Wednesday's Walk-Happy Birthday Dakota

I'm a little late linking up my Wednesday's Walk this week. So glad Jenilee left the linky open so I could still join in!

In just about 2 hours, my oldest daughter, Dakota, will be 12 years old! I can't believe it! One more year and I will have a teenager in the house! I don't know if I am prepared for that. So, today's Wednesday's (or in my case Thursday's) Walk down memory lane is dedicated to Dakota.

(Dakota was born before we had a digital camera and I don't have a scanner, so you'll have to suffer through with pictures of pictures today.)

Here's our first picture of Dakota.

Here is a picture of me just a few days before Dakota was born.

I had gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. I was swollen from head to toe. See those lovely shoes? I got to wear those because the strap was adjustable so I could actually get my feet into them. Lovely, huh?

Here's Daniel showing off his "baby belly". Ha!
And here's a picture of the two of us together. You can sure see how young we are in this picture!

I was scheduled to be induced on Thursday morning, the 16th, but Dakota had other plans. Around 11ish on the night of the 14th, I got up to use the restroom and my water broke. I started getting things ready and told Daniel he needed to wake up. Daniel isn't very much fun to wake up, and this time was no exception. He growled something at me about getting up in 5 minutes. I continued getting ready to go and suddenly he came bursting out of the bedroom. Apparently, he woke up enough to realize that Seinfeld was on TV (which comes on around 11 here) and it was still night. He realized what was going on then and went into panicked new dad mode. :)

Daniel drove like crazy (nothing really out of the ordinary for him-hahaha!) and we arrived at the hospital around midnight. The nurses got us all settled in and we watched some television and waited.

I don't remember very much about the rest of the labor. I do remember that as it went on and became more uncomfortable, I was getting really irritated with having so many people trying to talk to me, etc. I had planned on trying to make it without an epidural, but my blood pressure was up and the nurses/doctor recommended one to help me to relax. I am SO glad I listened. Once I got my epidural, I was pretty happy to visit with everyone. I felt so much better.

I always joke with ladies who are getting close to their due dates that the way to get your baby to come is to make sure your house is a mess. Leave your dishes in the sink, don't vacuum, let your laundry stay scattered on the floor. It worked for us twice! :) The nurses assured Daniel the we had HOURS to go before Dakota would arrive, so he made a run for home to load the dishwasher and straighten things up a bit (and I think take a nap). Turns out, we didn't have quite as long as they thought. He nearly missed it. He was in the drive-thru at McDonald's when someone called him to get back there quick. Thankfully, he made it just in time.
Back then, our hospital still moved you from the labor room to the delivery room and the dad had to dress in scrubs to come in. Somewhere in the midst of getting ready to go into the labor room, someone asked me for permission to have some nursing students come into the room with me because they had never seen a birth. That epidural really had a big effect on me, because I agreed. (don't know what I was thinking) So, Dakota had quite an audience with the doctor, nurses, Daniel, and several nursing students looking on.

Dakota was born at 1:08pm on Wednesday, April 15, 1998. She weighed 7lbs 14oz and was 21 inches long. I had never seen a more beautiful baby.

Look at those adorable little footprints!

Here she is!

What a sweet baby!

I have lots more pictures of Dakota from the hospital, but I found these two in her baby book and I had to include them. She was Pawpaw's girl from the beginning. Wish he could be here for her birthday today! I know she misses him a lot.

Happy Birthday Dakota! I hope you have a good one!