5 years old

I am so amazed that my little Eedy Beedy is 5. My goodness time flies. I was pregnant with her when we bought our house, which is now home to a family of 7. Now she is a big grown up girly girl. There is something so fun about our mother daughter relationship that is different than the boys. I guess we can relate to each other and speak the same love language.

Eden is a very sensitive sweet girl.

Always eager to please and be good

a loving and nurturing sister,

and loves to clean and organize her room.

She loves to have fun and be with family,

my little shadow,

loves to color and cook, do puzzles, and reading lessons...

playing with girls a bit older than her, and all things PINK and PURPLE.
This is how she came to us:
5 years ago, at 6 am, I woke up feeling some contractions. I was not due for 6 days and after Dallin being 7 days late I was very surprised. They were pretty strong so I woke Peter up and we both got a little excited. I told him, lets just start getting ready to go and if the contractions keep coming we will go. 15 minutes later they were still coming so we happily grabbed our little 17 month old Dallin and headed out.

We dropped Dallin off at my sister's who lives on the way to the hospital. By the time we rounded the big corner exit that leads to the hospital I was positive that things were really happening. I told Peter to hurry (as if he wasn't already). I tried to stay calm during the contractions because I had learned that screaming through them like when I was in labor with Dallin made things worse. We walked into labor and delivery and told them what was going on. In the triage room I just remember saying that I was definitely in labor and that I wanted them to call the anesthesiologist right away. When I was in labor with Dallin I had to wait a long time for the epidural so I was just trying to get the ball rolling.

I was at a 4 so they admitted me. I sweetly told the nurse that walked me to my room to go ahead and get the epidural ready. Then I told the admissions lady too. Then I told my nurse that came in to hook me up to the monitors. I was still very calm, but the pain was starting to get worse and I didn't want the same screaming session that I had last time. Can you tell I was a little over anxious about the whole epidural thing? Within just a few minutes I had my epidural and was comfortably waiting. The doctor came in a little later and broke my water.

I was so much more rested than with Dallin since I got a full nights sleep so I was full of energy and excitement. I was totally ready for the action. We told our mom's to come on over at about 8 am thinking it would go pretty quickly. I couldn't stop smiling. I was so ready to hold my little girl. Like I always say, Christmas Eve times ten! Moms came and we sat around and waited all morning. I watched the contraction monitor go up and down and didn't feel a thing.

Finally around 12 noon, it was time to push. I felt kinda bad for calling our moms in too early, but you just never know. After about 3 contractions my sweet little Eden came right out face up, all 8lbs, 8oz of her. I guess after the first baby, my body just knew what to do because there was no difficulty about it. That was the first time I used a mirror so it was pretty fun to actually see the birth of my baby. I figure of all people, the mom should get to watch their own birth! I have used one with all of the others since. Peter cut her cord and I grinned ear to ear and couldn't stop kissing her little face as I met her for the first time. I just remember smiling so much that whole day and loving Peter so much too for what we had just brought into the world.

Eden was for sure my easiest delivery. I really appreciate a baby that gives me a full night sleep before coming. I also appreciate one that comes a few days early and only takes 6 hours of easy labor so she was very considerate from the start.

When we brought Eden home, I felt like a little girl with their favorite baby doll. All the cute little dresses and bows and so much pink! I had so much fun with her. She was a very easy baby, like they all have been and I loved showing her off (not that it isn't a lot of work to have a newborn though). She was perfect, and meant for our family. I am thankful every day for having Eden in my life. Life would not be complete with her, she is a sweetheart.

Happy 5th Birthday my little girl.