Monday, July 28, 2008

A Dramatic New Arrival

About nine years ago, having just found out I was pregnant, I joined a message board on AOL for mothers expecting in April 2000. I met a lot of nice women on that board, and got to know some of them even better when about eight of us formed an email loop.

We've continued to email over the years, the past four years, we're down to just four of us who email on a regular basis. I've met two of those three women several times over the years. It's been fun to experience our April 2000 babies growing up, starting school, etc.

And while those 2000 babies were the last babies for half of us, the other half of us, have gone on to have more children, some of us more than others. :)

Kathryn, like me had her first baby in April 2000, in fact, Benjamin is just two days younger than Hannah. She had another baby in 2002, a boy. And then we were pregnant together in 2004, I had Rachel, and she had another boy just two weeks after Rachel was born. At the beginning of this year, Kathryn found out she was pregnant with #4. Having three boys, we've all been wishing her a girl. While we all excitedly encouraged her to discover the gender of the baby through ultrasound, she and her husband were waiting until the big day to find out. Kathryn was sure she was pregnant with a boy, afterall, with three boys already, what in the world would she do with a girl??

To make a long story short, Kathryn started having some contractions towards the end of last week. Thursday night she and her husband went to the hospital, only to be sent home in the early hours of the morning (I know how that feels!).

Fast forward to Friday night, as we were on our way home from Disneyland, I was checking email on Steven's iPhone. We had finally received word from Kathryn's sister that Kathryn had had her baby. She had had a girl!!!!! But that's not the only excitement that came in the email.

Kathryn and her husband headed out to return to the hospital mid day on Friday, her labor was farther along than she thought! Her husband had to cross 5 lanes of the major Alabama Interstate to get to the side of the highway. While on the phone to 911, the dispatcher had to talk Kathryn's husband through the delivery of his own baby!!! The paramedics arrived shortly thereafter and cut the cord and cleaned the baby and Kathryn up a little before taking them to the hospital.

Mama and Baby came home from the hospital yesterday and are doing just fine. Mary's three older brothers are 'thrilled' with her, although one has already admitted he will not play barbies with her. LOL.

Congratulations Kathryn, Shane, and the older brothers on the arrival of your Princess, who has already proved she loves to provide drama!

4 comments:

Knittingknutty said...

Although I have never had a boy (three girls, two of them twins), there is nothing like holding a little baby girl. Your heart explodes. Having kids is like taking your heart out and letting it walk around.

Anonymous said...

OMg!!!!!!!!!! What excitement! Please pass my congratulations on to Kathryn and tell her I miss her!

Liz said...

What a fun story!
And ya know what else makes it fun? After all these years on AOL, I've done my share of AOL boards. I was a part of a ton of them before they went to the new format (which I thoroughly despise!). Anyway, Samuel was born March 29, 2000. Since he was due at the end of March, I remember finding & bookmarking the April board b/c I wanted to make friends there if he ended up coming a little later than planned. After he was born, I deleted the bookmark & never thought much of it. But just think....all these years later, we found each other anyway!

Small world!

Darcy said...

What was your screen name back then??? LOL

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