Ramona turns 2!

Happy Birthday Ramona!  Her actual birthday is September 29th, but I am finally getting around to a few pictures from her (rather ordinary) day.  It's always hard to wrap my head around the 2nd birthday. She's neither an infant, or an independent child, but I want to keep calling her my baby.  She IS my baby.  Anyway, two just seems so much older than one, and I guess I'm just not willing to accept it. :)

Ramona came into our lives one week before her due date.  I had an incredible doctor who I was looking forward to seeing at the induction we had set up for the following day.  Two night prior, I went to bed with a stomach ache.  Not cramps, but just achey.  Being the third time, I recognized this for what it was.  I took a deep breath (as deep as could be at 39 weeks) waddled into bed, and wondered what the night would bring.  When I got up in the middle of the night to do the first of three bathroom breaks, my water broke.  I hopped in the shower, became my quiet self (this is my knee-jerk reaction to whenever I'm nervous) and mentally started thinking about the next few hours.  Somehow my mom managed to cut a normal one hour drive to my house, down to 45 minutes, and showed up in her pajamas and bag.  We took one last picture of my baby belly and hit the road.

She was born about 9 hours later at 12:19pm.  It was a very quiet labor.  Contractions were not nearly as big as with Isaac and Eliza, and I was kind of concerned that they weren't.  I mean, I was grateful, but still thinking "is this really it?"  Sean opted out of giving me my epidural, but one of his favorite attending came to do mine.  When it came time to push, I knew it would be only minutes before Ramona was out, but incredibly the epidural began to wear off, and in the end could feel the final labor entirely.  Fire.  That's all I felt.  Fire.

Oh how we loved her and kissed her and smelled her the minute she came out.  I think I saw a psych student (why?!) sway in the corner of the room, but I was too busy to really notice.  That overwhelming joy and love and confidence rocketed into 5th gear and I couldn't wait to nurse her and hold her.  I had loved the name Ramona for quite some time, and what really sealed the deal was when I told my mom. She said "Did you ever know that particular story about Nonna (grandma)?"  I had no clue what she was talking about.  "She always mentioned how much she loved the name Ramona, and that she had hoped someone would use it someday."  Boom.  Done.  Chills up and down my spine, it was meant to be.  What a great name to share with my grandma who, had she been here still, would have seen this happen.

Ramona came out with auburn hair.  Her eyes were already speckled blue, and her face reminded me of Isaac.  She was an incredible baby, who ate well, pooped like a champ, and slept through the night (10-6) at 8 weeks.  The greatest blessing is watching her older siblings dote on her.  We ALL dote on her, even tonight when she came up to Sean and I with a bag of mini marshmallows and turned on the charm like you wouldn't believe.   OK, you cutie pie….you can eat 5,000 marshmallows….your wish is our command….

We love you, Ramona Lina.  Our lives are complete with you here with us.  We can't wait to watch you reach each milestone, and explore this big world.

(Part of "letting go" with blogging is going to be organizing large groups of pictures….so here they are, in no particular order)