I LOVE TODAY! (Really long, sorry.)

Today, September 19th, has to be one of my all-time favorite days! Six years ago on this very day I started the morning out by going to the salon with a few friends and getting the royal treatment. After 4 hours of bliss I drove as fast as I could to another salon and had my hair done. The stylist took an hour longer than I thought she would and I raced back to my cute little place in Sugar House to do my makeup in literally 6 minutes. My bf Adrianne was at my house to approve the make-up and hair and we then drove 75 mph up the private canyon of Mill Creek to the Log Haven Restaurant. It had been raining all week but it stopped for this very day. At 6:30pm Josh and I were married! I love him more now than I did then! We were surrounded by family and friends and it was beautiful, romantic and dream-like, for me at least. After the reception we were whisked away in a white Hummer limo to the Grand America Hotel in downtown SLC. It was fabulous! The only part I could have done without was the fact that Josh forgot to drop his car off at the hotel so the next morning we were picked up by his parents in their rental car. Real romantic. "Hi Suzi and Warren. Thanks for pickin' us up after our first night as husband and wife." Embarrassing, of course....grateful, yes. So that's the first reason I love this day. The second reason...it actually begins on Sept. 18th at 6am. I was preggers with Crue and he wasn't due till Oct. 10th. I awoke from a deep sleep and was surprised to discover that I had peed the bed. This was probably the only time that I was glad Josh was working nights cause I would have been majorly embarrassed. I went to the bathroom thinking that I must have been in such a deep sleep that I just didn't wake up. When I'm that pregnant I seriously get up like 3-4 times a night to pee. I changed and since the day before was my last day of work I went back to sleep. I was excited that I could sleep in. I was taking off work three weeks before Crue was due so I would have some time to nest and get prepared...mostly to sleep in. So as I said, I went back to sleep. Josh got home at 8am and when I woke up I realized I had peed the bed yet again. Of course now I'm thinkin','did my water break?' All I'd ever heard about water breaking was that there was always a gush and there was no gush, more like a small leak but only when I was laying down. I didn't say anything to Josh cause the whole peein' the bed thing wasn't something I wanted to bring up to my hubby. Not very sexy, not that being 8 months pregnant is but who needs the added grossness of incontinence. Anyways, Josh goes to sleep and I decide to go get a pedicure. I head to the salon where I got an awesome pedicure and the whole time I'm hoping that I don't leak or pee which ever it was. The funny thing was that I wasn't really worried. I'd just seen my doctor two days before and he told me that I wasn't dilating or effacing at all. He told me that we were pretty much shootin' for the due date but hoping not to go beyond it. So after the pedicure I decide to drop by my work and chit chat with my good friend Kate who I hadn't seen in a few days. I told her about my peeing the bed and asked her what she thought. As much as she didn't want me to be peeing the bed, she was hoping that I was. Since having left the house at about 8:30am, I hadn't had any wetness besides what I'm sure was just being a little sweaty from now weighing in at about 219 lbs. Not a joke. I was jinormous. (It's a new word.) So I leave my work establishment and I'm just driving aimlessly not really knowing what to do. I silently said a prayer asking for guidance and letting my Heavenly Father know that I really didn't want to go to the hospital and have them tell me I was peeing my pants. I'm sure he got that, right! After my little prayer I just had a very peaceful feeling. It wasn't a "go to the hospital now" feeling or a "yes your water broke" it was more of a "I know you'll do what you FEEL is the right thing" type of feeling. It was like my car drove itself and I ended up parked in the lot of the emergency room at Arrowhead Hospital thinking,"What am I doing" but it was a very calm "what am I doing". I don't know that I can explain what I felt. Even though I was wondering what I was doing, without hesitation I walked into the emergency room and just stood there. It was 10am on a Saturday morning and there were only 2 other people in there and they were together. I could see that they were being helped so I was trying to decide whether I should go sit down or go stand behind these other people who were being help and then a nurse approached and asked if I needed help. I quietly told her that I wasn't sure if I had pee'd the bed or if my water had broke and that maybe I should be checked out. She said,"sure let's get you checked in" I was like "no I don't need to be checked in, just checked out, ya know, a little looksie to see if everything was OK". She just kinda laughed and said that they had to check me in and they would get me in a wheel chair and take me up to an exam room. I told them I could walk but they wouldn't let me. Now I was feeling kind of foolish cause they were treating me like I was hurt or something and I wasn't. I was OK and didn't want to make a big deal about it. Well I get up to the room and they do a swab which would quickly turn blue (I think) if it detect amniotic fluid. Of course it doesn't turn blue but they have to take it to the lab to make sure and it's going to take an hour. I realize that no one knows where I am and that I better call someone. Josh is asleep and I didn't want to wake him. If I called Suzi, Josh's mom, I knew she would come to the hospital to check on me and I was sure that I would be walking out of there shortly so I didn't call her. I decided to call my mom. I just told her that I was being checked and I'd let her know when I'm done. She of course tells me that I can't have Crue that weekend because she absolutely has to be to work on Monday. I tell her not to worry cause I was pretty sure I was just peein'! The nurse finally came back and tells me that my water has indeed broke. I was SHOCKED! I literally asked her if I could go stain my front door and come back later. I had things to do. I wasn't ready. I didn't even have a hospital bag packed. Seriously stunned, I decide that I better call Josh. He answers his phone and this is our conversation McKelle: "Hey hun, don't freak out I'm at the hospital. This morning I woke up and thought I'd.." Josh:"WHAT'S WRONG? JUST TELL ME!!" McKelle:"My water broke." Josh: "I'll be right there!" Seriously he was there in 10 minutes in a nice button up polo shirt and some khaki slacks. He was ready. Unfortunately my cervix was not. They decided to start me on some petocine..er..pitocine (don't know how to spell that) and gels to get me started. I was so hungry and luckily my nurse let me eat some food quickly even though I wasn't suppose to. By now it's about 11:30am and to make a longer story just a little bit shorter, I had to go through two cycles of pitocine and gels before anything would happen and though my water broke around 6am on Saturday morning, Crue didn't arrive till after 40 hours of labor (technically). It was really only hard labor for about 15 hours but most of that was taken care of by the epidural and we were just waiting for my cervix to dilate. Once I hit a 10 it took three pushes and at 10:03pm on Sept. 19th, 2004 Crue was born. The cord was wrapped around his neck four times but he was healthy weighing in at 6 lbs 12 ounces. (I can only imagine how big he would have been if he had waited three more weeks. Yikes!) I know that my water broke because the cord was wrapped around Crue's neck so many times. If Crue was allowed to keep growing for the next 3 weeks I truly believe that the cord would have tightened and he wouldn't have made it. That freaks me out to even think that but I know the lord had a hand in allowing Crue to live and he absolute helped me to know what to do. He was beautiful and we're so blessed to have him! Changed our lives and hearts forever!! Now I just love hearing birthing stories so if you feel inspired, I double dog dare you to post about the birth of your child or children. Seriously they never get old to me! I'm so intrigued by the whole birthing process now that I've been through it. It's fun to hear the stories about what my friends and family have gone through to get those precious little spirits here! I am so GRATEFUL to have this AWESOME ability to bring life into this world, with a little...or a lot of help of course!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CRUE!!!!