Blink, and five years go by

Five years ago today I was sitting (maybe standing and pacing) in a hospital delivery room waiting for our daughter to be brought into this world. It's hard to believe it's been that long, it really feels like two weeks ago. Until I look around and see all the toys accumulated, that is. It would be pretty hard to have this many in only a couple of weeks. We tried, believe me.

For our daughter's birth, things were a bit different than our son's. The biggest difference was that it was planned. We knew what day we were going in, and about when she would be born. This was mostly due to the fact that the doctor was going to be out of town when Jenn was due, so he said we could have Jenn induced before he went out of town, as long as everything was fine that is. At least we were more prepared. We didn't have to time contractions, Jenn didn't have to wake me up from a deep sleep on the couch; it's nice to have a plan.

We did get a little lucky though. It turned out that every pregnant woman in a 40 mile radius decided to go into labor that same day. We were lucky that our appointment didn't get canceled. It was funny, it seemed like every 5 minutes the short lullaby music would play to announce another birth. It got kind of old, actually.

After all the drugs were in Jenn, we waited for things to start happening. It took a while, and there was nothing good on TV. That didn't help. Around 3pm the doctor came in to check on things. That's when he mentioned that our daughter was turned wrong. I think she was face-up instead of face-down, so it was slowing everything down. He said it might take awhile. I decided to go out and call all the grandparents and tell them this was going to be awhile, and not to expect a call too soon.

While I was gone the doctor must have gotten a call from his wife or something. He came in and said he was going to try to get the baby to turn over. I don't know what he did exactly, but he was pushing on Jenn's stomach a lot. Then, about ten minutes later, our daughter was born. It was weird. At least he made his dinner appointment.

So now, five years later, she's a big girl who likes to play with dolls, get her nails painted, and pretend like she is selling things. Next year she goes to kindergarten, and before we know it, she'll be in college. And I'll be an old(er) man.

Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie!