It's A Wonderful Life!: Happy 6th Birthday Emma Caroline!!

Taken on her birthday, before school...

I cannot believe that my baby girl turned 6 on Wednesday! Has it really been 6 years since I had my baby girl? I will never forget the excitement and anticipation of being pregnant with my first baby...and then when we found out it was a GIRL...all of my dreams had come true.

Emma has a little scar on her cheek...a permanent reminder of her delivery. It is barely a whisp of a scar...you would never notice it if you didn't already know it was there. My labor with her was going so well...I was progressing quickly and the nurse was going over "pushing instructions"after 7 or 8 hours of being in labor--I was dilated to a 9.5. But as she was starting to descend into the birth canal, her heart rate dived and was not returning to normal. I remember my body just started shaking...from labor and mostly from just being nervous and terrified . I just wanted them to get her out as quickly as possible...we all knew the consequences of a baby being deprived of oxygen for too long. So they rushed me into the OR, and within minutes (at 2:03 am) we had our perfect, healthy baby girl. She was perfectly healthy...and the doctor thought that her shoulder was pushing against her umbilical cord which was causing her heart rate to drop each time she would try to descend into the birth canal. And then we noticed the nick on her tiny cheek...and we were told that the doctor did it while rushing to get her out. It broke my heart--I didn't want her to have a scar on her face for the rest of her life. But as Mike reminded me of often, a tiny scar on her face is so minimal to what could have happened had they not acted as quickly as they did.(cerebral palsy from oxygen deprivation for one) (And did you know that when you sign consent forms for a c-section, they list nicks/lacerations as being possible results of the procedure? Oh the research I did afterwards...)

And looking back, I realize that there are so many things that could have went wrong, so that tiny scar really is so very minimal. And look what we have today...a beautiful, healthy, smart and sweet 6 year old little girl who amazes us every single day! Happy Birthday Emma Caroline.

Emma is doing wonderful in school. She has started the accelerated reading program this year and LOVES it. She loves school and loves her teacher. She is doing Daisy Scouts this year, and art lessons with Ms. Regina, and will start ballet next week. She makes her mommy and daddy so proud and we love her more than words can say.