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November 11, 2002
A little about Lexi:
My pregnancy with Lexi was uneventful (for lack of a better term). Of course it was a huge event in and of itself, but I never felt sick, etc., other than the minor aches and pains of pregnancy, the only thing I can complain of was her bad timing. I know it was her time and God's time, but I wanted her in my time and she was LATE, 7 days late to be exact (I know, not technically late) and made even longer it seems, by the arrival of my niece and nephew.
My sister-in-law and I were both due in April. Actually, we were both due on April 23, 1995!!!! It really was kind of fun to let our family know (we told everyone together) that there were going to be two new babies in the family. What we found out later, was that there were going to be three new babies in the family, my brother and sister-in-law were having twins. We thought it was great, my mom on the other hand thought we should have planned better and let her enjoy her new grand babies one at a time!! LOL!!
Anyway, I was honored to be asked to attend the birth of my niece and nephew. It was wonderful, exciting, beautiful, etc., etc., etc., it was also very, very hard!! Not the labor or the delivery (they were delivered vaginally), my sister-in-law was blessed with being tall, and was able to carry the babies to 39 weeks. My nephew and niece were born on tax day, April 15, 1995 and weighed 6 lbs. 15 ozs. and 6 lbs. 1 oz., respectively. The difficult part was entirely on my shoulders. It was so hard to watch those beautiful babies come into the world and not be able to hold mine. It pains me to admit it now, but how selfish was I!!
15 days (which felt like 15 months) later, Alexandria Colleen (Lexi) entered the world. Since I suffered a miscarriage prior to Lexi's birth, I was kind of a freak. I went to the hospital the evening of April 29 as she was not moving. Once there, I found out I was 100% effaced, dilated to 3 centimeters and having contractions regularly 5 minutes apart. I HAD NO IDEA. I did not feel anything!! Obviously, that's why she was not moving, I was in LABOR.
Being crazed with being a week overdue and dumb, I agreed to let them keep me and break my water. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! I should have said, thanks but no thanks and gone home. Since, I did not, I ended up bedridden, with a catheter and pitocin. Not the way I wanted or planned, but the outcome was still incredible. My little Lexi was born in the middle of the night at 2:38 a.m., weighing in at 7 lbs 8 ozs., she was awake and alert from the beginning and things have never changed!! She will be 8 in April and still amazes me each and every day! I love you Lexi!!
Memories and Traditions
When your children are a little older and remember things from week to week, month to month, year to year, I think you do things a little different. At least we did. Lexi and now Kimmi remember how we did things "before" and I know that they enjoy the memories we have made together. It's nice to hear them request the same thing, like where the Christmas tree goes, what we should eat on Christmas Eve, etc., it makes me think more about what we can do to create special memories or traditions for them.
So far, we do the following:
Valentine's Day. Jeremy and I kind of make a big deal about this, not with each other, but with the girls. We want them to know that it is a day to express love / friendship with the people that you care about, which could be relatives, friends, etc. We do not want them to grow up thinking that they have to have a boy / man in their lives to feel worthy on Valentine's Day. It's not really been an issue so far, but hopefully we are sowing the seeds in them now.
Easter. We stole this one from my parents (I'm 31 and still remember how I felt on Easter morning). The Easter Bunny would tack a note to your headboard or above your bed, that left clues as to where your basket was. This was Lexi's first year that she could really read the clues, it was so much fun! She helped Kimmi along, but Kimmi really could have cared less. We hid all three girls baskets in the same place, but when we were little, my parents made up a set of clues for each of us. If anyone is interested, I can post or send you the clues that I made up - they are rhyming. Lexi even asked if she could put the clues in her baby book!!
Halloween. We do the usual pumpkin patch and pumpkin carving thing and take the girls trick or treating. We also bake sugar cookies and decorate them. I make up a few of dozen and Lexi gets to invite 3 friends over. We may up all different colors of frosting, but tons of colored sugars and sprinkles and just let them have it. It's really cute to watch them. We started this when she was in Kindergarten and she was bummed that we were out of town this year and unable to have her cookie party.
Thanksgiving. Lexi is in charge of the center piece. Last year she made an adorable Turkey from a brown lunch bag. Even though it's just the family and a few close friends each year, she also makes place cards and hands them out when people arrive so they can pick out where they want to sit.
Christmas. I think that this year we will be picking out and cutting down our own Christmas Tree. We have a fake tree, but it's just not the same. They just issued tree cutting permits and cost a whopping $7.00 each, so I certainly can't complain about the price. We also do another cookie decorating party for Lexi, we try to schedule this after the break starts so that she can see her friends while she is off of school. We each open one gift on Christmas Eve (it's ALWAYS Christmas PJ's - prewashed of course) and then the next morning Santa brings only one present, which is your big gift and the rest are from Mom, Dad, etc. Another tradition taken from my childhood is that we start with the youngest member of the family and they have to guess the contents of their present before they can open it (no - the guess doesn't have to be right). I really like this. By doing this we all get to see what each person gets, and Christmas is not over before it even starts. Finally, another tradition passed down - on Christmas morning, we make breakfast rolls and deliver them to our friends for their breakfast / brunch, which usually ends up being around 11:00ish.
Whew!!! I think that's all!! I asked a couple of diary posts ago about memories and / or traditions that you create or continue with your family. I really appreciate and enjoyed the responses that I received and would love to hear any more that you have or will create with your new or expected family when the time is right.
I hope that you all have a great week and I just want to say congratulations to Aimee on her newly announced miracle pregnancy. She has not received much attention regarding this and I just wanted to say again how happy I am for her!! LOL!!
Till next time,
Stephanie
P.S. I am having my kidney stone "procedure" on Thursday and just wanted to thank everyone for the good thoughts and prayers that have been sent my way.
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