Baby Love

When I got pregnant with Nicole, I was 38 years old.  The doctor suggested we have testing done to see if she had Down's syndrome or anything like that.  We chose not to have any of those kinds of tests done, because that information would not have changed the fact that we were having a baby and that this baby was a blessing from God no matter what.  I was so excited to be pregnant.  I loved it!!!  I was so in awe of the fact that the love Mel and I shared had created this wonderful being growing in my womb. 

When Nicole was born, Mel cried, and of course I did too.  He always like to brag that he was the first one to hold her.  Nicole was born with a head full of jet black hair.  When anyone commented on her hair, Mel's response was that she got it from him because he had to have gone somewhere.  Nicole was such an easy baby. 

I had worked for 17 years at a hospital doing medical transcription before she was born.  After Nicole was born, I just could not bear the thought of leaving her every day. We decided that I would stay home and work from home as a medical transcriptionist.  I had the best of both worlds.  I got to spend every day with our precious baby and I could also work to contribute to our household.  Mel worked a very early shift, 5:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  From the time Nicole was very young she knew the sound of Mel's truck and could hear him coming two or three blocks from home.  She would get so excited to hear him coming!!!  After he got home from work Mel would take care of Nicole and fix dinner so I could get my work done, and then we had our evenings free to spend time time together.

We used to watch the news every night, and every night when the weather came on for some reason Nicole was very fascinated by the weather.  I don't know what it was, the person's voice or what got her attention so much.  When she got to be about 4 years old (and continues to this day), she gets very irritated with weather reports.  She always says "Those people aren't God, only God knows what the weather is going to be like".  It almost offends her to listen to the weather. 

We also used to watch the TV show Cops.  From the time Nicole could stand she would stand on the couch next to Mel with her little arm over the back of his shoulders and wearing his hat and trying to sing the theme song to cops.  Everywhere she went she would sing "Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do when they come for you".  It was so funny listening to her trying to sing.  Mel also taught her to whistle.  She started whistling when she was about 18 months old.  It was hilarious, this little person toddling along whistling.  People laughed everywhere we went when she would whistle.

Until Nicole was about 2 she really was partial to me.  She loved her daddy, but if she had her choice, she chose mommy.  Little did I know that was about to change!

Look at all that hair, our beautiful baby girl!