I decided to write this blog to really remember the great moments with our new daughter Kayla so I guess I should start off with how she came into our lives.

Right before Christmas was when Marshall and I finally decided now was a good time to start our family.  It was only a few months later on February 24th that I started to feel slightly sick so I took a test without telling anyone.  As I stared down at the plus sign that morning I just remember thinking “Is that a plus?”  I walked with test in hand to where Marshall was getting ready for work and said “I’m confused.”  He asked about what and of course I said “Is that a plus?”  He got very excited and it kind of reminded me of when Homer was missing the Chili Cook-off,  (oh yeah, I threw a Simpson’s reference in there.) but stopped for a moment and asked “Wait, is a plus good?”  And so, that’s how we found out the big news.  We of course double checked it then spilled the beans to our families.  (I know my dad had been waiting for that call for a while now, whenever I call he’d think I was calling to tell him I was pregnant.)

While family and very close friends may have known of our pregnancy, we kept it under wraps until right before my second trimester.  On April 1st we announced to the world I was pregnant!  I had been saving this one and it was SO worth it!  People at work were suspicious and said they’d only believe me until I came in 9 months pregnant or a baby popped out.   People on Facebook would congratulate me then pause and come back tsk’ing me for tricking them and some just plain out had no idea what to think.  I had way too much fun with it!

After several months and getting bigger each day Marshall and I did all the standard new parent things.   We shopped for the nursery, went to child birthing class, ”ooh’d” and “ahh’d” over every sonogram and I worried and fretted about silly things.   And on June 15th when Marshall and I learned we’d be having a GIRL, he was quiet. When he finally said what was on his mind we both had a good laugh.  “I have to buy a rocking chair and a shotgun now.”  As we made plans for a porch for Marshall’s new “shotgun polishing” rockin’ chair, our due date of October 24th came closer and closer.

About 3 weeks before the due date my midwife told me she thought I would go into labor within a week.  I got nervous and fretted because we wanted the 10/24 date!  She’d be the Dr. Pepper baby!  (Old Dr. Pepper ads said to have a Dr. Pepper at 10am, 2pm and 4pm to keep your blood sugar up.  So 10.2.4) Or the denominator for byte notation baby!  (Ask Marshall, its computer speak.)  The week passed and I went back in to see her midwife again and this time she gave me 24 to 48 hours!  Crazy woman kept trying to get me in there sooner! Did she have a baby delivering quota or something?  Well needless to say my delivery date finally came… and then it went right by.  By the time I had my next weekly appointment I was ready to meet my baby!  I checked into the hospital on October 27th ready to be induced and finally get the ball rolling or in this case, the baby rolling!

I got hooked up to lot of machines, given drugs and told to sleep.  Sleep was hard to come by because every time I’d find a comfortable position and finally drift off to sleep; a nurse would come rushing in to reposition me.  Apparently the comfortable positions in the annoying hospital bed made Kayla’s heart become erratic so I would need to move. By the next morning I was very tired and at about 8am my midwife came in and broke my water, started me on a harder drug to get me into labor and ordered my epidural!  Yay for epidurals!   I wasn’t really in pain yet but after she left everything just seemed to kick in, that’s when I felt the real labor pains.  While I was getting the epidural I remember it being hard to stay still during a contraction but you know you have to be perfectly still because heck, a needle was going in your spine!

After I had the epidural it was wonderful.  I had visitors but I kept drifting off to sleep because of the lack of rest from the pain from the horrible way I had to sleep the night before so Kayla wouldn’t complain.  They turned down the drugs because it was making me go into labor way too quickly and learned later they just shut it off because it just worked a bit too well on me.  I actually got more sleep during active labor then I did the night before!  Eventually the time came to push and Marshall was right by my side being a great help.  What I didn’t expect was the amount of people I had in my room.  I swear I had a cheering squad!  At one point I had about 7 hospital employees there cheering me on!  It didn’t take too long and we finally got to meet the newest Pepper who weighed in at 6 pounds 14 ounces at 3:53pm on October 28th 2009.

The corny thing all parents say is you don’t know how much you can love someone until you have a baby and it’s completely true.  Kayla is the light of our life and we grow excited at the smallest milestones (She follows me with her eyes when I walk back and forth!)  I take so many pictures of her and Marshall pokes fun at me because I am always dressing her up in funny or cute outfits so he tells me I’m like his mom, which I take as a compliment thank you very much!

Right now Kayla giggles and coos, loves to grab her feet and blow raspberries and overall just do cute baby things.  We love her more than anything and we grow excited to learn more about her and watch her grow every day we are with her.