Does Anybody Know What Day It Is?

If you guessed today is our 34th anniversary, you'd be right. Kind of. Our anniversary got upstaged 18 years ago and pretty much every year since.

Today is an especially important day. Today Megan becomes the last one of her generation on both sides of the family to become an adult. How quickly time flies.

Megan age 18

Eighteen years ago I was busy with other things.  I was gradually losing amniotic fluid, but not even thinking about going into labor.  My doctor gave me the choice of being induced on Tuesday, April 20th or Friday, April 23rd (the days the doctor was available). Of course I choose Friday, even though it was our 16th anniversary, because that meant I could give birth, go home Saturday, get kids to church on Sunday, and be up and running to get kids off to school on Monday.

 Geesh. What was I thinking?

Of course, things didn't work out quite as I'd planned.  Megan was delivered by emergency c-section after a uterine rupture during labor.  She was completely blue, not breathing, and not responding.  My labor and delivery nurse later told me Megan was delivered "more dead than any baby she had ever seen". Ten minutes after birth, she still had an APGAR score of 0, despite resuscitation efforts. They figured that between the rupture and the first breath, Megan was without oxygen for 16 minutes. 

I've tried holding my breath that long. It's really hard.

Megan immediately jetted down to Denver's NICU for some around-the-clock pampering, followed by more days in the Billings NICU. Not exactly what we planned. Total cost for Megan's luxurious accommodations and care: $68,000+.

That was 18 years ago. I'd hate to know what the bill would be today.

My clever plan to be on my feet, getting kids off to school on Monday didn't really work out so well, either. I didn't mosey home from the hospital until Tuesday.

Megan would be more than a week old before I saw her again.

We don't know how much Megan weighed at birth.  In all the chaos, no one weighed her. By the time they weighed her in Denver, she was full of IV fluids, steriods, and seriously retaining water.

Megan, 3 weeks

Although the doctors told us Megan had suffered serious brain damage and would have ongoing, life-long issues, she started walking at 10 months and developed into a real chatterbox shortly after that.

Christmas 1994, Jessica, age 7, Ashley, almost 5, Megan, age 20 months

 Megan's only lingering problem was that she didn't feel a need to eat

Megan, age 20 months

 unless it involved chocolate or sugar.
Some things never change.

Megan, age 2 

Megan has given us lots of joy over the years. No really, she has!
 Jessica loved her so much, she gave Megan chicken pox when she was 2.

The joy of shared chicken pox, Megan, age 2, Jessica age 8

 Megan was as blonde as Ashley and Amy as a little child.  She gradually lost those blonde locks over the years.

Ashley, age 4, Megan, age 2, Amy, age 9

Megan was is so sweet and cute, she just naturally became the adored baby of our family.

Megan, age 3 and Shelly, almost 16

 Megan was always very small for her age.  She had "failure to thrive" issues for the first 6 years of life. After that, she still was under the fifth percentile for height and weight, but I think the doctors gave up trying to fix her.  She was always at least half a foot shorter than her next shortest classmate until her sophomore year when she suddenly stretched to a respectable 5' 3".

Megan had a serious passion for all things Winnie the Pooh for at least a dozen years of her life. 
She claims she's over it but I'm pretty sure I hear her humming
"The Wonderful Thing About Tigger"
under her breath all the time.

Megan, age 6

Megan tells me she has almost no memories of Scott living at home.  When I sort through pictures, I can't help but notice how few we have with Scott and Megan in the same photo.  Megan was 3 when Scott left home for college, and 4 when Scott moved out of state. 

It's funny because of all of our girls, Stan and I think Megan is most like Scott .

Megan, age 1, Scott, age 16, Shelly, age 14

And now Megan is preparing to ride off into the sunset.

Megan, age 7, Jessica, age 13 

 As for all that brain damage predicted by the doctors, we just pretend not to notice.

Megan has grown into a beautiful young woman, and we are going to miss her when she's gone.

Even so, it's been a very, very long time since our anniversary has gotten equal time.

 Watch out everyone! Our inner party animals are about to escape!