One Year Ago

Warning: It's a LONG one, but oh so good!

One year ago I was very anxious to give birth to the prettiest little girl in my life. Elizabeth Dixie Mickelsen. Lizzy’s due date was December 29th, but I was nervous about having her on Christmas Eve or day, so I opted to have her induced on the 20th. Here is the story of that day.


December 20th 2008 was on a Saturday. James normally works on Saturday’s, but he took this day off in hopes that we would be able to have Lizzy induced that day. It wasn’t a sure thing because a lot of women wanted to be induced that day. I had to wait my turn. We got up that day, I got all gussied up because I knew it was going to be a good day. We went to the ward Christmas party, which was actually a breakfast. I got a lot of strange looks and questions from people because they all knew that was the day for my induction. Fittingly, (I thought) I won the prize from a drawing at the party. It made the day feel that much more special. James and I went home from the party and I think I called the hospital 3 different times that day asking if I could come in yet. I was turned down every time because they were SO busy! We all took a nap that afternoon. At 5:00 pm the hospital finally called and asked how soon we could be there. I said, “Give me 20 minutes”! They said, “give us more like 30”. Ha! James dropped me off while he went on to my mom’s house to drop off Logan. I got checked in, had my water broken, got my epidural around 7:00 and just waited.

I must dedicate a paragraph to crazy nurse Leah. That is how she will always be remembered because she was truly crazy. I didn’t understand her humor, probably because she didn’t have much. She was rude and crass and at one point threw the blanket off of me completely in some sort of retaliation to me asking her if she was going to check me. There is more to share, but I’ll save it for myself unless you ask me directly. Then I will share more horrifying details about her.

On my mom's side of the family, there were three girls born in the calendar year.

They are the three "E's". Eva, Emmaline, Elizabeth.

Even though my mom had Logan, she really wanted to be there for the birth, so she had a neighbor come and sit at her house after Logan went to bed at 7:30, and then my sister Sarah took over sometime around 10:00, I think. I’m so glad my mom was there, and I think James was too. I had an epidural that did great to eliminate any pain I might have been feeling, but it had a nasty side effect of making me feel completely claustrophobic in my own body. I had an overwhelming need to move my legs constantly, but I just couldn’t! James and my mom were very good to keep moving my legs around. That didn’t happen to me when I had Logan, so I’m not sure what was going on. As a result, I’m very interested into having my next baby using only hypnosis as my analgesic. Stay tuned for that story.

Elizabeth Dixie, with her name's sake,

Grandma Dixie.

Around 11:30 I was finally able to convince my crazy nurse Leah to check me again because she hadn’t for a couple of hours. She was convinced I hadn’t progressed a lot, but I was convinced otherwise, due to the pressure I could feel. Sure enough, Lizzy was crowning. This got my mom really excited. Out of all of her grand children, one has a birthday on December 19th, another has a birthday on December 21st, so the prospect of having Lizzy come on the 20th was exciting. The nurse paged the doctor and we waited and waited. During the waiting, my mom kept telling just to push Lizzy out; the nurses were capable of delivering her. I opted to keep my legs together and wait. After literally searching the hospital for him, the nurses finally found him and rushed him up to our room. (He had been in the ER helping out with an emergency.) He walked in at 11:54 pm; not much time to get Lizzy in this world before midnight to reach my mom’s hope of having a grand kid born on the 20th. I started pushing at 11:55 and Lizzy was born at 11:59. No time to spare! As soon as the nurse declared the time of birth, everybody in the room burst out in cheers.

Our little Lizzy bug is one year old. Crazy. I’ll update you on her stats later. I don’t have them yet because her doctor’s appointment is on Tuesday. She loves her mommy, way too much! She loves to be held so she can snuggle with you. She likes to give kisses and hugs. She really enjoys playing with Logan; they get hyper and start squealing in delight when they’re having a lot of fun together. She can stand alone for a few seconds at a time, and likes to walk with help. I don’t think she’ll be walking on her own for another month or so. She still doesn’t have any teeth yet, but I can see two just under the surface, so they are coming! She is such a good natured baby most of the time. No matter the situation, we can get her to laugh within seconds. We love her so much and are excited to have her in our lives.

Lizzy with her cute little friend, Rylee Egbert.

The photographer told Logan to give Lizzy a kiss. Instead, Lizzy threw herself

forward to grab Logan's shirt and planted this kiss right on him!

Our beautiful ONE year old girl.