The Toy Stories: What a Difference a Year Makes

(Note: This was originally supposed to get posted on Annie’s birthday, but let’s just pretend...)

1 Year and 1 Day Ago....
I was 36 weeks pregnant and having a baby shower, walking to Sonic with my family for a post-dinner ice cream dessert, and playing a late night game of Rummikub.

1 Year Ago....
Matt and I woke up, were making plans to head to church with our family and then take in an afternoon Sounds baseball game. But sweet little Annie had different plans. After a frantic call to the OB doctor on call whom I had never seen, heard of or spoken to in my life, we drove to the hospital (with no bag of things one might normally take to the hospital when there’s potentially a baby on the way), and then made plans to meet up with our family at the late service at church. After a couple of hours of being checked and completely re-creating my medical file (mine hadn’t been transferred at the hospital yet and my doctor was out of town, so picture me with my planner out trying to remember the dates of and exactly what had happened at the last 10 OB appointments), they decided I was officially in labor and sent us to a L&D room.

I was panicked because my replacement at work was starting the very next day (I was 110% POSITIVE that I was not going to have Annie early, so we all though having 4 weeks for me to train someone would be plenty), so I was sitting in the hospital room with my laptop trying to write down everything that I was supposed to teach my replacement over the next 4 weeks. Meanwhile, I was texting the world to let them know that I was in labor, and Matt had his laptop, Blackberry and cell phone out as well. I don’t think our L&D nurse really appreciated our tech savvy-ness.

Fast forward a few hours – a few innings of a Dodgers baseball game on the TV in our room – and Matt was heading out to the lobby to get some pizza when the nurse told him he better stay in the room because the baby was coming! Then in walked another random doctor that I had never heard of or seen before (and I’ll never forget he was drinking a can of Coke when he came in to deliver Annie). Fifteen minutes of pushing and out came little 6 pound 4 ounce Annie who thankfully was completely healthy in spite of her 4 week early appearance. We were so thankful that the Annie fan club/paparazzi was just around the corner and all got to meet her just minutes after her arrival. (After an apparent fight broke out between the NICU nurses and the L&D nurses on whether or not she would have to be checked into the NICU since she was considered a “preemie”.)

I can remember that with her coming 4 weeks early, a fairly quick labor and a very fast delivery, I was not prepared for when they handed her to me for the first time. I’ll be honest... It wasn’t love at first sight. I think it was just too much to process all at once. I just remember thinking “Wow. They just handed me a baby. My baby. I’m not quite sure what to do here.” But within 15 minutes, I was head over heels in love. I have several friends that are pregnant right now and one was recently talking about how so many people talk about how bad the first few weeks are with a new baby. While they were definitely rough and (thankfully) I don’t remember too much about the sleepless nights and all the crying (me and Annie!), I can clearly remember one morning sitting in the chair in her room, looking out the window with her sleeping in my arms and thinking “I can’t possibly think of ANYTHING better that exists within this earthly life than this moment right now” and wishing that I could just stop time and enjoy it a little longer.