To my 23 year old!

So now it´s your turn. Even though you´re turning 23 you are still my baby and you´ll always be it. I love how your eyes sparkle when you´re happy and how you have a passion for your patients. You are creative and sensitive. You make my day brighter and better.

Not sure what´s wrong with blogger, but it won´t upload my pictures correctly.

You were my surprise for Papi. We had talked about having a second baby, but he wanted to wait a while yet. He still remembered the screaming of your sister and you know me...I forget.
I really wanted my children to be close in age, because I knew we weren´t going to have many. I did not want to go through the "Itch" for many children. So when you were expected it was a surprise to your dear dad, but not to me. :) (He forgave me...)

I was hoping for a better pregnancy this time around and for the first 6 months all was well. But then one day there was an itch here and an itch there. And no scratching could make the itch go away. My high blood pressure also made it´s way back and I had to take medicine for that. So for the last 12 weeks, there was itching. Luckily I did not have to work, because we were already living in Paraguay. I was a stay at home mother and had my mom close by. She was there to babysit when my itching kept me up at night and I needed to get some sleep. Ice became my best friend. It was the only thing that kept me sane, when I thought I could not stand it any more.

Oct. the 13th was a beautiful spring day. A Saturday. There was a spring festival at Flor del Chaco and I really wanted to go. I was still 3 weeks away from my due date. Hubby offered to stay with Marisa, and my parents took me along. While we were there I started to feel some pains. But because my first borns labor beginning had been so different I did not recognize them as labor pains. Once the contractions started to come more regularly I had an incling this might be it. But we stayed till dusk and enjoyed the day. When I was home I was sure that this would be it. The contractions were coming at a pretty steady pace now and were getting stronger. I was scared of this birth, because in Canada I had gotten an epidural right away and did not have that much pain. In Paraguay (back then) they did not offer this. Was I going to be able to handle a birth with no pain killers?
In the evening your dad brought me to the hospital and went back home to stay with Marisa. I did not want him there. I was one of those woman that would rather deal with her pain alone and not have anybody touch her. My best friend was a nurse at the time in our hospital and she was at my side. She offered to give me a back rub, but I didn´t want anybody to touch me. I still remember the little green light that I was focusing on. I remembered from my prenatal classes, that I was told to concentrate on one item and focus your pain there. And for me it was a little green light on the wall (from some kind of monitor). If anybody stood in front of my little light I would get panicky and they quickly moved aside. :)
But I did it. And 12 hours later our second little girl was born. You were 3300 gram and 50 cm long.

Even then you had your beautiful big eyes. And your adorable dimples. You were also not a long sleeper. During the day you slept in 20 minute intervals. If I wanted to get anything done I had to do it then. It was a very tiring 2 years, until you learned to sleep a little longer. But once you did, you started to enjoy it. Your bed time was usually 8 pm. If we had guests over and they had children along, and they stayed late, it didn´t bother you. When you felt the need, you went to bed. Be it with other children around or not. You needed your sleep. And you still do. (Even if you often don´t want to admit it)

You know we are proud of you, at how you´ve grown into a beautiful responsible young woman.  Your short life has had many trials and tribulations, but through it all you held your faith in God. You have grown so much through those hardships and I´m sure that God has many blessings in store for you.

Happy Birthday Michelle! We love you!