The Taos: Happy birthday Rylie!!

My little baby girl is 5 years old today! What a journey we've had together so far. I compiled a few pictures from the day she was born to share. I wanted to take a quick minute to tell her birth story as well. It's a good one.:)

This pregnancy was basically the longest 9 months of my life. I found out I was pregnant with her when I was only 3 weeks along and told everyone right away, so that made it last forever. I was totally sick for about 20 weeks and then completely miserable with intense back pain.....for good reason, little did I know I was carrying a HUGE baby in there. I started having early contractions and was starting to dilate at 30 weeks so I was put on moderate bed rest...sound familiar? (the same thing happened with Liv) So every doctors apt I was told I would go into labor that day....and didn't. It was so frustrating because this was my first baby so I didn't know any better and we planned our lives around going into labor at any second. Luckily I lived by my parents and they were huge supports. I just remember waking up every morning and crying because I didn't go into labor that night. I was SOOOO miserable. And it was the summer in St. George, I remember it got up to 120 dgrees that summer and my AC in my car was broken. I had 3 false labors and was sent home every time. So my due date came...and my due date past. The doctors were in complete shock that I was walking around dilated to a 5 and the babies head was at a plus 1 station. Then on August 11th at 5 am I had some contractions that rocked my world. I still remember the intense pain, kneeling on the ground with my forehead on the carpet, screaming. I made the urgent call to Mike at work and told him to get home NOW. We drove to the hospital and the nurses, who knew me very well by this point, knew I was in labor just by looking at my face. They checked me right away and I was dilated to a 7. I went in and had to labor with no drugs for about another hour until the anesthesiologist was able to come in. I remember never ever ever wanting to feel those contractions again. Every time I felt one coming I panicked and when it was done I remember thinking that there was no way I could do another one. I basically was thrown right into active labor since I was already dilated so far. I was dying and crying. The nurses kept telling me that I could deliver naturally if I wanted to since I was so close, but I DID NOT WANT TO!!! I can not understand how anyone would want to have babies naturally. I truly don't get it. The pain meds finally came and shortly after they told me I could push. I pushed a total of 4 times and after some major cutting (sorry) I pushed out a 9 lb baby! I remember my emotions exactly when I first saw her, I could not believe that I made this "thing", she came out of my body! There were no batteries, or wires connected, she was alive and real. It blew my mind. She was beautiful and hairy and crying and BIG!! I was in love! Most of you know that this baby was about to give me a true run for my money. She came out crying and didn't stop for a very very long time. She was a difficult baby, to say the least, and taught me many valuable things. She's a very sweet girl, she's compassionate and very smart. She is nurturing and motherly to anyone younger than her. She can memorize pretty much any book you read her and is constantly surprising us with how intelligent she is. We love her very much and are having so much fun watching her grow. Happy birthday to my sweet first daughter! Enjoy the pictures form the day she was born!