A Baby Story -- Part 1 -- George Washington's Birthday

In case you did not know it... today is George Washington's birthday!! :-) This date or special birthday means the world to me. 2 years and 10 months ago it did not mean much but today means everything. This week is the week of my sweet baby's 2nd birthday. I am in complete denial that he is 2 already...well, almost! Today also marks the 2 year anniversary that my labor process with Noah started - and sadly, I had no idea. I look back now and feel so stupid not to have realized it - especially given that it is George Washington's birthday. I know that I have you completely confused, so here is my BABY STORY!!

In April 2008, Keith's sister, Jennifer was 7 months pregnant. We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of my sweet nephew in June. Keith and I had talked about having a baby but had not had a "serious" conversation about it. There was a time that April that I really did think I was pregnant. It happened to be the day that I was supposed to go to the gross doctor (as many females refer to as) so I let them know of my concerns. They did a test and unfortunately it was negative. I was so heartbroken. Keith felt my sadness as we shared in sorrow. It was that day that we truly realized that we were ready for a baby. I immediately came off of the pill and bought the necessary things to keep track! 2 cycles later we were pregnant. We were very fortunate for things to happen as quickly as they did. I found out I was pregnant a week to the day before Jennifer had a scheduled c-section to have Jake. I also found out the day that I had a very important wedding rehearsal - but I had to keep going. Keith and I decided that it was best to keep this news to ourselves. We had not had it confirmed by a doctor and we did not want to take anything away from Jennifer.

Jake was born on Friday, June 27th and we were SO excited to have him join our family. He was such a beautiful baby boy --- and he still is!! The next Wednesday, July 2nd, Keith and I had an appointment to see my doctor. Since we both shared an office WITH MY DAD it was a difficult task to figure out how to get us both to the doctors appointment. We conspired with a wedding friend and said "if anyone asks, Keith came to see you today." I casually "had a bridal appointment" that Keith was going to drive me to and then he was going to meet with Vince.

The doctor made me pee in the cup, took a million things of blood and finally confirmed what I already knew. I was SO excited... but again, had to keep it to myself!! Keith and I had previously decided that we wanted to tell the family in a FUN way! I had already ordered Maggie a shirt for the special occasion and we began to make a big deal about Maggie's 4th of July outfit!!

The 4th was on a Friday and we knew that was the perfect day. I spent the night with Grandma the night before and made a big deal about my family coming to Grandma's house for breakfast the next morning. The 4th is Jamie's birthday so it was all too perfect! Keith and Maggie headed to Grandma's house extra early so that we could get ready. Momma came first followed by dad and then Dorinda and Jamie a little later. We were so excited and couldn't stand it so we went ahead and dressed Mags before Rinda and Jamie got there. I remember Grandma in her chair, Dad at the table and Momma washing dishes. Maggie runs in with her shirt on that says "My Mommy is Pregnant and all I got was this shirt!". It was too funny. Momma read the shirt and went "Oh" and turned to continue washing dishes. Dad read it, smiled and said, "Really?". Grandma was happy when we told her what it said. It finally clicked with Momma and she was SO excited! We had no idea at the time that I was growing her future best friend! :-) Grandma kept asking when the baby was due (because she had dementia and not a good short term memory) and we told her February 24th -- keep in mind that we kept telling her I was pregnant but she says "You know, there is a famous birthday 2 days before that." I said "Really??" with a really puzzled look on my face. She said "Yes, George Washington's birthday is the 22nd." How in the WORLD could this woman with zero short term memory and couldn't tell you what day of the week it was knew when George Washington's birthday was. 10 minutes later, we told her again that I was pregnant. She asked, when are you due. We tell her. She says "maybe he'll have a famous birthday." She did this the entire pregnancy!!  I think she had some kind of grandmother intuition -- she said "he'll" and that ironically was the day I technically went into labor! Dorinda and Jamie came in and she was ecstatic - and so was I!!!

We left after breakfast - and I admit, I did not do a good job cooking breakfast like I had promised - and headed to Jennifer's house. Again, we had made a big deal about Maggie's 4th of July outfit. Jennifer was excited to see it and said that Jake had a newborn 4th shirt and we would have to get a picture of them together! HAHA - Keith and I just laughed to ourselves. Their 4th shirts would not match - Maggie's was hot pink and black, no were did it resemble anything patriotic. We got there to find out that not just our family but the entire Walker family was there. It totally messed up our plans. We did not want to announce our news in front of everyone, so my family now knew and we would have to wait to tell Keith's family. Oh, I was sweating. It was killing me. Dorinda called to see how they took the news and I had to say "they don't know yet." Jennifer did ask about Maggie's outfit, obviously since I had made such a big deal about it, but we kept putting it off. Finally everyone left and we brought the outfit out. We took Maggie into the bedroom and put on her magic shirt. She ran into the living room where everyone waited and bless her heart - you could tell she begged for someone to take her shirt off.

GrandDanny read it out loud and said "My mommy is pergennated and all I got was this shirt". Everyone had a puzzled look on their face but quickly realized what it actually said. We all cried - well, the girls did and shared our hugs. We were so excited to tell them that we knew if the baby was a girl, her name would be Madison LaRue. Madison coming from the Dison side of my family - Madison and the LaRue being Momma Gena's mother's name. And more tears flowed! We were pretty certain on the boy name of Daniel Noah but we wanted to make sure there was not a more perfect name.

The entire pregnancy - we joked when someone asked me when I was due. "Well, I'm due February 24th but we think he will be here on the 22nd. That is George Washington's Birthday!"

Stay tuned for A Baby Story -- Part 2 -- It's a ???????