Three Years Ago Today...

...I was thinking that I was soooo smart. We had gone to my brother's house for a 500 party the night before my due date and I thought I had at least a week left of the pregnancy. My partner was my bro in law, Mathew, and he kept giving me sneaky glances and giggling to himself because he insisted that I was in labor. HA! What a dummy. Didn't he know that I was a WOMAN who CERTAINLY knew better than him when I was going to have this baby thank you very much? Hmph. Okay, so fast forward to the 40 minute drive home...past the hospital where my baby would be born...the following week...boy oh boy, my stomach REALLY hurts...Butch is passed out in the seat next to me buuuuut, maybe I should just stop into the hospital just to get checked? NAW, I'll just go home and go to the bathroom, then I'll feel better, but OH, that is crampy!
We got home around 2 in the morning and Butch dragged his butt up to bed but I "slept" on the couch because I was so uncomfortable. I tried and tried but couldn't sleep because, darnit, I'd had coke and caffeine affects me so much. Well, to get to the point, by about 5 in the morning, my denial had broken and I called my sister to tell her she'd better think about meeting me at the hospital in an hour or so. BUT MATT answered the phone (darnit).
Matt: Heeeeeeellloooo? (in a cutesy, smug voice)
Me: Uh, Hi! Is Trine there? (trying to sound very not in labor and innocent...at 5 in the morning...on a weekend day after getting home at 2 in the morning...on my DUE DATE)
Matt: WHY?????HMMMM????
Me: Just let me talk to her, sassy pants.
Matt: Okay, fine, she's right here hehehehehehe
Me: (Grumblemumble)
Trine: HELLOOOOOO? (excited and freaked out)
Me: Um, yeah, I'm actually in labor so you'd better meet me at the hosp. I gotta go wake up Butch and pack a bag, I guess.
Trine: (shuffleshufflemumblemumbletellingmattthathewasright) Matt says "I Knew It"
Me: Yeah, okay, fine, he's a genius. What is it with him and knowing things about women in labor?????? He's a freak of nature.

Seriously, that dude grew up on a dairy farm and my theory is that he got some sort of gestational zen from the cows, anyway...

What Matt DIDN'T know was that I was about to have the WORST birth experience of my life (so far, anyway) and that that baby was 10 pounds 6 ounces of sheer, horrible PAIN! Even the epidural couldn't block the pain of all of that chunky baby-ness and I could have shot the idiot doctor who delivered him.
Bygones.

Now for the good news: Niklaus is the funniest 3 year old kid I know. He keeps us in stitches and giggles and comes up with the funniest phrases and thoughts. He is sweet and always says, "Yes" instead of "Yeah" which is so cute. He looks most like his daddy than any other child in this family, except he has light brown eyes and strawberry blond hair. His eyelashes are longer than a boy's should be but that makes it so much harder to get mad at him or put him in a time-out. He loves his brothers and sisters and has taken to calling Matty, "My Buddy". When Daddy comes home at night, he goes on this marathon talking spree that's like a run-on paragraph that only Butch and I can make sense of. Someday maybe he'll be a story teller or a writer.

I kind of wanted his birthday to be on the feast of St. Nicholas (even had the day set to be induced by the doctor!) but WHEW am I glad he was born when he was. Right on time and the date was 11-30-03 at 11:30 in the morning which is kind of a cool set of numbers, don't you think?

I know this picture has Mari in it, but she and Niklaus look so much alike and it was such a pretty picture. She and Niklaus are the closest in age and hopefully will be very close as they grow together. Even though he's rough on her, she just loves him to pieces.