Happy 8th Birthday Nick!

Our eldest is EIGHT years old today! Since I didn't have the old BLOG back then, it's not quite as easy to pull things up. I have to actually SCAN pictures in! I think we did have a digital camera back then, or maybe we got it shortly after he was born. I can't remember. Anyhow, Phil documented the day in writing & we have it in his baby book. It's really nice to read the story from a different view, not just mine. How I wish he would of done that for the other births. But we usually do things for that FIRST child & the rest aren't so lucky, right?!?

Well back in 1998, Phil & I were living with my mom & dad. We had tried to sell our mobile home for a year without any luck. So we bought a piece of land in Courtland & decided we would *move* the mobile home out there on a basement. So we bought the land & guess what? The mobile home sold! So we had land now & decided to build. So we had to be out of the mobile home & weren't quite ready for the new house. So we moved in w/ my folks for almost a year to save up some money as well.

So I was set to be induced with Nicholas on Monday the 2nd. I was 12 days past my due date. I worked until that Friday. I can STILL remember going to work every day for those 2 weeks "you STILL here?" "No baby yet?" It got old. REALLY old!

Sunday night Phil & I went to bed to prepare for the next day. I went to bed about 10:30 or so & he joined me at 11:00 after Sunday night FOOTBALL. Midnight, I woke up with some contractions. Not sure if they were real or not. Called the hospital & they told me to take a bath. Ya, ok. I said can't I just come in, I have to be there in a few hours anyhow. They told me to wait. Well finally about 3:00 am we went in. Made that long one minute car ride to the hospital. My doctor came & checked me & broke my water around 4:30 am. By 11:00 I was finally ready to start pushing. I pushed for an hour. That sucked. 12:17 Nick was born. So it was about 12 hours labor for my first one. Not bad. What was hard was being soooo tired. Up all night. I haven't gotten any sleep since.

I dug this picture out & see that Phil still wears that sweatshirt. If I remember right, he got it from his friend Doug for being in his wedding. That IS over 10 years ago. I think he got married before us...so maybe even 15 years old. Time to retire it Phil.