My baby is 12 years-old :(

I know I am a few days late but on 12/12/12, Kaitlyn turned 12 years old.  How cool is that.  We have been talking about this day for 12 years.  Kaitlyn's birth was an interesting one at that.  Pregnancy was fairly normal although I did have some back pain that was unbearable (first sign, right?).  I was excited to be a new mommy.  Although I was very young, 23 years-old, I felt I was ready.  Boy, was I far from being ready but what new mom is ever really "ready".  You learn as you go. 

All was going well until one day, I was working at my parents house for Global Resources and I got really tired.  So tired I went upstairs to take a nap on my lunch break.  I needed to go back to work but I couldn't.  I remember my dad coming to talk to me about how much he needed me back at work so I mustard up the energy and got up.  But first I had to pee.  I was pregnant, I always had to pee.  So I went into my parents bathroom and went pee.  I went and I went and I went.  Something was not right, I could not stop.  I remembered at birthing class (we were only half way through) that if you can't stop going pee, your water has probably broken, so I tried to stop.  No luck.  So, of course, I stood up and that is when it happened, a rush of water came out.  I ran out and yelled at my mom  "I think my water broke"....she yelled at my dad and Andy, who just happened to be working downstairs also, to get upstairs.  My dad's response, "are you sure you didn't just pee your pants?"  :)

Off to the hospital we went.  Only problem, I was only 32 weeks pregnant.  So naive me thought, yeah I get to have a baby today.  We got to Kaiser and the first thing she said was, do you know what going to happen?  No, what?  We need to send you to Emmanuel in a ambulance because this is considered a high risk birth.  Smile was gone. Panic set in.

Off I went, in the middle of an ice storm.  Scared and really worried about what was going to happen.  No contractions yet.  We get to Emmanuel and they immediately take me to a birthing room.  The doctor comes in and wants to do an ultrasound.  We don't know what we are having at this point and don't want to know so he checks to make sure everything is OK.  "How much does it way" I ask.  "about 4lbs" he replies "everything is good, its just small".  My heart sinks.  They leave me to rest, Andy and my mom are the only ones there, I try and take a nap, Andy turns on the Blazer game and my mom leaves because we all think its going to be a long night. LOL

15 minutes later, I wake up.  I am in a lot of pain and I can't motion to Andy because he is "busy".  But once I get sick, that did it.  Soon, everyone is in the room.  Andy calls mom and tells her to turn back, I am in full labor.  Before I know it, my legs are up, mom and Andy are next to me,  I am told to push.  At some point I ask for pain meds but it is too late for that.  2 pushes later and she is out.  A beautiful baby girl.  They show her to me and take her away.  All I remember is crying and the nurses saying "her sprinkler works".

After I recover a little, they let me go to the NICU and see my daughter, Kaitlyn Ann Ramos. She is beautiful in my eyes but again, I am scared to death.  She is so small weighing in at only 4lbs 5oz.  Her entire head rests in the palm of my hand.

A few days later, I can leave and Kaitlyn is transferred via ambulance to Kaiser which is closer to our house.  The next few weeks are a blur.  Pumping milk, feeding and worrying.  Kaitlyn grows and gets stronger each day.  She misses her first Christmas with the family but we spent the day with her in the hospital.  Finally on January 2nd, she gets to go home.  Still small but a resilient little girl. 

Here we are, 12 years later and I am typing this while she is enjoying her birthday/slumber party with her friends.  She is now almost as tall as me (although her legs are longer than mine), has one of the most beautiful smiles ever, now that her braces are off, and she can repeat any song, movie line or book she just read, verbatim.  Happy Birthday my dear Kaitlyn Ann.  You came to us in an amazing way and I know your life will be even more.  Love, Mom.

The Desert in the Clouds

So I had to do it.   This one is just so gosh darn cute.  I can never get a good picture off all the girls at once, so of course I had to post it on facebook, what can I say.

This picture was taken in Sunriver (aka Bend, Or).  My parents have a house there so we go fairly often.  I don't know what it is, maybe the smell of the ponderosa pine trees or the sound of the wind when it blows, but I love Central Oregon.  If it was me, I would move there in a heart beat.  I think Andy has grown to like it as well even though he is a big city boy from Lima, Peru. 

The winters bring the best powdery snow and the summers bring dry warmth.  The only thing holding us back of course is work.  No job, No Bend. Oh well, maybe when we retire.  A lot of my childhood memories are in Bend, well La Pine, Oregon which is just south of Bend.  My grandparents had a house there.  Not just any house, one my dad, grandpa and great-grandpa built. We would spend most of our summers in that little house, rising early to get a good spot on the lake to fish.  If we were headed south for a trip, we would always stop in La Pine for an overnighter.  But when my grandparents divorced, a lot changed.  We didn't go to the little house anymore.  I missed it.  I think my dad did too because a few years later, he bought his own place a few miles up the road.  Every once in awhile my girls and I will drive by the little house and I tell them all the things my brother and I used to do there.  It is getting old now even more so because know one lives there and with both of my grandparents gone now, no one takes care of it. 

We are building new memories now in my parents house with mine and my brothers kids.  They all love to fish, papa takes them all the time in hopes of catching the "big one".  We always go in the winter to catch some fresh powder (although there wasn't any this time).  I look forward going to Bend with my family.  Real memories are being made.  I just hope my grand kids will come to appreciate the Desert in the Clouds as much as I have.