March 23, 1999

This was the day I was finally going to meet my baby boy. I had to be at the hospital by 8:00am so my mom came over to stay with Ashley while I was at the hospital. I had woke up early that morning so I could write in my journal that I kept for Ashley. I told her how much I loved her and my love for her would be no less now that we were adding a new baby in our lives. I was always going to be her mommy.

My wonderful friend Jan was also my labor coach, picked me up that morning and we went to the hospital. I was given a huge room : ) and got hooked up to the monitors. Daughter’s birth had been such a breeze I was hoping for the same experience. After all, I had heard that the second birth is easier and faster than the first. Since my water had not broken Anne broke it to start the labor process. Ow, that was not fun! My contractions started but they were very small and not regular at all.

My mom and dad and sister had been in and out of the room during the day. It was nice to have them there. Nothing was happening so they upped the dose of Pitocin. Then the fun started. Remember the part about the second birth is suppose to be easier and faster than the first?? That’s a pile of crap! I was having terrible labor pains and was not dilating at all. At this point, I had to have the lights off, I couldn’t stand any noise, I didn’t want to see or hear anything! Oh and I had to pee a million times but I was hooked up to the IV so I had to drag that thing all around with me.

Finally it was time to be checked again to see if I had dilated any further. I told Jan that if I was still at a 4 I wanted an epidural. Screw the pain! Sure enough I was still at 4. We ordered the epidural and within a half an hour I was feeling no pain. I’m talking no pain! Girls, listen to Missy – don’t try to be a rock star – get the epidural.

After the epidural started to kick in, the lights came back on, my mom and dad were welcomed back into the room. I wanted to hang a disco ball up in my room and have a party. Most importantly my daughter was there. One of the huge reasons I wanted the epidural was so she wouldn’t have to see me in pain and be scared. I was having gnarly contractions (I could tell because the monitor was going crazy) but I couldn’t feel a darn thing. Best.invention.ever!

I started to dilate quicker and finally the time came to push. This was a bit trickier because you can’t feel down there so you don’t know if you are really pushing or just making an ugly face. I didn’t have to push for too long before Buddy was born. He was born at 7:10pm.

Finally MY baby was here. I had waited for this day for a very long time. I’ll be honest here, he was not a looker when he first came out. But he stole my heart the minute I looked at him. Ashley fell in love and did not want to leave her brother’s side. She wanted to hold him and kiss on him.



We quickly all fell in love with Jacob Andrew. And I continue to fall in love with him daily.