Today my baby girl turns seven! Maxine Elizabeth Sherwood was born at 9:30 p.m. on June 5, 1997 at Grayling Mercy Hospital in Grayling, Michigan. Before giving birth, we didn’t know whether or not she was a girl or a boy. We named her Maxine Elizabeth after her great grandmothers, my Grandma Maxine, and Steve’s Grandma Elizabeth.

I remember in the hospital one of the nurses saying something about the disposition of women named Maxine and how they always seem to live up to the name given them. But if you think of Maxine as the cranky woman from the Hallmark cards, that’s not my Maxine.

My Maxine is always smiling. She has the biggest blue eyes you’ve ever seen with this dark eyelashes. Her eyes always draw comments from ladies at the grocery store. She is bubbly and can never stand still. She is always on the lookout for more fun and loves to interpret the world around her. One of her teachers claims Maxine is the one child out of all of them that she just wants to grab and take home. Maxine is sweet and devilish and has the most delightful laugh.

Yes, that’s right. Sweet and devilish. The girl can cook up trouble in no time flat. She has earned her nicknames “Tank” and “Monster.” But if she runs you over she’ll do so with a delightful giggle. She’s stubborn and set in her ways at a very young age. Don’t tell her she can’t do something. She’ll prove you wrong.

So many people have commented on Maxine’s eyes that if someone tells her she is beautiful, she’ll stick her finger in her eye and proclaim, “It’s because I have beautiful eyes.” Although she rarely sticks her finger in her eye anymore. She’s growing up after all. Seven years old and about 43 inches tall and 43 pounds. She likes to crawl up into laps and curl her arm around you. Giggle in your ear a bit. Definitely one to talk and talk and talk…. That’s my Maxine.

Maybe she is a bit like the Hallmark Maxine. She says it like it is and is prepared to get it done, whatever it is. If she doesn’t want to, don’t think you’ll make her. She learned to walk at 9 months and before her third birthday she was riding a two-wheeler without training wheels. She’s a tank and a monster and a sweetheart, and usually all three all at once.

(Birth Story Warning)

By the time I was pregnant with Maxine, I was an old hand at this giving birth thing. But my body still hadn’t figured out how to go into labor on its own. So once more I was scheduled for an induction.

I arrived at the hospital on June 5, a Thursday, at 8 a.m. I wasn’t having contractions and I wasn’t dilated or anything. When I arrived they used a gel to soften my cervix, and then left me alone. I spent most of the day alone in my room, reading a book, waiting for things to happen.

Steve came to the hospital when he got off work around 6 p.m. My sister Dee was there too. After two doses of gel cream, I was having some very minor contractions, finally. After Steve arrived, they gave me a third dose and this one seemed to get things in motion. I was finally dilating, but I was just a 3.

That’s when my doctor decided to move things along a little bit faster. At a three, he was able to break my water and things really speeded up from there. It was 7 p.m. when he broke my water and I was dilated to a three. As soon as my water broke, I began having strong regular contractions.

My brother and his wife arrived around 7:30 p.m. By then I was dilated to a 4-5 or so. They moved me to the delivery-recovery room. The contractions started getting harder, and Steve held my hand as he watched the Red Wings on TV.

I began to have those all-over body shakes again. This is the one thing about labor that I absolutely detest, but I did it every time. But by then I knew what they meant. It was time for Maxine to arrive.

My sister Dee went to get a nurse only to find out my doctor was at Big Boy eating dinner. By now it was 9 p.m. I knew it was time although I don’t think the nurse believed me and I know my doctor wasn’t expecting it. You’d think the poor man would have learned by now that once I got started it didn’t take long.

Steve started pressing on my back to counteract the contractions, which was the only relief I had from the back labor. My brother and his wife left the room and waited outside in the hallway. I sent my sister Dee for the nurse because I began to feel a burning sensation. It was Maxine’s head crowning. The doctor wasn’t there.

The nurse came in and told me she was trying to track down my doctor. She called an emergency room doctor in case my doctor didn’t make it back in time. And then she told me my favorite nurse phrase, “don’t push.”

Yeah, like that works. My body was so out of my control at that point. It was operating on autopilot and I didn’t have any choice in the matter. But I tried to keep from pushing. They told me not to and I didn’t. But it was NOT easy.

I wrote in Maxine’s baby book that I was told not to push and I didn’t, but Maxine, however, had other ideas. She was pushing.

I had tears in my eyes from trying not to push. My doctor walked in at the last possible moment. The ER doctor, who was just one floor down, never would have made it on time. He walked in and said I could push, but I didn’t hear it, so I asked, “I can push?” The doctor and nurse both said yes, and I pushed once.

Maxine arrived with just that one push. She was so tiny and covered with vernix, the cheesy stuff.

Steve called his parents to let them know. The nurse said Maxine was the first girl born at the hospital in about two weeks. My parents were in Texas visiting my sister, Kari, when Maxine was born.

Soon after Maxine was born, Dee and Keith and Irene came into the room. Actually, Dee was in the room, standing in the doorway throughout the birth. She quickly started snapping pictures.

One of the nurses was 3 months pregnant with her first baby. And when she took Maxine over to the little area to be measured, etc…. She picked Maxine up by her feet with just one hand and dangled her over her crib to measure Maxine’s length. Dee snapped a picture of it.

There we all are on the other side of the room, Steve, and my doctor, and me, watching this nurse dangle my newborn daughter by her ankles with just one hand! I think the nurse felt our eyes boring into the back of her head because she quickly set Maxine down in the crib. We let out our collective breaths.

My doctor later apologized for that. I believe he chewed the nurse out later in private as well. Maxine’s apgar score was 8 at birth and 10 just five minutes later.

She was beautiful. She weighed 7 pounds 8 1/2 ounces. She was 18 3/4 inches long. Her hair was so soft and it was long with brown and blonde hair both. Both of her little toes hid behind her fourth toe.

Her sisters and Grandpa Sherwood came to meet her the next day. Autumn and Amanda were staying with Grandma and Grandpa Sherwood when we were at the hospital and Grandpa brought them to meet Maxine.

Twenty-four hours later we were ready to take our baby home, but I don’t think the nurses expected that. She was born late enough we could have stayed another day, but I wanted to go home. We arrived home with Maxine at 11 p.m. on June 6.

Fast forward seven years. The kids are all camped out on the floor in our living room. At about 1:30 a.m. Amanda came running into our bedroom because Stupid Dog was biting her for no reason. Stupid Dog went in his cage and Maxine and Autumn wandered into our room to sleep. As Maxine stretched out on the floor she asked, “Am I seven yet? Is it my birthday?”

So I’m looking forward to a couple of hours from now when I tell her she won’t turn 7 until after her bedtime.