The history of little princess

Its not actually little princess’ birthday but we are celebrating it today.

I remember well the day I first learned she was coming. We had tried for years to conceive a second child and finally given up. I was just getting a routine exam and said to the nurse “you know, I’m a couple days late. Could we do a pregnancy test?” I was sitting naked in the cold exam room waiting for the doctor when the nurse poked her head in the door and said, “yep, you’re pregnant” like it was no big deal. I was stunned and disbelieving. Instead of going back to work I went home and woke Big Daddy with the news. We couldn’t believe it for several days and I wouldn’t let him tell anyone because I was afraid we’d jinx it. It was a wonderful pregnancy.

The doctor kept saying she was little and while he didn’t want me to go into labor, we needed to leave her in the oven as long as possible. She was due on Big Princess’ birthday so we thought we had plenty of time when I went to the doctor on a Friday three weeks before my due date. The doctor said “I don’t want to get you excited but I’m scheduling you for Monday—early Monday. If you sneeze between now and then, here’s my cell number.”

Instead of having three weeks to get ready we had two days! We made calls and packed bags. Early Monday the phone rang and doctor said we needed to reschedule me for Tuesday if it was possible. I was doing fine and could use the extra time to finish last minute details. The problem here was we forgot to call the out of town family and they called the hospital Monday to check my status and I wasn’t listed as a patient. It caused a little bit of excitement.

Everything went smoothly, although the doctor got excited when the anesthia doctor was late. Planned c-sections are the way to go. She arrived right on time and even though the doctor said she’d be little, he was very surprised to find she weighed 8 lbs 11 oz.

We’ve been celebrating this day every year since.

This year she gets her second birthday wish. Her first was a surprise party. Every person deserves at least one surprise party. Her second wish was for a pool party. This is a little hard to pull off when your birthday is at the end of November. But finally it came to me—have it at a hotel with an indoor pool.

I truly believe birthdays are personal holidays and every person should do what they enjoy as a celebration of their life.