Happy Birthday Hunter Bug!

Let's just say up to May 29th 1993, I was still pretty naive about giving birth. Hunter's arrival changed that. We had spent the last week moving from our married student housing apartment in Missoula to a little two bedroom home on 9th street in Hamilton and I was pretty tired. In fact, the house wasn't set up yet so we spent the night with Boyd's parents. In the morning when I woke up my back hurt a little and I was really tired....to the bones. I walked around the first half of the day just feeling tired. Krista insisted I was in labor, but I didn't feel anything. I had spent the last week moving and lifting boxes and my muscles were sore. By about noon we decided that Boyd should drive me back to Missoula where my doctor was just in case I did go into labor and I would already be there. Missoula was an hour away on a little two lane highway. By the time we got there...I was in pain but didn't know if it was labor. Crazy as it seems...I still didn't know what labor was supposed to feel like...So, we drove to the hospital where the nurse checked me and said I should go walk around the mall and have a fun day because it was obvious I wasn't having a baby today. By this point, I guess I'm just a wimp and I'll just go hang out. As we are driving to the mall I tell Boyd I'm not feeling well so we stop at a friends' apartment close by and I lay down on their bed. Within minutes I'm writhing all over the place in pretty much terrible pain...especially in my back. There was no space between pains...like contractions and supposedly, like in the movies there are spaces in the contractions. So I keep telling myself that I'm not in labor...the nurse said I wouldn't have the baby today, right? I lay there about an hour and finally tell Boyd, let's just go back to the hospital and have them check...I'm pretty sure I'm just losing my mind, I must have the flu and I'm sure the nurses will think I'm crazy. So we go back and I barely make it into the room on the bed since I'm in crazy pain. This time my doctor was there. He came in and checked me and started yelling at the nurses that they miss checked me and they should have never sent me away. So, at this point, it's too late for medicine...they didn't even have someone to administer epidurals at that hospital back then. My back hurt so bad that I was standing on my bed screaming at one point. Boyd was so embarassed and kept telling me to lay down and shut up and that it didn't hurt that bad. I should have kicked him out of the room. Looking back I think that it was just happening so fast there wasn't a break or time to concentrate. Anyway, within a half hour of me getting back to the hospital, Hunter was born. I'm laying there thinking...I don't even know when I'm labor and what an idiot I am. Maybe it was just denial. I never had an ultrasound while I was pregnant with Hunter...or Chloe for that matter, so we had no idea whether she would be a boy or girl...so we picked a name that would work for both.

Hunter spent the next two years screaming with ear infections. I think that's probably why I waited longer to have the next baby. Not to mention, women usually forget how painful labor is but I never forgot.

In 15 years with Hunter, there has never been a dull moment. With her, I've had to use the parent handbooks. At two years old she could get so angry that once she tore the door frame from the wall. She has made me rethink communication and how we speak to one another. Hunter is always the first one to volunteer for work and the first to let you know how she felt about it. She had a crazy imagination, acting out scenerios all day long. Thank goodness for Lion King and Barney! She played hard too and still does. Hunter has always loved babies. I know she will make a terrific mom some day. All her life, even as a tiny baby, she's had huge blue/green eyes. Everywhere we go, someone comments on her eyes. When she was small, people used to freak out about her eyes and Grandpa Ken started calling her "Bug", since she seemed bug-eyed. She also has always had amazing hair. She was born with thick black hair and it's still thick and beautiful. When Hunter wants something she puts her mind to it and works at it. The trick is convincing her that it's something she wants! You always want to have Hunter on your team or side.
I am so lucky to have her in my life. She is truly the filling in our family peanut butter sandwich. She is the depth, the glue, the excitement, the substance in our family. I have learned more from her about birth order, sibling interaction, and justice then I ever could have imagined. I love you Hunter! Happy 15th Birthday!