Photos courtesy of Ryan Prouty

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Happy Birthday Alayna!

Today is my baby's birthday! Hard to believe she is FIVE years old already...where does the time go?? It truly has seemed like a blink of an eye since we were on our way to the hospital for her birth. I remember breaking down in tears of excitement and barely being able to explain through them to Paul that I was so glad the wait was over and that "We were going to finally find out!" Most of you probably know that we knew we were having boys with our first three children. We wanted to know and found out around the middle of each pregnancy. But, this one was different. We pondered not finding out for the last one and having that excitement at the birth. We considered finding out ourselves and not telling anyone else. That one did not go over well with certain family members (you know who you are!), so we were left with 2 choices: find out, then lie and say we didn't find out (I would be lying if I said I didn't STRONGLY consider that one!), OR, not find out at all. We chose the latter. On my last day at work, a couple of the doctors were in my office and asked if I knew what I was having. This was a VIVID conversation in my memory:
Me: "No."
Dr. Miller: "You have three boys, right?"
Me: "Yes." (thinking, "What are you trying to imply??")
Dr. Miller: "I have three brothers."
Dr. Fellow whose name I have apparently blocked out: "I have four!"
Me: "Get out of my office!! You give me no hope!"
I pondered this conversation the rest of the day! I really didn't dare hope for a girl because I didn't want to spend one second of my baby boy's life disappointed he wasn't a girl. I truly had myself ready to hear, "Its a boy!" I was reconciled to it and waiting expectantly to hear it. I BRIEFLY entertained the thoughts of what my reaction might be if it was a girl, I thought maybe I would just scream out loud, then pushed those thoughts away. So, when we were in the car to go to the hospital, the whole emotion of finding out after such a long wait just overwhelmed me! We were so excited! We got to the hospital, my water was broken and we started walking. The previous time I was induced, nothing happened for four hours, so I was pleasantly surprised when I started contracting right away. They sent in the doctor to do the epidural before noon (it took forever and never worked well except in my left toes which felt like 400 pound sausages), and we were ready to go just after 1pm. When the head came out (with a hand up by the face), the baby started crying right away and sucked in a bunch of amniotic fluid, so they left him/her half in and half out while they tried to get most of that back out. Meanwhile, I am not concerned with the breathing problems, I am thinking, "Get it out, what is it??" The doctor slid the baby out the rest of the way, turning the bottom toward Paul and asked him, "What have you got Dad?" Paul looked at me and said very quietly, "You got your girl." I didn't believe him. I sat up and had to see for myself. When I could see her, I just cried and couldn't make a sound. Gabriel was in the room (he surprised me by wanting to be in there because he was excited to see the baby right away, he stayed where he couldn't see anything he shouldn't and ran the video camera), and he got the honor of going out to the waiting room where we had amassed grammies and aunties and announced, "Its a girl!" I could hear the screaming from down the hall!!

Five quick years have passed and we have had so much fun! Alayna, you are a precious gift from God. You are so much fun! You love to dress up in princess costumes, wear high heels, carry a purse, put on make-up, play with your brother's trucks and cars, kill monsters and bad guys with a light saber, and wrestle with your brothers. You talk non stop and you have been affectionately nicknamed, "The Weedeater". You melt my heart when you pray and when you tell me you love me. I have loved having you to myself on Tuesdays and Thursdays when brothers are at school. I love that we can do our girly things together and that I had the privilege to teach you to read and tie your shoes. I thank God for every moment we have together. I am so sorry you are sick today on your birthday and have to miss your special day at preschool. I look at you curled up on the couch and I am overwhelmed at God's goodness and faithfulness to our family. You are a light in my day baby girl!
So many people comment that Alayna looks like me and I don't see it at all! So here are pictures of Alayna, JoDee and I all at the same age. Now who do you think she looks like??

11 comments:

2Corinth1:4mom said...

You asked who I think she looks like? Warning: cheesy moment coming...

I think Alanya looks like sunshine! She is beautiful and smiley!!

Anonymous said...

That's MY baby girl! (thanks for not making me cry!) I was reliving every moment with you and remembering with smug pleasure that the boys and I were just certain that God had answered our prayers for a baby girl. And oh, what a baby girl she is. Such a blessing and gift to us. We haven't been the same since that moment when Paul said, "You have your girl." I feel so blessed to have her look like me since I don't have one of my own. Of course, that means she looks like you, too, so it's not all bad... I am sad that she is sick, but she will be back to her non-stop chattery self in NO time! I love you!

The Blackley Tribe said...

Thanks a lot Travis, you totally made me cry...I'm a sucker for birth stories.

Thanks for sharing, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAYNA! GET WELL SOON!

Anonymous said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAYNA, GIFT FROM GOD. WE'RE SO SORRY YOU ARE SICK ON YOUR SPECIAL DAY AND MISSING OUT ON A CELEBRATION AT PRE-SCHOOL. WE'LL HAVE TO HAVE ANOTHER BIRTHDAY FOR YOU IN IOWA. YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL FIVE YEAR OLD BLESSING AND AGREE THAT YOU ARE COMBINATION OF LOOKING LIKE ALL THREE: MOMMY, JOJO AND DADDY. NO MISTAKING THOSE BEAUTIFUL EYES.
WE LOVE YOU AND CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU.
G. & G. P.

Cindy and company said...

Oh, I just love to hear those kind of stories! That was just wonderful. I'm sorry that you had trouble with the epidural. Tom could have helped with that! I would like to have all of the birth dates of your kiddos. We would LOVE to send them a little something on their special days! Happy Birthday, Alayna! Feel better soon! You'll have to do it up right when you are feeling 100%. Now you get to have TWO special days!

Porters said...

Happy Birthday Alayna! What a beautiful and precious story! I really enjoyed reading this! We never had an ultrasound with the boys, but for some reason they did one with Hannah. So we thought it would be fun to find out what we were having. The nurse said,"Don't go painting the room pink yet, but I think you are going to have a girl". Needless to say, I DIDN'T paint the room pink and figured I wasn't going to believe it till I see it! So it wasn't until she was born and I KNEW she was a girl that I got super excited about having a girl! But after having boys, a girl is such a precious gift isn't it?

Stephanie said...

What you wrote was wonderful (sniff, sniff). I needed to hear that as I've been ready to ship mine off for the last few days. Maybe I can slow down and see some of her positive qualities and not weigh so heavy on the negative. Oh my gosh she looks just like JoDee, amazing! Happy Birthday, Alayna, the five years has flown.

Lynn Anderson said...

Happy Birthday Big Girl! We hope you get better so you can eat lots of cake. We love you.

See you soon.

Great story, Travis. You always make me cry, happy tears.

Lisa said...

Ok...I CRIED through that whole thing. It was like I was there...I even feel like I started your IV. lol She is truely a blessing and a has great brothers to protect her! Happy Birthday Alayna...I hope you feel better!

Marner Family said...

I still think of her as the baby in nursery just setting watch everything going on taking it all in. Always happy and content to be where she was placed ... thinking to myself what it must be like to have three older brothers running around her all the time! She was great to have in Sunday school when we had her in the 3 year old class! Happy B-day Alayna, God's blessings to you! We miss you all greatly but so happy with what God is doing in your lives! -beryl

Ben said...

Great Story! Happy Birthday Alayna!