Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Today, my Little Man, Hollis, is 2. His second birthday is making emotional and weepy, so you're all going to have to suffer through a schmaltzy Mommy post.

Hollis was born on September 16, 2004. I had complications throughout the whole pregnancy. You name it, I had it. After several weeks of not so great non stress test results, low amniotic fluid, and intrauterine growth problems, my OB decided that it was time to induce the little guy at 37 weeks. We headed to the hospital with my overflowing bags, 5 thousand pillows, and a list of our final name candidates. The doctor was keeping me in the hospital overnight before beginning pitocin in the morning, so we would have all night to decide on a name.

After the nurses got me set up in my room, hooked up to the fetal monitor, and the intake clerk started asking me more questions than a security clearance for the Department of Defense, we started to relax. And then it happened - a nurse grabbed the strip of paper attached to the fetal heart monitor, ripped it off & ran out of the room. My husband and the other nurses did a very good job of not freaking me out. In fact, I didn't even notice something was wrong until my OB appeared at my bedside 2 minutes later. He told us the baby's heart rate was dropping dangerously low and they had not even begun to induce me. There was no way the baby could handle the stress of labor. They needed to get him out and they needed to get him out now. Everything else is like a dream in slow motion.

My Little Man was born 20 minutes later with a nice healthy scream. In fact, he didn't stop screaming until we were reunited in the recovery room and even then he would scream every time the Loud Nurse came into the room. He was perfectly healthy. Hell, he was perfect in every way. We finally named him 3 hours later.

I can't even begin to describe how I feel about Hollis now. If you're reading this, you're probably a mother too, so I don't need to explain myself to you. You already know that I didn't really start living until my Little Man screamed his way into this world. You already know that I will move mountains and fight armies to make him happy. For the rest of my life.

Happy Birthday, Little Man. Mommy loves you.