8 years ago today..

I went to the YMCA with my mom for a little refresher from the summer heat. I wobbled in to the pool area, lay in the sun and got a little toasted. Took a whale plop into the pool and as I began swimming I noticed that the muscles in my back got reeeaally tight. Hmm, weird, looked at my watch and it was 11:45. I carried on swimming, got out and drove home. On the drive home it happened again! During lunch it happened again. The tightness got more and more intense and started to wrap around my belly and actually hurt! I called Patrick to tell him about it but told him not to come home because it wasn't too bad. I decided to run some errands and afterward came home, Patrick got home and since I was now bright red all over we decided to go get some relief for my sunburn I acquired earlier that day. Wow, I could barely walk into the Eckards when we got there because the contractions were getting so strong. We called the Dr who said to wait it out a bit longer because they weren't coming close enough together. We went home and I tried to chill but aound midnight I couldn't stand it any more so we drove to the hospital! Aaaah, we were soooo excited to meet our son. Even though it hurt like crazy I knew it was worth every pain! I got to the hospital in pain, 4.5cm dilated and crispy red from sunburn. Thank goodness for epidurals because they gave me one about an hour after we got there, and then we waited, and waited and waited.

So 8 years ago today I went into labour with our first baby, Liam James! It was such an exciting day, I would do it all over again in a heart beat!

Stay tuned for the next chapter, but here are some pictures from July 16th, 2001.