Veering from my normal format

Since it's Thing Two's 12th birthday today, she invoked the power of the birthday and told me I should blog about her today.

Rachel came into the world in a difficult manner for all involved. She was born on Superbowl Sunday, Broncos vs Green Bay. It was hard keeping Rusty's attention through the pre-game show. I'm just thankful she was born before the game actually started. I was disappointed in the Bronco win, but what can you do?

She ingested meconium on her way out (yeah, I know, yuck) which almost killed her. So right off the bat the girl caused me trouble. Luckily I was really out of it and didn't really understand what was going on.

I was not so lucky when she was five weeks old and contracted the RSV virus. She couldn't breathe. We took her to the doctor, he said to watch her respirations. What he failed to tell us is that she could die. When her breathing got extremely labored we took her to the ER. The doctor there informed us of the severity of the virus and to keep an eye on her respirations. He also said if they had any open beds he would have admitted us, but the hospital was full.

A couple nights later, she could barely breathe. My dad and I took her back to the ER, we were immediately taken in back where her lungs were cleared. She was admitted to the ICU for a night, where the doctor told us that RSV for children that young is a big contributor to SIDS, and if we would have let it go one more night she would more than likely have died. We were in the hospital for five days total. I had an 18 month at home at the time that I missed terribly and only was able to see once during that time, but no way was I going to leave my baby's side. She was on a nebulizer for almost two years after that.

One more incident, we're crossing at the cross walk, the light is ours, and right when we are in front of a van, he decides to turn. I yanked Rachel's arm hard and pulled her out of the way. While I'm sure she wouldn't have been killed, I'm sure she would have been injured.

Since then the majority of our problems have involved temper tantrums, homework, and messy rooms. So we've been pretty lucky.

She's turned into a beautiful, talented, smart, and funny child, and I look forward to watching her continue to grow and mature.

So here's your blog Rachel. Happy birthday. I love you.