Fifteen Years Ago Today

This picture is my favorite picture of my daughter and I together. I am posting this picture because fifteen years ago today my daughter was born. She was born at 3:12am at 8 pounds, 12 ounces and 21 1/2 inches. I will never forget that early morning. I had been in labor for twenty-two hours and developed a fever of 105 degrees Fahrenheit. The doctors performed an emergency c-section and whisked her away to the newborn unit without letting me hold her. I never cried, screamed, or shouted obscenities during the entire labor process; however, when they whisked her away and wouldn't let me hold her, I completely had a mental meltdown.



I was shaking due to the fever and needed to be administered antibiotics. Somehow I had gotten an infection in the hospital while being in labor with her which caused the fever to spike. By that time I was completely tired and worn out. My emotions ran amuck and I started yelling for her father to come to me (he was signing paperwork in another room). He ran to me and I screamed that they wouldn't let me hold my baby. I cried and was horribly upset.



After being in the recovery room for six hours, they finally wheeled me down to my room in a gurney. They stopped in front of the newborn unit and held my daughter up for me to see her. She was screaming at the top of her lungs. I begged to hold her. Finally, they wheeled my gurney halfway into the room and gave her to me. I reached for her and held her tight. I remember staring at her with complete and utter wonder. She had been crying, but amazingly enough stopped crying while I held her. I swear to God she knew that it was me. She actually looked up into my eyes and just stared at me. I felt such an intensely strong connection. Words did not need to be spoken between us. We knew that we belonged together. I remember breaking into tears. That moment was heavy with emotion and completely defined the rest of my life.



I thank God for my daughter. I don't know where I would be without her. She is so very sweet, humorous, kind, compassionate, creative, and wise. I love her so much. As I write this I am crying at the thought that in three years she will be finished with high school. I cannot imagine life without seeing her every day. Pretty soon she will be starting the adventure of her own life. I am not ready for this.



I am writing this while at work. It's times like this that really upset me because I feel I haven't spent enough time with her. It's 6:45pm and I'm still at work. Before I know it she'll be gone and I won't remember what I was doing at work years from now. I will remember that I worked too much and didn't spend enough time with her. I feel very guilty about that. On one hand I need to work because every minute I work I get paid and we desperately need the money due to our financial situation. On the other hand I couldn't care less about the money and want to spend all of my time with her. I wish that I could home school her. I wish that I could be that Mom who has cookies ready when she gets home. I wish I could be that Mom who was there day and night.



I wish, I wish...as she grows, and grows...