4 years, gone in a blink

Who's that girl? 4 years ago yesterday- 17 June 2003, this little princess came to my world and blessed it more than words can express. McKenna Jean Gibbens... she actually scared the ever lovin' crap out of her father and i when she was born. If you have kids, you may understand this. We kinda expected Kenna to look a little bit like Jocilyn, our first. Jocilyn was a beautiful
olive complected (her Itallian herritage), fuzzy headed (blonde fuzz) baby girl. McKenna, while also beautiful- was all dark, dark hair- tons of it, the fairest skin you've ever seen, and the most plump lips that overpowered her little self- total oppisite of Jocilyn. I saw all of that black hair and thought- huh? If I didn't know she just came from my uterus, i wouldn't have believed she was mine. But i'm so thankful that she is.
I vividly remember the day before her birth. Matthew and I took Jocilyn and went looking at luxery homes trying to induce labor (all of the walking in 110+ F' temps). When we returned home we ate left over mexican food. Later that evening Matthew and i neither one were feeling very good. So began the pukes (sp?). Matthew finally found relief and went to bed. I however was up all night- quite litterally- in the bathroom every 5 minutes. One of those times you think to yourself, "self- where is all of this coming from? Your stomach has got to be as empty as a barrel of moonshine at a grotto during prohibition!" And yet there is always more... of course this is particularlly fun while pregnant because you get to pee your pants everytime you hurl as an added bonus. So this was my night. In the wee small hours of the morning, however, i took a turn. Suddenly i felt like the food poisoning had finished up in my stomach and had moved on to the intestine- if you follow my meaning. So now i'm thinking- "oh, crap" (litterally). The cramps just kept coming one after another and finally I realized just how regular they were. que- wake the husband. So i did, and we timed the miserable diarrhea cramps and they were not that, labor had arrived. Our poor, weary minds went completly blank. Who can we call to come and be with Jocilyn at 05:30 a.m.? Oh, right, grandma and grandpa- good call. They arrived and off Matthew and i went to go and deliver this babe.

I was dialated to 5cm when i arrived at the hospital. With Jocilyn i got my epidural at a 3, so a 5 was amazing to me that i could walk- not well, nor comfortably- but i was mobile of my own volition. Also with Jocilyn, I had progressed very quickly- so the MD was called right away. She came in and got the story of the past 24 hours and she said, "well, you know how pregnant women are always trying to self induce- now i have a new method to pass on, food poisoning!" SOooo not the way to go!

Anyway fast fwd to delivery. Here is this bright eyed, bushy headed, full lipped, crying, healthy beautiful baby girl. Now ff to present time- she is 4years old and spunky! She told matthew yesterday that she got a lot of things from him, but the"fight" in her was from mom. She sure fought her birthday spankin's! She didn't understand the concept at first and couldn't figure out why dad was talking about spanks.