Six years ago I became the luckiest woman on the planet. It was six years ago this month that this darling little angel boy came down to honor me by letting me be his mom. Little did I know then how much this sweet creature could enhance my life in just a few short years.

Since I am using this blog as my own journal, I am taking advantage of this year to hallmark my kiddos birth stories and add them to my ever growing collection of memories.
When I found out that I was pregnant with Bear, I was ecstatic. Nena was just barely over 1 year old, but I didn’t care. I really wanted my first two kiddos to be close in age. I am so glad that that is what happened.
Bear was not an easy pregnancy for me. During my time carrying him we: sold our home, moved in with my in-laws, had 1 surgery and 3 procedures performed on Nena, moved into our new home, major disagreements with the in-laws, had our car totaled by some idiot on a cell phone racing Nena and I to the hospital, my grandparents moved from San Diego to Utah and back again, and to boot I broke my foot when I was 7 months pregnant and had to go to the hospital to deliver him while on crutches! WHEW!!!Then, one day, while we were at the zoo with Nena, my contractions started. This sounds easy enough until I tell you that I was in a wheel chair because there was NO WAY that I was going to do the zoo on crutches. By ten that evening, I thought that I was going to die so off to the hospital we went. So, at midnight, with contractions 5 minutes apart and dilated to a 5+ what do those idiot nurses do (CLARIFICATION: I don’t think that nurses are idiots… I have a family full of them and LOVE THEM TO DEATH. These ones just happened to be real idiots) They see that I am 3 weeks from my due date, give me medicine to stop my contractions and send me home. No. Really. They did.

The next day at my check up with my OB, I told her what had happened and she was furious that no one had called her to talk over the situation. I mean really. Why would they? She is just the DOCTOR and her patient is in LABOR. No, I am not really bitter 6 years later. Well, maybe I am just a little. I was scheduled to be induced a couple of days later if I didn’t come on my own. In retrospect, it was a grand blessing that I didn’t have him on the day that I did. If you are truly interested in my divine intervention moment, let me know and I will certainly tell the tale.
So, the night before I was to be induced, we dropped Nena off at Grandma’s to spend the night. I was pretty certain that I would have to be at the hospital at the crack of dawn and waking up a not quite two year old at 4:00 a.m. didn’t sound like my idea of fun. We drove by Sconecutters… my all time favorite treat… and drove home to watch some random chick flick. We didn’t make it very far however. Within an hour of being home my contractions started and by midnight, we were off once again to the hospital.
Of all of my labors, his was by far the most painful. That is including my 36 hour labor with Nena and my month and a half labor with Toad. After an hour at the hospital, I was begging for pain meds, but the anesthesiologist was no where to be found (I am still regretting delivering at that particular hospital) and I think that I threatened to strangle every single person that entered that room with the tube going into my IV.

Finally, one nurse took a great deal of pity on my and came into my room with a syringe of fentanyl and started putting it into my IV. I asked if it would take away the pain and she replied that it wouldn’t, but it would make me not care one whit about it. She was right! It was the life saver in the whole process. I wish that they sold that over the counter =)

Now to skip over all of the mucky, gucky details and go straight to the fun part. At exactly 4:00 a.m. a beautiful baby boy came into this world. 6 pounds 4 ounces, 19 inches long, 10 fingers and ten toes and just the slightest whisper of brown hair. The look on his dad’s face was the most incredibly precious look that I have ever seen. He had the look of amazement, excitment, wonder, facination and the most extreme joy that I have ever seen. I will never forget that look.

Bear was immediately grabbed by a nurse and whisked to have his nose and mouth sucked out. Man… did that kiddo get blessed with a supreme set of lungs. From the second he took his first breath he screamed louder than I have ever heard any infant scream. EVER! They handed me this beet red screaming child and I had no idea what in the world to do with him. I felt instantly overwhelmed with exhaustion and hormones and started to cry because here was my precious child straight from heaven and he already hated me. The same blessed nurse that gave the relief from my unbearable pain gave me a sweet look and said in a gentle voice, “Feed him and he will calm down.”
I did just that and the nurse was right. He did calm right down. After only a minute, he opened up those big eyes of his and gave a big soothing sigh and snuggled right into me. He slept almost the entire time he was in the hospital and amazed the nurses as to what an amazingly sweet baby he was.

You know, the older that little baby boy gets, the more grateful I am that he chose me to be his mom. That little boy is more special than anyone realizes. He is so smart, sweet and has the most amazingly strong spirit about him. He is a very old and wise soul and I know that he is here to teach me not the other way around. Someday I hope that I can live to be the mom that he deserves because he certainly deserves the very best. I love you Bear. Thank you for making every day better than the last!