Happy Birthday Darcy

This day ten years ago I was in the hospital admiring our newest addition to our family. Darcy was born at 6:19 AM and she came into the world quickly and with little fuss. After that it was downhill. We came home and she wouldn't wake to feed. She got dehydrated.

Two days later she was at the children's hospital where she and I lived for the next four days while we waited for the results of a spinal tap. By day three I had figured out that her tongue was always on the roof of her mouth and she couldn't get it down to nurse. One of the many doctors we saw suggested a bottle, and once her little tongue was pushed down she slurped down my pumped breast milk in seconds.

After that she was a different baby, waking and crying every 20 minutes for more milk. By the time the results came back negative she was alert and drinking a bottle. It took her 9 weeks of bottle feeding before she latched on to the breast. Once she latched on she never let go and never took another bottle again. If I hadn't gotten ill when she was 17 months old and had to stop cold turkey, we would probably be weaning her today.

Darcy was a happy little thing. She loved her sister. She loved to suck her first two fingers. She loved to explore. She loved to ask questions. Pretty much none of that has changed today. She is still a happy thing. She is usually smiling her little dimpled smile and she is most always laughing. She loves her sister, although Darcy thinks she knows more than Madison. She now sucks her thumb instead of her fingers. She still loves to explore (see Kelly's website at http://www.demographicofone.com/) and she is constantly asking "why" and other questions.

She is also very athletic and excels at every sport she tries. She is the first girl to be chosen by the boys in PE at school. Children and adults always want to be around her and she usually puts herself in the center of attention. Luckily, her sister is very patient with this and allows her to move forward, being content to stand in the background, smiling at her silly Darcy.

When I began this website years ago I started a topic called, "Out of the mouths of my babes". In looking back over those entries I found that they are mostly all from Darcy. She is always gabbing and chattering, and she says some of the funniest things ever.

It took her years to grow her hair. Now she loves messing with her hair and is constantly changing her hairstyle, cutting it when the mood suits her. She is willing to try anything when it comes to her hair. When she was three years old she cut her own hair, and then realizing that she might have done something she shouldn't have, she took all of the hair and hid it inside her baby's cradle.

Her hair is much thinner and a lighter shade of red then her sister's. I was very curly when it started growing and it stayed that way until she got it cut short for the first time. Then the curls disappeared. They have since reappeared after her latest hair cutting.

Darcy's best buddy is her doll, Molly, that she got when she was around 18 months of age. By this time she was sucking pacifiers to make up for the cold turkey nursing, and Molly came with a pacifier around her neck. Molly is an over-exaggerated puppet, and while she scares most everyone else, she is Darcy's love. Molly has been everywhere with Darcy and to this day she still sleeps with her. She has worn and is a tad shriveled from the washing machine, but Darcy will never give her up.

Darcy started swimming before she was one. She loved getting in the pool at Kelly's apartment complex. She wanted to wear goggles and she wanted to be underwater. She was always being pulled up out of the water by someone because once underwater she would just hang and look around with her big eyes.

She was an excellent listener and by the time she could walk she would walk to the edge, jump in, and kick to me. I use to joke that she was walking advertisement for me as a swimming teacher, and I debated about giving her water-proof business cards to hand out to the women who would grasp their chests whenever she would just stumble into the deep end and swim.

Today my baby turned 10 years old. She has been counting the days on a calender she keeps in her bedroom. I have been ignoring those big X's that she crosses out each night before going to sleep. I can't believe that ten years have gone by so fast. I can't believe that she is in double digits and going into the 5th grade. I can't believe that she can read, write sentences, and give speeches. I can't believe how much she loves fashion and how she loves to dress herself and pick out her own outfits. Time has snatched my baby and turned her into a young lady.

She likes to remind me that no matter how old she gets she will still be my baby. While that is true I miss the baby part of my baby. I miss those days of cooing, and finger slurping, and diaper changing. I miss snuggling and nursing her. I miss kissing her toes and smelling her baby scent. And while each new phase brings new pleasures I wish that just once, on a child's birthday, you can for a moment have that baby back in your arms before you open them and let her run.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl. We love you!