Riggs' Digs: A Little Slice of Heaven

As her mother, I know I am biased, but pretty much everyone who knows her agrees that Eden comes pretty darn close to perfection. She is happy, friendly, tolerant, engaging, loving and easy to please. She sleeps through the night, and has most of her short life and hardly ever fusses. Whenever Herb introduces her to someone he always follows up with, "Isn't she the most beautiful girl you've ever seen?!" and if you want to stay on his good side,it's best you emphatically agree.

Eden is easily the center of our family's attention as all three of my boys can't get enough of her. The other night, Herb confessed to me it was going to be a whole different ball game disciplining Eden then it is with the boys. "I just don't know that I could ever truly be upset with her." She's young yet, but I know where he's coming from.

As with Max and Lincoln, I wanted to dedicate a post to Eden in honor of her first birthday. It's a few months late, but seeing as how I'm playing catch-up this post is the next in line.

From the moment we knew I was pregnant for the third time, Herb was sure it was going to be a girl. He began vocalizing this to people well before it was ever confirmed in my 20 week ultra sound. I was hopeful, but didn't want to jinx anything. Once confirmed it was exciting to know I would have a daughter to share things with that boys don't necessarily care for. Besides, when my kids are all grown, I'll at least have one child who will return for the holidays. It seems sons always go with the in-laws.

I experienced the usual nausea and aversion to food the first few months with Eden, but not so usual was the development of asthma. I had never had asthma before, but for some reason during the spring I developed a bad case of it that lasted several months. It was rather annoying and put my exercise routine on the back burner. The other notable difference with this pregnancy was that I was extremely tired, more so than the other two. When I asked one of the midwives about it, she replied, "It's cause you're old." No beating around the bush.

I was expecting Eden to arrive late like her brothers, so when I started having regular contractions four days before her due date I was pleasantly surprised. Earlier in the day I had made a trip to Costco to stock up on diapers and a few other things. Gety came over for dinner and we had a nice visit along with another friend who had come by to see how I was feeling and dropped off a gift. I was feeling really good, but had had enough contractions throughout the day that I asked Gety to keep her phone close by "just in case" we needed to call her in the late hours of the evening. Around 10:30 that night I announced to Herb that Eden would be coming that night. He looked surprised as I hadn't said anything about having contractions, but I had been quietly keeping track of how far apart they were coming while reading on the couch. We thought we might have time to get a few hours of sleep, but by midnight it was apparent we would need to leave for the hospital soon. I called sweet Gety and she arrived a few minutes later. I dawdled around for a little bit, took a few pictures and gathered a few things to take with me. I think Gety and Herb were filling more anxious than I was and were relieved to get me out of the house and on our way.

We arrived at the hospital between 12:30 and 1am and I was still feeling really good though my contractions were coming about every 5 to 7 minutes. In fact, I was so calm the nursing staff was surprised to discover I was in active labor even though I told them the contractions were coming every 5 minutes and that I was sure I would be delivering soon. It was the first time I really considered going without an epidural, but in the end I wimped out and asked them to give me the lowest dose possible. I was in some discomfort, but not nearly close to the pains I felt with Max. However, soon after the epidural was administered,and before it really took effect, transition set in and I was in a LOT of pain. It felt like my guts were being twisted and pulled inside out. Herb kept asking the staff to give me more drugs. I heard the worry in his voice. He'd never seen me quite like this, even while I was in labor with Max. The midwife told us that by the time they increased the dose of the epidural the baby would be out. She was right. It was ten minutes of the most pain I'd ever been in, but after only 3 pushes Eden was in my arms and all was nearly forgotten. She was born a little after 3am on Oct. 2nd. What a beautiful babe she was. She didn't even have a cone head!

I thoroughly enjoyed the time I got to spend at the hospital with Eden and tried to keep her near me as much as possible. She took to nursing pretty well and was just a sweet presence to have so near. It was wonderful to have some quiet time with just the two of us before heading home to our boisterous reality.

From day one, Eden has been a pure delight to have in our family. She loves people and readily smiles at passing shoppers, pedestrians and anyone whom she can manage to make eye contact with. She is easily content and plays well by herself or with others. Rarely does she fuss, and when it does happen there's pretty good reason why, such as Lincoln hugging her in a choke hold. Eden loves to converse and can often be found tottering around the house "talking" on mama's cell phone. She's managed to call several friends, leaving voice messages and she knows how to activate more gadgets on my cell than I do!

We love our Eden and consider her to be a little slice of heaven. She makes all of us happy and on days that are particularly rough, I will often take Eden aside for some quiet time to fill my empty cup again and remember why it is I love being a mom.

This photo was taken just minutes before leaving for the hospital. I am looking large and in charge!

Perfect little face.

Herb's waited all his life for a little daddy's girl.

We blessed Eden while Christine Riggs was visiting over Thanksgiving. Eden was about 7 weeks old and she looked beautiful in the hand-sewn blessing gown and bonnet my mother made.

Eden smiling at 6 weeks.

The next four photos of Eden at 2 mos. were taken by our friend and photographer, Danelle Empey. In the photo below you can see Eden's name and birth stiched into the slip of her blessing gown. Each of my mother's granddaughters have been blessed in this gown and each has their name and birth date stiched into the slip.