Time goes way too fast!

A year ago, my baby was born on Feburary 23rd at 7:51pm. This has truly been the fastest year of my entire life! I have a feeling that the next 17 are going to go rather quickly too. I cannot believe that she is one.


A year ago, Matthew and I got up at 5 am and headed to the hospital to be induced (my doctor thought that Nora could weigh around 9 pounds and didn't want me to have to go through any additional turmoil). I changed into the gown and got hooked up to the Pitocin and settled in for the long haul. You can imagine my surprise when they told me, before they even hooked up the Pitocin IV, that my contractions were already 3 minutes apart. I couldn't feel a thing! I thought this labor thing was going to be a piece of cake :). Fast forward 2 hours when my water breaks...serious labor pains started and I begged for my epidural.


You never know how you are going to react to the pains of labor. Will I be a yeller? Will I moan or scream? Well, I was silent. During each painful contraction, I silently counted in my head and clung onto the bed rails for dear life. When I got the epidural, I became a sleeper-lovely sleep!




It is also amazing how quickly I was able to go from 3 cm dilated to 10 cm dilated! I didn't feel a thing! Which means, I could not feel to push. Guess what that meant...they TURNED OFF the epidural! In about 30 minutes, I was able to feel everything! Again, I became silent.

I pushed with everything I had. Matthew was such a great coach and so encouraging. Guess who was not encouraging? My doctor. Here is his quote (maybe not exact...but what I remember), "Um, Dallas, the baby has turned and I have stuck my hand all the way up to your throat to try to turn her around and she just isn't turning. Now, I remember at our visits you told me that if we had to do a c-section, then that would be alright. I think we are going to have to." Me, "Does that mean you will turn my epidural back on? If so, yes!" I don't remember much after that. They suited Matthew up and went to tell my family that I was about to go into surgery. I was only concerned with the pain factor and wanted to make sure they had extra "juice" running through my veins. Thankfully, when they stuck me with the needle to make sure I didn't feel anything, I didn't feel anything.




The next few moments were whirlwind moments. The opened me up and pushed on my stomach, hard, and got Nora out (who, by the way, only weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces...wrong guess doc). She cried loud for us and we cried too.



I wish I could say that the next few moments were moments I had dreamed of, but honestly, they weren't. I didn't get to hold her because my arms were strapped down. Matthew brought her over to me and I did get to look at her, for a millisecond, before they whisked her off to the nursery to weigh and measure.




So, I was stuck in the operating room, all alone, surrounded by doctors who were sewing me up. And I was shaking SO HARD. They kept asking me if I was cold, which I wasn't, and I kept saying, "I guess I'm just nervous." Turns out, I had drug overload in my system and was experiencing some sort of drug induced shake-fest. Not fun. They gave me a shot of Demerol to ease the shakes and it did the trick.



Finally, they wheeled me back down to my room and I was able to hold my baby for the first time. THAT was the moment I had been dreaming about! Sadly, though, I have to re-live it, not in my memories, but in pictures. You see, since I had so many drugs in my system, I remember little of what happened after they took me back to my room. Matthew claimed that I kept falling asleep and he would have to poke me awake. And when I wasn't sleeping, I was laughing like a crazy woman. Nice. Poor Nora kept falling asleep too. Our first nursing session lasted about 2 minutes because neither one of us could keep our eyes open.


(here I am laughing...I think the nurse is laughing with me just to make me feel better)

Thankfully, the rest of her 12 months have been tremendous. She is the best thing that has ever happened to Matthew and me. I really can't imagine not having her. It has also been the most challenging 12 months of my life. There have been so many times when I have looked at her and thought, "I have NO idea what to do!" Thankfully, she has survived and seems pretty happy that I am her mom.

A few things about the year of Nora:

• she has 4 teeth (2 on top and 2 on bottom)


• she is not walking yet, but does pull up on everything and kind of creeps along furniture


• she laughs a lot, a true belly laugh


• she is always so excited to see either me or Matthew when we go pick her up from a nap or in the mornings


• she has had 2 ear infections (one of them a double ear infection, so I guess that means 3)


• she eats so much food and gets very upset when a mealtime is done


• she only weighs 16 pounds 13 ounces (a rough estimate. This was taken at the doctor's office on Tuesday with a wet diaper on...she was there for already mentioned ear infection)


• she never got to wear most of her summer clothes because they were too big for her...sad for me because they were all so cute


• she has had a bow in her hair most of her life


• when she was an infant, she did not like to be held close to anyone, she liked to be turned out so she could see everything


• she has been on an airplane 4 times so far


• she was nursed for 11 months and refused to ever take a bottle


• she LOVES whole milk


• she has never slept a night in our bed because she thinks it is a party


• she loves to be read to


• she used to hate Sunday School (and sometimes still does) and would be so vocal about it that most everyone in the church could hear her. They had to come and get me several times.


• she is the greatest gift that God has given us
  

Happy Birthday baby girl! I cannot wait to see how much fun you become and how much more I will fall in love with you.

Good times!

Remember those old elementary skating parties? Those were the best, weren't they? I used to LOVE to go roller skating. Granted, I was not very good, BUT I could skate backwards. Not the really good skating backwards where you can cross your feet over each other, turn around and shake your bottom...no, in order for me to skate backwards, I had to do the figure 8. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You carefully turn around and make sure that no one runs you over. Then you get your feet parallel with each other and slowly start the "figure 8". Your feet go out and then in, out and then in. And, miraculously, you go backwards. It usually only lasted a few feet because my thighs would start hurting and I would have to stop COMPLETELY (if I didn't come to a full stop, more than likely, I would fall down). After stopping, I would slowly turn myself around again and take off.

One year for Christmas I got a white pair of roller skates with pink rollers. I loved them! I don't even know now why I wanted them. It's not like I spent 4 of the 7 nights at the rink, usually it was once a month, if that. I do remember a girl in my class being on the roller skating team (what!) and I thought she was beautiful. I'm sure I wanted to be like her, so I begged my mom for some skates. I wonder what happened to those?

My favorite parts of the roller rink were "red light, green light" and partner skate. I don't think it was actually called "partner skate" (not to be confused with "couple's skate" which I did not like! Did they seriously expect me to hold someones hand and stay upright at the same time...come on!). In partner skate, you get a partner (duh) and one of you gets really low to the ground, usually extending one leg while keeping the other leg tucked underneath, and the other person pushes the knelt one around the rink. I always liked to do the pushing because I was afraid that my fingers would get run over if I was the one doing the tucking.

I have only been skating a few times since elementary school. A few times happened in college. We would have to drive all the way to Little Rock to go skating though because Searcy did not have a roller rink. Come on Searcy, get with the program! Although, Matthew did inform me that Searcy used to have one. I guess that got rid of it when the 90's started. My social club (HU version of sorority) even had a skating function one time. We all dressed up in 80's gear. It was so much fun!

Tonight, our church had a skating night. It was hilarious! But, the best part, was to see the 30 and 40 year olds skating who you KNEW used to be on their town roller skating team and dreamed that one day the Olympics would make roller skating an event. When they pulled out the limbo stick, I have never been so impressed to see "how low" so many of them got. The way they were able to practically do the splits while still keeping their rollers on the floor was inspiring. I'm sure most of them are using ice packs and hot pads tonight to quiet the hurt.

I think I should get on ebay and find me a pair of white roller skates with pink rollers...maybe the Olympics is in my future after all.

For my sister...

It looks like she is saying, "Are you talking to me? I'm not sure about this...you are interrupting my playtime!"
She loves her ravioli!

My sister is wanting some new pictures of Nora...here are a few Marty, I will upload some more tonight. We love you!

My Valentine

I am so lucky to be married to the greatest guy in the whole world...and I don't tell him that near enough. He is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me and here is a list of reasons why I love him so much:

• a fantastic dad to Nora-he loves that little girl so much
• he drives an OLD beat up truck that does not have heat or air and lets me drive a car that has both. And he NEVER complains.
• he works hard everyday so that I can stay home with Nora and not have a full-time job
• he makes me laugh...really laugh. He does things on purpose just to see me smile.
• he knows when I am having a bad day and knows when to stay out of my way :)
• he does the dishes
• he is in charge of Nora's bath each night so I can have a few minutes to myself
• he always tells me I'm beautiful, and he really, really means it...even when I know that I have looked better
• he thought that I was beautiful even when I was 9 months pregnant, snoring at night, and tossing and turning so much that he couldn't sleep
• he gets up with Nora sometimes at night
• he loves us and would rather spend time with us than doing anything else
• he loves God and truly wants to serve Him
• he is concerned about being a better Christian and a better servant
• he can build things
• he is really smart (really! he knows all types of math things that I have never even heard of)
• he takes care of Nora on Monday and Tuesday nights
• when we have conversations on how we need to improve things in our marriage, he listens and starts improving
• he loves me for me
• he is gentle about correcting me or helping me improve myself
• he makes me want to be a better wife
• even though he doesn't really like "ER", he knows that I do and he watches it with me
• when he folds clothes, he puts them in so many piles...it's cute
• he is an athlete (there is a 50% chance that our kids will be athletic)

I could write way more than this, but then I would just be bragging. I am so thankful that God led us on a journey that ended up in marriage. Fourteen years ago, I never would have guessed that Matthew David Henderson would be my husband, I am so glad that God knew what I was too blind to see.

So much to do...one person to hold

Has anyone ever had a MILLION things to do one day? You wake up with a plan...1. eat breakfast 2. super quick shower 3. start tackling the list of things that NEED to get done before 5pm. Sounds great, however, your child is not aware of your list or the time crunch you are in and sits at your feet crying, begging to be held.

So, what do you do? Throw the list out the window, sit on the couch and hold your very needy baby.

That is my life today. I have class tonight and am not prepared at all to teach. I figured I could throw some toys down by the computer for Nora to play with and she would at least give me 30 minutes of work time before she needed my attention. I was mistaken...she gave me less than 30 seconds.

Oh well, what is really more important? Obviously, Nora. She is finally taking a nap and I am about to go prepare so my students don't think I put everything off until the last minute (which, I usually don't). Maybe I can wow them tonight with my exciting activities. We'll see.

Our new child...

Let me introduce to our newest addition to the Henderson family...Nora, the little girl who throws tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. Here she is after I have taken her Cheerios away from her. Now, let me tell my side of the story...she had already consumed a TON of them and I was trying to clean up, so I removed them from her hands and she went crazy! I didn't give in and give them back to her, no, I just grabbed the camera and started taking pictures.

She is so upset that she collapses on the floor and continues crying there. Even at this point, I don't feel sorry for her, I just keep thinking about how when she is older, she will look at these pictures and laugh.
She's back up!!!!! Hoping that I have changed my mind and will give her back her Cheerios. She doesn't know me very well apparently...who does she think she inherited her stubborn streak from?
Finally, she locates her milk (only sitting inches away from her the entire time...but she was too distraught to find it) and everything seems to be fine now...well, for the next few minutes anyways.

Seriously though...calling all veteran moms...what should I do? This is not the first time this has happened. Usually when it does happen, it involves food (she does not like when she is done eating), but it also happens when I am changing her diaper, putting her in the car seat, and changing her clothes. My sweet baby girl of last week has surprised me with this new side to her personality. I always knew it was coming, but I figured I had a whole other year before it started. She will be one in 19 short days and already she is "testing" me.


My method so far has been to ignore her and not give in to her tantrum (i.e. give her back her cereal, not change her diaper, leave her unclothed). I realize that she is still a baby and might not understand that, but I figured, the sooner I start that, the better. Right? For those of you who have had to deal with this, what have you done and has it worked? I really appreciate any advice I can get!