Rebecca 2010

My baby Rebecca turned 10 yesterday. Wow! Since she was a scheduled c-section we didn't find out what we were having so we would have something to tell people about her birth. Funny thing was that it was the year 2000 and there were more babies born that week than there had ever been in the USA. The reasoning being was that most people stayed home over New Years for Y2K. Rebecca was actually due 2 weeks later so it made me laugh to sit in the hospital and watch Good Morning America while they interviewed parents who had just given birth.

The weekend before her birth I had been judging a Nutcracker audition and carrying Stephanie down the stairs from the stage and I fell and bruised my entire back. When we went into surgery the doctors and nurses all commented on my purple bruises that looked HORRIBLE. They spent nearly an hour cutting through scar tissue just to get to my uterus to deliver her and and then when they did finally cut it she kind of swam up. Neither doctor could get a hand on her and finally one of the OBs laid across my ribs (bruising those) and pushed really hard so that Dr. Noorda could get a grip on her. When they finally told us it was a girl they noticed they had cut her forehead a little bit (nothing that a little super glue couldn't fix).

Now I consider myself an expert on c-sections seeing as how I've had 5. But this recovery was nothing like the others. I wanted to believe that it was the same but the doctors had already told me that I had an infection, I lied and went home early, and sat at my house lying to myself, Ryan and my mom about how I felt. The Sunday after she was born my mom was scheduled to fly home and I woke up really early knowing that I needed to go back to the hospital. I woke her up and we woke up Ryan and we went to the ER. Anyway they got me feeling better and eventually I recovered. I know it was Heavenly Father saying "Yes, Kerri your body can't handle having any more babies, you need to be here to raise the ones you have!"

Rebecca was born singing and listening to music. She has sat through hundreds of piano and voice lessons. She would practice my opera with me as I would drive to my lessons in Logan. When she was four we went to the dollar store and she bought a sword. She came out and had me put her hair in a low pony tail. Then she told me she was Raoul from the Phantom and she was singing the songs that he sings at the cemetery.

She was in nearly all of the children's theater shows that I directed and she would help me choreograph them. Reminding me of things that I had done at home with her. In Peter Pan she couldn't decide whether she wanted to be a pirate or an Indian. She knew all of the material and had a place on stage for whichever part she came out on.
When she was 4/5 she played Gretl in Sound of Music. She was darling and took her part very seriously. Kathryn would go to rehearsals and the performances with her making sure she was ready for each of her entrances. Since I was playing the Barroness and I couldn't worry about whether she was in the right place at the right time.

She plays sports with anyone who will. Her favorite is soccer. She has boy cousins that she plays with faithfully. She is her Uncle Jeff's 'dream daughter' and we tease that she is Ryan's favorite Daughter and Son. She truly is the brother that Darren didn't get but don't let that kid you because she does like her hair curled and to wear dresses.

She has a strong testimony of the Gospel. When we found the bone tumor in her leg it was very scary. She asked her dad and uncle Jeff to give her a blessing so that she wouldn't be scared. It is still scary to know that she still has to have it taken care of but she knows that she will be okay. I love that she gets up to bear her testimony and she tells "stories" because it is more interesting when someone tells a story. (that is how she explained it to us later that day)
She loves learning especially science. She wants to play the drums when she's older. Anyway I just wanted to post a little bit about her since this is as close to a journal that I get.