One Year and Counting

The doctors were saying you were going to weigh over 10 pounds. I don't remember what specifically set them to thinking that, but they had it pretty set in their minds that such would be the case. With that in mind, they wanted to induce your mother ahead of your due date. I don't remember how far ahead it was, but I doubt it was any more than a week. All along the way they were talking about possibly having to do a cesarian section to get you out. Luckily, that wasn't necessary.

They told us they were going to have us come in the night before to get things started, so we should call. When we called at six, they told us to call back at 11. When we called at 11, they told us to call at 5:15 the next morning. When we called at 5:15, they said they could take us at six. Little did we know, we'd be there waiting for almost another 12 hours before you joined us.

Staying up until 11, then waking up at 5 (and with your mother being pregnant) is a good combination to make sure you don't get enough sleep. We dragged ourselves into the hospital a little differently than before. Besides getting one of the best parking spaces in the lot, your mother wasn't feeling like she was about to have a baby. Personally, I knew we would be in for the long haul.

Almost immediately they started to induce labor. Unfortunately for your mother, they didn't bother giving her any pain killers for quite a few hours. I don't remember any of the nurses names, but they were all very nice to your mother. One of them was very much into American Idol, and we were happy to talk about the show (I'm still upset about who won that year). The nurses would come in every so often and check on her. Gradually they would increase the dosage, and things would move along a bit more.

I think one of the driving factors for that day specifically was that your mother's doctor was actually working that day. It's not even that we were all that dependent on that one specific doctor, but she (the doctor) seemed to really want to deliver you, and we were fine with that. She was/is a nice lady, but as you'll hopefully discover one day, once labor starts, it's not a very simple thing to stop. Whoever the doctor was when the time came would have been fine with me.

Almost 11 hours of nothingness happened during that day. The hospital facilities were very nice. The delivery room was gigantic, and they were kind enough to offer us some movies to help pass the time. We watched French Kiss and So I Married an Axe Murderer—hopefully the latter doesn't influence you to follow a certain career path. I think your mother chose both of them, but I know she chose the first one.

There was a Somalian lady out in the hallway that had apparently been using our room before us. I don't know if she was the mother, or a family member, or what… but she was absolutely positive she had left a head scarf in the room. Thankfully I never had any interaction with her myself, but we could hear her yelling out in the hallway about how she wanted to come in the room to look for the scarf. The hospital workers (and eventually a police officer) dealt with her, and the room was searched at least three times by them. I even looked around a while. I don't remember how long the whole ordeal went on, but it seemed like quite a while. She was adamant that she had left it in there. It ended up that later I asked and the lady had gone home, and found it somewhere at her home. She called the hospital to apologize. I was hoping she would have sent some food along with her apology, since I didn't pack enough for the day.

One other quick story was about the pre-delivery nurse. This guy, whatever his title was, was supposed to set up the delivery cart and all of its tools. He spent a number of minutes opening packages and laying things out. It was an extremely impressive routine he had. He was extremely anal in how he laid things out, where he put stuff, how he worked with the tools, and how polished the whole process was. He was obviously very practiced at it. Just the other day your mother mentioned it again to me, so I know I'm not the only one who was impressed by it.

Anyway, when push came to uh… well, when push came to push, things were ready to roll very quickly. They called down the doctor, and she barely had enough time to get all dressed up and ready before you were jetting on out. In fact, I believe your mother only had to push for about 20 minutes (compared to the near 2 hours needed for your sister).

When you came out, almost immediately you were put into your mothers arms. They spent a good deal of time wiping you off, and getting you to calm down. The moment you finally did get quiet is when they put you under the heat lamp. I can imagine it's not very fun getting taken out of a warm home into a comparatively frigid hospital room. Although you were heavier than your sister, you weren't anything out of control - a mere eight pounds, four ounces. Don't worry, I have the photographical evidence (and other paperwork) to prove it.

Like normal, they whisked you and I off to give you a bath and get you wrapped up. It's one of my favorite photos, though slightly out of focus.

You were a pretty baby. You slept like a champ, and actually didn't mind being wrapped up nice and tight. Your mother thought you were even more fabulous, since you nursed immediately, and without any issues. You were a welcome addition to the family.

You've had a wonderful first year. Let me give you an idea of what you're currently doing:

• Smiling a lot, with two bottom teeth, and one tooth that's barely broken the skin on top. You smile a lot, and your smile looks great with…
• Your big blue eyes. I can't put any claim on the color them, but they certainly are gorgeous. They're huge and really tell a lot about your personality. They sparkle every time you smile.
• You crawl. Originally it started as an army crawl. You were all about leading with your elbows, and essentially pulling your legs behind you. Eventually you started to use your feet to help push you along as well, and then one day you started crawling normal – up on your hands and feet. You now pull yourself up on your knees to stuff very frequently, and your mother caught you standing for the first time yesterday. I have yet to verify this, so we'll just have to trust her.
• You love to eat. You can put away food like nobody else. Although your cheeks are smaller now than they used to be, they're still large enough to get comments from a number of people about how obviously not unfed you are ("Whoa, she's not starving.") Your cheeks got you more comments than I want to admit. Combine them with your eyes and pretty smile, and you were a champ.
• You've learned a few little tricks. You give kisses (put your open mouth on somebody's face), you "give loves" (hug something, like the photo below), comb your hair (though it doesn't exactly help your 'do), do "so big" with your arms when asked how big you are, will clap your hands, say yes and no (by nodding/shaking your head), and will do "more" and "all done" in sign language
• You love your mother and sister – You don't say "dada", but "mama" and will crawl towards her and either butt your head against her leg, or pull on her leg to get her to pick you up. You laugh constantly at your sister, despite how much she gets in your face.
• You're an herbivore. I don't know how many times we've pulled you away from the house plants. The bottom leaves are tattered, torn, and missing thanks to your preferences in snack food. This doesn't stop with the house plants. Your mother tells me you're untrustworthy at the grocery store too, grabbing whatever vegetable is nearest you and attempting to fire that down – this week it was the celery
• You're a dancer. Sure, you just sit there and bounce up and down with the music, but at least you're feeling it. Your mother couldn't be happier. I'll try to fend her off for a bit longer so we can limit the eminent growth stunting that her "let's get Becky enrolled in dancing now" attitude will bring.
• You love your blanket, and suck your thumb – what a life saver. The blanket you particularly like (and I'd be surprised if it changed) is your yellow blanket, knitted for you by Grammy. It's a must-have for any time of rest, or even just for chilling out for a bit. Combine that blanket with your trusty left thumb, and you're good to go.
• Your name is really fun to say. It's not just your first name, but your middle name as well. We've made combinations of your name, and you are kind enough to respond to them. The most common are "The Becky Lee" and "Die Lee" (German Die, pronounced "dee" (though admittedly she was called "der Lee" for a long time until we figured out that was masculine)), Ooo The Becky Lee.

We're thrilled to have you in our family and look forward to all the fun times we'll have together. We just wanted to let you know how much we love you, and wish you a very happy birthday.