Happy 6th Birthday Sha Sha!

Every mother likes to share her story. The story of becoming a mother.

No, not HOW she became a mother, but the detailed events of the day that her precious bundle of joy entered the world OR her world.

I don't know why we revel in such details, but during a pregnancy, stories of dilation and contractions are like drugs to the soul. You can't seem to get enough of it. I guess that is why there are so many "Baby Stories" on TLC.

Being a mom through adoption is very different, but in a lot of ways the same. We obsess over process times and paperwork and surf blogworld in search of another adoptive mom's saga.

I have 4 very different stories in my motherhood journey. I guess I am blessed. No, I KNOW I am blessed.

So, this long intro was just a way of reeling you in to hearing one of my "stories". And the "story" I am blessed to share is the story of my precious Sha Sha who was born 6 years ago today!

In November of 2002, I suspected I was pregnant with baby #2. Sure enough, the tests confirmed it and we were due to become parents again in August of 2006.

My 2nd pregnancy was quite different than my first. Mostly because I wasn't hurling throughout the day (sorry for the graphic language. Our "stories" always involve that). Actually this pregnancy allowed me to somewhat grasp a small glimpse of why some women enjoy being pregnant:)

We found out halfway through our pregnancy that we were having a girl! Our 1st time we were "suprised". This time we were able to glimpse a peek at our precious child because The Rockstar Nurse has connections at the hospital for the ultrasound machine. Crazy thing was our "connection" was just a surgical resident. Oh well...he got it right!

I never seriously questioned if anything was "wrong" during my pregnancy, but a couple of times I would ask. The most eluding fact was because I gained a total of 19 pounds. I gained almost 50 with The Ringleader and Lil'Rocker, so 19 was abnormal for me. But they said each pregnancy was different, so I went with that. Although I still thought it was odd that I gain a 1/2 lb on a visit instead of the 10 I was accustomed to:)

So I continued on through 35 weeks. That visit was when it was discovered that I stopped growing at 32 weeks of pregnancy.

So I had to wait 5 days. Count them 5 days, until I had my ultrasound! I would never allow them to let me wait that long now, but I did then.

Anyway, on Tuesday July 22nd, the ultrasound revealed that things were not good. In fact, things were REALLY not good. My daughter was predicted to be only in the 2nd percentile for size. She was breech. The cord was wrapped around her neck twice. The nurse was very solomn and subdued when she told me. Not a good sign you know.

I had tears in my eyes as I heard the unexpected news. Mostly the tears were because I knew that meant C-section. Crazy thing was I never let my mind start to worry about the baby. Terrible mom I am, but I was scared for ME at that point! :)

So, after being admited to the hospital for extensive ultrasounds, they decided that our precious Sha Sha would be brought into the world that night.

Sha Sha was born at 36wks and 5 days and weighed only 4lb 5oz. It was a HUGE praise because she was only supposed to be 2 lbs.

I will never forget the 1st time I held her. I stared at her for a minute in my arms and then I puked:)



Miss Sha Sha was in the NICU for about 9 days. She was the "spit fire" of the unit.


Out of all my children, I get most emotional over my Sha Sha. I get emotional because I know that things could have been so much worse. I also get emotional because there are a lifetime residual effects of the complications....and I often feel guilty for that.


But Sha Sha is my precious gift. There is DEFINITELY no other little girl like her in this world. I am blessed with her uniqueness.


She has changed and grown so much over the past 6 years (well, not really she only weighs 32 lbs!) I am so proud of her.

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

Happy 6th Birthday Sha Sha!! I am so glad you are part of my story. I am so honored to be your mom.