My Daughter Changed My Life

Serenity

Serenity is my eleven month old baby girl. She is my youngest of my three children and the only girl. The day she was born was an amazing experience. She changed my life from the moment she looked at me with her big, blue eyes.

“One more trip to the doctor.” I thought to myself as I relaxed in my last few hours of pregnancy. I was nine months pregnant and ready to pop. On my last visit with my doctor he told me that if I did not go into labor by the next morning he was going to induce me into labor. I knew that this was a painful process from my last pregnancies and admittedly, I was scared. Understanding my discomfort with the induction process, my doctor gave me a tip. He told me to go home, walk a few laps, eat some greasy food, make love to my husband and I would go into labor. So on doctor’s orders, I did just that. I walked five blocks down from my house and back. I ate pizza and it was delicious, all dripping with grease and cheese. Then I got into bed with my husband. We were asleep by 10:00 that night.

At 1:00am, I woke up suddenly. “Had I just felt a contraction?” I thought. I laid in bed waiting in the darkness for another shot of pain. Sure enough about ten minutes later a lightning bolt shot across my lower abdomen. I could not believe it; the doctor’s tip had worked! I turned over and shook my husband, “Elvin, wake up! I’m in labor!” He moaned and rolled over in bed. I shook him again but harder this time, “Wake up!” I hollered. That time it worked and he sat up wiping the sleep from his eyes. “Are you sure?” He asked me. I was sure. I had never felt pain like this before in my life. Elvin got up from the bed and walked out into the darkness of the kitchen to get the phone. When he came back into the room, he was already on the phone with my mom. She was ecstatic; I could hear her voice screeching through the phone from six feet away. So far my contractions were coming on every fifteen minutes to a half hour. My husband, Elvin, hung up...