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nine months
By heather | April 15, 2009
Nine months ago, at this very moment (9:24pm) I was sitting in the hospital hooked up to a fetal monitor experiencing no contractions whatsoever. I was waiting for my doctor to get there, having been promised that as soon as he was done with dinner he’d be right there. What he neglected to mention was that he was eating dinner at one of those fine, fine steakhouses that serve side dishes “family style” (read: $8 for a bowl of green beans) and takes no less than three hours.
A little embarrassed that my moderately pathetic, but every-4-minutes contractions had stopped nearly as soon as I walked through those automatic double doors, I was lying sheepishly in the OB triage waiting to be sent home after the monitor failed to even register a blip.
What I didn’t know was that I was 7.5 centimeters dilated and there would be no going home that night. For fear I’d deliver in the bathtub if they sent me home, but being impatient by nature we collectively decided that it would be best to break my water and barely an hour later Emily Kate made her appearance.
In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago. So much has changed - particularly this year there’s been a lot of sadness and stress and the kind of things that make you think about what’s important. She’s forced me to focus, and not fall down, and pay attention.
She rarely cries and has a sunny, toothless smile for everyone she sees. Two weekends ago, she tentatively started to crawl. Since then, I’ve taken rocks, magnets, and crusty food from the floor out of her mouth. Today she pulled herself to standing in the tub, legs wide, and then let go throwing her arms to the side looking like a chubby starfish before plopping back into the water, pleased as punch that she did it.
A girly girl, she is attracted to all things shiny and has already perfected my patented look of disdain. When Alex is melting down, which is approximately three times an hour now that he’s two and a half, she seems to catch my gaze and roll her eyes as if to say, “These boys…”
Every single day, I look at her or cuddle her or smell her hair and think how lucky I am, and how many other things are just not that important at all.
Topics: EK | 2 Comments »
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April 15th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Love that wisp of hair on her forehead!
My experiential word of wisdom about children apt to crawl around eating things off the floor… check constantly for rouge cat poop.
Holly’s last blog post..Where I ponder Charity.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Wow 9 months alreaady? She is so cute btw.