Birthday

Today was Miss Marshmallow's 5th birthday and I let her pretty much call the shots with me for the whole day. Daddy was at work. We had a leisurely breakfast. She had Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar Cream of Wheat with bumble bee shaped grahm crackers and a glass of milk. I had Cinnamon Roll oatmeal and coffee with vanilla creamer. She got to laze about in her PJs and watch Disney channel and play with the toy Cars that were on her 4th of July cake. We celebrated on the 4th with our Aunt M, Cousin L + M and she opened her presents from them and J's parents too.

Then I got restless and mentioned going to the park and doing a little shopping. I didn't want to run any errands but we needed a new filter for the bedroom humidifier. We went to the cool dinosaur park about a mile from our house. We brought water bottles and stayed there for an hour or so. Not many kids were there, it was a hot day. Then we went on the quick run for the filter.

Came home, had left over pizza for lunch and I painted her toenails. She picked a deep orchid shade with gold microglitter. She wanted me to match, so I painted my tips with it too. We watched the neighborhood kids race down the hill on their bikes. I suggested that M join them in the bike riding, but she declined. After our nails were dry we went down to the park down the street and around the corner from our house which was completely deserted.

We got bored and came home and M got to watch the Cars movie while we waited for Dada to get home from work and I wrapped her presents from us. When the movie ended she got to open her presents from us, my parents and her Uncle D + Cousin C. Then she got to make art with some of her new supplies while I cooked her special request of fish shaped fish sticks and macaroni and cheese for her dinner. She was already up WAY past her bedtime but after she was in her PJs with teeth brushed I read her the book she got as one of her presents and I don't usually stay by her bedside while she falls asleep but it just felt right tonight.

I rested my head on her matress and my arm was resting on her thigh and bottom. I thought about the early hours and gazed at her in the dim light. She still breaks my heart with her sweet beauty.

This is a copy and paste of the first birth story I wrote when I was first able to get the chance to do so:

Marsha RoseAnne's Birth Tale
Written by: her Momma with help from Daddy
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It was 8:30 am on Monday the 5th July. I had just finished having a morning potty break and was washing my hands at the sink in my night shirt and felt a sudden gush and heard a splash on the floor. I thought that maybe I had lost control of my bladder, but peed an aweful lot in the toilet so I was suspicious of it being my waters breaking. Some dribbled on my leg so I wiped it off and smelled it to see if it smelled like pee and it didn't so I told hubby 'uh, i think my water just broke!' We briefly discussed it, and agreed in the end that it most likely was the water broken and we called the labor and delivery nurse station who told us to come on in, but we didn't have to rush. We then casually collected my hospital stay belongings then headed out to the hospital. We arrived there at around 10:30 am.

Almost immediately I got hooked up to external moniters. I was having mild contractions occasionally but wasn't noticing them when they hit. They did a swabbing to verify the presence of amniotic fluid. I layed around in bed dribbling fluid almost constantly till they came in at around 3 pm when they finally did an exam and told me I was dialated to a 3. Thankfully they also authorised me a light snack. I was HUNGRY! That single granola bar and a bowl of cereal at home was all that I had to eat during the whole labor process. Thankfully I was allowed as much water as I wanted, but during active labor had to have ice chips.

We laid around all day, I was bored and wanted nothing more to get up and walk around but I guess they kept me in bed to try minimise the amount of fluid lost. So Jason stayed by my side and read his book or watched Animal Planet with me.

I requested an epidural when I was at around 5cm dialation. I was still able to work through the contractions with controlled breathing, squeezing Jason's hand, and some mild noise making but knew it was going to get worse and indeed by the time I actually got the epidural at 8cm the pains were putting me in tears and the whole world was disappearing except for the pain. Thankfully I was able to have a little bit of Stadol in my IV when they told me how long it would be for the anesthitist. It was a -crazy- night with lots of unplanned C-Sections. So, the Stadol was kind of nice. It took the edge off a bit so I would have a contraction then doze off in between.

Here is what Jason had to say about it (copied and pasted from the forum for the game we play online) I am 'Murr' in the following... "Marsha RoseAnne Thompson was born on 6 July 2004, at 5:56AM. She weighed 6lbs, 10 oz (right on target for a mid 37th week baby), and was 18.5 inches long.

Mom and Baby are doing fantastic. (For my part, I did not pass out, I did not get woozy, I got commended for a unique but effective coaching system, and I did the first dirty diaper change, as well as the second. Read'em and weep, Grim. *takes the victory lap*)

It was a little bit of a bumpy ride, and thank God for Vacuum suction, as a potential issue for an rather ugly emergency C-Section was mitigated to 2 minutes of very intense Olympic effort pushing (on Murr's part) and pulling (on the Doc's part), and a perfectly healthy baby girl. After clearing out a good 22cc's (!) of fluid (clear and healthy) from baby's lungs (during which she was crying, just not strongly), we heard about the angriest little wail that did a dad proud. She was a 9 on the APGAR scale for both readings (out of 10). Naturally, she is the most beautiful thing on the face of the planet, bar none. *nods*

Murr was a total champ. She made it to 5 cm dialation with full effacement without feeling *anything,* even with some of her contractions going off the chart on the TOCO. And once things started to get rough, she only got her epidural 2.5 hours after she requested it (there was an issue in another surgery that required the only anethesiologist on duty)... at 9.5 cm dialation. Total champ, she busted through what appears to have been the only natural delivery among 9 births that day, and stayed smiling even through some really hairy parts.

I am home now, for the evening. It was getting close to the point where they were going to kick me out of the ward anyways, as its an old Air Force hospital with doubled up post-partum rooms, meaning Dad's don't get to spend the night. That changes in October we hear, which I think they only told us to piss us off. I mean really, why tell us that?

Mom and baby are well cared for until I am allowed to return. And 36 hours later, I finally get to take a shower and crash, I've been riding a caffeine wave the entire time... so the break isn't entirely unwelcome. Although I'm trying to hang in there until a "normal" bedtime. *smirks* I know, foolish, given who is soon coming home and her dictating who sleeps when.

And on that note, if things continue as swimmingly as they are, we expect the trip home on Thursday morning."

And that is what I have to tell of Marsha's birth so far. Sorry I lagged so hard on getting this all recorded! Oh well, 3 weeks late is better than never =)