Dearest Desmond,

Today is November 4^th, 2009. One year ago today was Election day and President Obama was elected to be our new president. Also, I went into labor with you. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as just going into labor. No. It had to be difficult, of course, because that’s how things are for me. Nothing is ever as easy as it should be… but that’s what makes life interesting, I suppose.

I woke up that day early with a stomach ache. I was schedule to be induced at 8:30pm that night so I took the day off of work so I could vote and get some things around the house finished. Your dad came home from work that day and we headed off to the library so we could vote and then we were going to come home, eat lunch, and go to my check up. When we got home, dad and I decided we needed to move the car seat from my car to his truck- so he took care of that while I ran in the house to get a small sandwich (peanut butter) and let the dogs out. When I got upstairs I had to go potty and within seconds my entire body felt like it was on fire. It hurt so much. I went outside and told your dad I felt really, really sick and I was hurting. It didn’t feel like labor. We decided to leave the house and go to my doctors appointment an hour early so Dr. Caudill could check me out.

(As a small side note: while all of this was happening the doctor’s office called and left me a message that Dr. Caudill had a conflicting meeting and he needed to postpone my induction until the next evening. I heard the message on the way to his office and when I told your dad, he was SO MAD. How dare Dr. Caudill have something more important than us?! He still gets riled up when you ask him about it! Try some time…)

When we got to the doctor’s office I was really sick. My skin was white and clammy and I was in a lot of pain. Your dad dropped me off at the door and parked the car while I went into the hospital to throw up (I know, TMI, well this is the story of your birth so get over it.). I felt like lying down in the bathroom and crying but I managed to meet your dad in the hall and ride the elevator up to the second floor. When we got upstairs into the office, I went to sign in and they saw how awful I looked and sent me into the back to give them a urine sample and wait for Dr. Caudill to get back from his other appointment.

When Dr. Caudill finally got into the office to see me, he didn’t even realize how sick I was. I was holding a trashcan and had been throwing up. He just kept apologizing over and over again for needing to postpone my induction. Once he stopped talking he realized that something really was wrong with me and he sent me over to labor and delivery for monitoring.

Over at L&D they set me up with a room and hooked me up to the monitoring machines and made me drink 30oz of water and pee. They tested my pee and I had a lot of protein in my urine so they kept me. (side note: 4 months later they found out that I had a huge kidney stone that developed while I was pregnant with you. It was the size of a dime and had to be surgically removed. Fun times).

I was a trooper and didn’t take any pain medicine during this ordeal. It was extreme pain. The funny part of this is that while they had me hooked up to the machines they were supposed to be monitoring my contractions. Nothing was registering on the machine when I was feeling the pain, so they didn’t think anything of it. Well, it took your Grandma G pestering and insisting that something was wrong for the machines for them to realize I wasn’t hooked up correctly and I was indeed having contractions. They were big ones, too. I guess I was in labor for over 24 hours with you, if you want to get down to it.

Later on that night they went ahead and started me on pitocin because I still wasn’t dilating. Your grandma and grandpa G and S were all there, along with Uncle James, Aunt Jessica, and James’s friend, Alana. Your Auntie Missa was working that night so she kept coming by to visit, too. It was nice having so many people there anxiously waiting for you to get here…but you were cozy and I don’t think you wanted to come out. At 3am they came in to check on me and I still hadn’t dilated so they were going to do a second dose of pitocin at 8am. They didn’t need to do that because at 5am (or so) my water broke on it’s own. At 8am I got an epidural, at almost 10am the doctor came in and said we were going to start trying to push, and at a little after 12 pm they decided you weren’t coming out and set me up for a c-section.

You were born at 12:46pm and you weighed 6lbs and 4oz and you were 21.5 inches. You were so tiny and so absolutely adored from the second they laid eyes on you. (Well, your grandma G loved you but she said she was worried you might have been a special baby because you were screaming your head off and looked funny ;) Then she got to see you outside of the glass and you were absolutely perfect and the most beautiful, sweetest baby anyone ever saw.)

But there’s more. And I’ll save that for tomorrow.

I love you always,

Mommy

Wow, I can’t believe my little man is going to be a year old next week. Where did the time go?! I remember this time last year I was impatiently awaiting my due date. I was wishing the time away. I was wishing my pregnancy would just freaking end. Now that it’s over and I’ve had the pleasure of having my precious Desmond for the last year, I wonder why I rushed the time away. Now time flies, like some cosmic practical joke. I can honestly say I can see time moving right before my eyes and I don’t think I like it. I’ve seen my little 6lb baby morph into a walking, babbling, loving little boy and before I can blink an eye he’s going to be a year old and then he’ll be 5 and going to kindergarten and then 18 and graduating high school, and then before long he’ll be married, and have babies of his own and I will hide under my covers and cry for my mommy. I just don’t know how my mom did this with four kids. How she watched us grow up and become independent. It’s so hard. But I wouldn’t trade it for all of the money in the world. How can someone you barely know be born into your life and steal your heart in seconds? Once you have a baby of your own you will understand.