The pregnancy and birth of Mollee

This is what I wanted to do for each birthday this year, but forgot to get Mollee's done in time, so here it is:

We lost our first baby in December 1999, but we got pregnant by mid-February. I was working as the Office Manager at Realty Center and kept working until about 34 weeks. I can remember being very tired in the first trimester. When you are the Office Manager for 90 real estate agents, they all try to keep you happy. Someone just happened to bring me a Cherry Limeade and/or a Butterfinger to work every day. So healthy, I know!

I don't remember why I quit working by 34 weeks, but I needed a cut off date and Jason just wanted me to be done. I try to remember back to four weeks with no job, no kids and not much responsibility, but I think I probably slept thru it.

It was a Tuesday morning, Jason was getting ready for work and I remember thinking, "I think I just peed on myself". I know in Hollywood every one's water breaks, but my doctor informed me many times that it doesn't happen as often as you think - so I denied that that was the case. Jason was not appreciative of me saying "I THINK I'm in labor". He wanted to know, yes or no! So, he stayed home, thankfully! I had been having uncomfortable cramps all night, but I didn't want to be the one that rushed to the hospital twenty times (I saved that for #3).

I got to the hospital around 8:00 AM and I was 3 cm and yes it was my amniotic fluid leaking, but the sac hadn't fully broken yet. At 9:00 I asked them to check me again (of course, I felt like they thought I was a first time mom that didn't really know anything), but I was already 8 cm. I pushed through two contractions and baby was here by 10:44 AM, but the nurse didn't check the clock until later and wrote 11:15 on half the documents. And to add to the document confusion, some things said she weighed 7 lbs and some things said 7 lbs. 5 ozs.

I didn't want anyone in the waiting room, waiting on me to have a baby. For some reason, that was very unnerving. So, Jason and I decided, from the beginning, we wouldn't call anyone to tell them we were at the hospital. And everyone was surprised when we called and just said, "Hey, Mollee is here!" My Mom and I both had our first babies on Halloween.

I wanted seven boys and Jason really wanted a girl first. He said he always wanted a big sister, so he really wanted a girl first. We wanted our names to reflect Scottish heritage. We chose Scottish clans for their middle names and wanted something unique for their first name. We decided to spell Mollee's name an old Scottish way: Maili. Last minute we decided to change it to -ee at the end.

It was a quick delivery, yes, my quickest one. I can remember being so overwhelmed with emotion that it went too fast and I couldn't believe a baby just came out of me. I wanted to enjoy and savor labor, which might sound weird, but it is what I wanted. Mollee freaked the nurses out because she didn't even cry. She just looked around with her big eyes checking out the world - now that we know her, we would say she was the quiet nosey one in the background from the beginning.

Recovery from delivery was rough. I don't know if it is normal for it to be so much rougher with the first one, but after this birth, I switched to the midwife. I feel like she didn't rush my other labors and recovery seemed a lot easier.

Mollee Fraser was a rough baby. She cried a lot, but as new parents, we weren't really sure if it was normal or not. Eventually, she was diagnosed with GERD and with meds she became a litte more pleasant. We got pregnant again less than 4 months later, which we think was a good thing, before we changed our minds about having more kids (then #2 was an easy laid back kid).