing... It was just CRAZY! Finally my mother-in-law got right down in my ear and coached me through the whole thing. She was awesome and I'm so glad that she was there!

Dr. Delcharco finally decided to grace us with his presence and at that point I was almost over with anyways. I pushed probably 5 times and Cori Linn McGrath was born at 7:10am on October 19, 2004 weighing 7 lbs 12 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. I was so taken back by how the contractions stopped immediately after she had entered the world. It was amazing! They laid her on my stomach and I mumbled something stupid about how she really hurt me (very maternal). She was such a beautiful baby and very alert. I was sooo happy she was finally here and I was finally a mommy!

I passed out all 3 times they tried to get me up and to the bathroom. It was funny but annoying that the nurses didn't believe me when I said I think I'm gonna faint. Thank goodness someone was close enough to catch me.

The day after. I was exhausted! Got NO sleep. But it was great.

a couple of days old

1st Halloween

The Day she was given a name and a blessing at Church by her Pa.

Surrounded by family and friends. I was so proud of Jared.

Cori has changed my life in so many ways. All for the good of course. After she would fall asleep in her crib Jared and I would bring her into our bed, lay her in between us and just stare at her. She was so beautiful and we were smitten! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful tender hearted little girl. She has always been a little advanced for her age and desperate to be big like her cousin Allie. I of course can't believe that the child who snuggles me on the couch today used to be so tiny I could cradle her in one arm. It makes my heart hurt to think of her childhood slip away and I try so hard to stop and smell the roses through out all the chaos of the other kids. I am so proud of who she already is and I know she will continue to make us proud. She is everything I hoped for in a little girl and I love her so much!

Happy Birthday Cori Poo!!