Happy Birthday Kiki Aru!!

Kiki Aru was a surprise. Z2 had been born in July, and, while my body was recovering from that birth, another one was on the way. But I had no clue.

I do remember in March looking for a new Easter Dress, and I couldn't figure out why nothing fit, even though I had been losing weight. But I had no clue.

Then around mid-March I was lying in bed on my stomach and felt some strange little twinges. I thought to myself, could I be pregnant?

Well, I went to the store and got the pregnancy test, and, sure enough, the blue line showed up. I called my doctor and had an appointment toward the end of the month.

"Well, you are about 21 weeks along," he told me that day. "Your due date is the first part of September."

So, needless to say, this was a pretty fast pregnancy. I only had about five months to go.

After my doctor's appointment, PKR and I and the girls and PKR's brother DR traveled to Portland, Oregon, and I took the girls down to Eugene to visit my brother Raymond Pert. Well, it must have been rather obvious, because when I shared the news he said he thought I looked pregnant.

The pregnancy was pretty uneventful until Labor Day of 1995. I kept joking how funny it would be to go into labor on Labor Day. Which would be unique in itself, because I never went into labor with The Princess and Z2 was induced, so labor on my own would be unique.

In the morning, DR's fiancee had moved to Meridian, and we were helping her get their house ready to move into. I did some vacuuming to help out. Later that day I drove into Boise to PKR's aunt and uncle's house to get some bedroom furniture she was giving us for The Princess. As I drove home in the car, there was a strange tingling on the back of my legs, but I didn't think much of it.

After I got home, the wierd feeling pains and twinges kept coming. Around 10:00 p.m. I told PKR we had better call his Mom to come stay with the girls, because I was pretty sure I was in labor.

So PKR's mom came over and we drove to Mercy Medical Center in Nampa. They got me set up in a room, and my doctor was out of town, so he had one of his associates deliver the baby. (Basically, the nurse did all the work. The doctor just showed up to catch the baby.)

So we arrived at the hospital around 11 p.m., and I had actually gone into labor on my own. And it didn't last too long, because Kiki Aru arrive at 1:10 a.m. And I was out of the hospital and back home by 11 a.m. the next morning.

She did have a little trouble gaining weight her first couple of weeks, but after that everything went really well.

Kiki Aru is a wonderful girl. She is bright, kind and lots of fun. She is a natural born leader. She has lots of friends, and lots of different interests. She likes to run, play basketball and soccer. She likes to sing and act. She is our only blonde. (She was like me, but the opposite. My brother and sister were blonde, and I was brunette. Kiki Aru is blonde, and her two sisters are brunette.)

Happy 12th birthday Kiki Aru. You are my special baby and I love you very much.