Happy Sweet Sixteen to Rachel!

Just a mere 4 days since we celebrated Rachel’s 16th birthday and I’m already composing her birthday post! This is the earliest I’ve ever been late! :-D I doubt I would be doing this if it was a typical Thursday, but this week is Spring Break, which means no schoolwork, no online classes, and no ballet lessons in the evening. So it’s been a little easier to carve out time for doing this.

Rachel’s Birth Story

For Rachel, I’m going to continue the tradition I started this year of writing out each birthday child’s birth story.  My due date with Rachel was April 14th, 1996.  When my brother-in-law found out my due date, he laughed and said “I hope the baby doesn’t come on April Fool’s Day!” My response was “I hope so!  That will mean she’s 2 weeks early!” Of course, I didn’t actually believe she’d come early. In my naïve mind, all first babies were overdue. Plus, according to Mom I was overdue by 6 days, so I figured my own babies would be, too.

So, fast forward to the wee hours of April 1st.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a contraction that didn’t go away when I walked around.  Around 6:00 am, I excitedly woke Mick up and we got everything ready to go. After an examination at the doctor’s office, I was told to go back home.  “The baby could come today, the baby could come in a week.”  The ride back home was much more subdued and my contractions quieted down and eventually stopped.  We had lunch, Mick updated his Final Four brackets, we took a nap.  When I woke up in the early afternoon, the contractions were back, stronger and closer.  Not wanting to be sent back home, we decided to wait until they were consistently 5 minutes apart.  When that happened around 3:00, we headed back down, and this time drove straight to the hospital. 

Things progressed quickly at that point. Once I was settled in and got comfortable, we decided to call Mom and Dad. That’s one of the moments we love to rehash on Rachel’s birthday each year.  It went something like this:

Dad:  “Hello.”

Me:  “Hi, Dad!  I’m at the hospital!”

Dad:  “What?!!  You ARE?!!”  (sounds of Mom gasping in the background)

Me:  “APRIL FOOLS!!”

Dad:  “Hey!!!  Awwwwwww!!!” (sounds of Mom deflating in the background)

Me:  “Just kidding!  I AM at the hospital!!”

Dad:  “You are?!!!”  (sounds of Mom fainting in the background)

So, they headed over to the hospital (breaking several speed limits, no doubt) and Kelly, Glenn and 8-week-old Luke came, as did Heather, Chuck and his friend from South Africa, Alvin. Jennifer and Steve were vacationing and Minda and Mario were living in Alabama at that time.

So, back in the labor and delivery room, there was lots of excitement.  A few random details I remember:

• From the heart rate, the nurses were all predicting a boy.
• Initially, Rachel tried to enter this world face up, but was successfully turned by my doctor.

Finally, at 8:14 pm, after 45 minutes of pushing, we had our first baby:  a girl!  Beautiful, delicate 6 lbs. 7 oz. with a little bit of very dark hair and very dark eyes that rarely blinked!

Rachel’s 16th birthday

The birthday meals around here are a big deal.  The kids all take great delight throughout the year in dreaming about and planning their birthday meals, oftentimes changing their minds several times before the actual day.  Rachel’s decision was an easy one:  Spaghetti.  Her favorite food is Italian.  So, we had spaghetti, homemade Italian bread, fruit slush, and chocolate milk – all her favorites!  Grandma and Grandpa came and were seated on either side of the birthday girl, as is also our custom.  The birthday cake was Texas Sheet Cake.  After opening gifts, we were able to take advantage of the summer-like weather we’ve enjoyed this Spring and take a walk down to see our neighbor’s horses.

The most memorable part of Rachel’s birthday this year happened during the gift-opening.  It was dramatic.  It was hilarious.  There was rollicking laughter and even tears.  And best of all, there was a camcorder (steadily held by Mick and rolling the whole time) which captured the entire sequence of events.  Afterwards, Rachel said it was the highlight of her 16th birthday … and I’m sure they’ll never let me forget it.  :-D

It really deserves it’s own blog post, so I’ll finish this one up with pictures, first from Rachel’s birthday this year:

And now, some pictures through the years (I really do need to start scanning in all the older pictures I have!):

Happy Sweet 16, Rachel!