She's my kind of woman....

This is Matt posting, so it probably won't look like Dev's, but here you go! Just a few quick thoughts about my wonderful wife, who honestly never ceases to amaze me with her combination of toughness, spirituality, and tenderness. Many people have some or parts of these traits, but I can't think of her and not think of these three things being such big parts of her personality. If I get a head cold I swear I feel like dying. An hour after giving birth she is walking to her recovery room. We laugh now, but I really think our nurse (remember, small town, and yes if you read between the lines we wonder sometimes about people in small towns) did not check Dev for a long time because she was not freaking out or screaming in pain or anything like that. I admit that I thought she was looking uncomfortable but still maybe an hour or so away from being pushed. And yes I am an expert on this from having seen her do this 5 other times. By the way, small tangent here. I LAUGH MY HEAD OFF any singular time I hear a woman say anything about child birth IF they have had an epidural. Give me a break. I'll say this as sweetly as possible because I know a lot of Dev's friends read this, but you haven't the slightest clue what goes on or how bad it hurts or what it feels like, therefore you are unqualified to say anything about anything regarding childbirth other than to say, "Um, ya, I feel a little pressure down there, but otherwise I just basically wait around and and wait for the little guy to come out." I'm not saying whether epidurals are right or wrong, I believe strongly that you don't get the same bragging rights for childbirth that women who deliver all natural do. Sorry, that's just the way it is, and if you're irritated that I'm saying this, you're probably irritated because you know I'm right but you don't want to admit to the fact that epidurals are kind of an easy way out. I have seen it happen six times, down there on the business end, and although I wouldn't care to see that everyday of my life, it amazes me that any woman would want to do that at all let alone as many times as Dev has. If I were ever pregnant I would shoot myself. And I'm not kidding. So to end my tangent, all you ladies out there that do it natural (inlcuding you babe!) I have all the respect and admiration for you in the world. As far as I can tell from watching Dev, it is a supremely painful event but such a spiritual thing to place faith in God that after it is all done that you will be okay. The few things I've had happen to me in my life that are painful (broken back but still played in college, paralyzed innards, broken finger) still make me feel sheepish talking about them in front of women that have had natural childbirth. Anyway, Dev is little miss competitive and refuses to let anything beat her including pain. So anyway, nurse comes in after Dev has been on the induction drip for about three hours and Dev is asking to be checked, and the nurse basically says well I doubt you're ready, and Dev gets a little frisky with her so the nurse checks her. I saw the "Oh holy crap" look on the nurse's face and the nurse says that Dev is fully effaced and at a 10, so Dev is ready to push, but she is so freaked out she didn't say anything about getting our doctor. She is kind of in shock and asking Dev if she's ready to push. Dev says yes, the nurse says "Well, lets do a little practice push to see how baby moves" and Dev says, full game face and all "I am not going to practice push, I want the doctor here. When I start pushing I will not stop, and I want the doctor here". This nurse is just vapor locked and can't seem to think of the solution (which is to go get the doctor, duh), so I'm trying to be calm, Dev's getting pissed (and you would too guys if you had a watermelon stuck in your nose that wasn't coming out), and finally the nurse goes and gets the doctor. To make a long story short, Dev is used to Dr. Nance in Utah who will literally say to Dev while pushing, "C'mon Dev, that is not a real push!! Bear down and lets get going!!" which I have always wondered what the hell, because if I was in that much pain I'd smack somebody, but it works for Dev. I would never talk to her like that when she is in that much pain. But anyway, our doctor for Gus is polar opposite, kind of like "Okay Dev, let's get your body in sync, when you're ready to push, lets give it a shot", kind of a hippie all natural approach. Dev took the same number of contractions to push Gus out (our biggest baby so far) as any of the other babies, and in the middle me or Diane (Dev's mom) made the comment that we were used to Dev getting yelled at by Dr. Nance and Dr. Rutherford laughs and smiles and says, "Well Dev, I can yell at you too if that will help." Pretty funny. Dr. Rutherford was awesome, Dev amazed me, and it was great because instead of whisking Gus off to the nursery they laid him on Dev's chest for about 20 minutes before they really started working on him. That would have been nice to have that experience with all our other kids. Anyway, Dev is an animal. Don't ever challenge her to anything dealing with pain, cooking, cards, or basketball because you will probably loose. To end my post, I was driving back from a church activity today and my daughters were making me laugh trying to get big semi's to honk their horns as we passed, I was really enjoying their excitement and how hard they were working at it. And I just thought, wow, what is important to me. And I am here to tell you that it goes without saying that my faith in God is top of the list; none of these other great things would happen without His blessing. But Dev is the most important thing to me. She takes such great pride in our relationship, our family, and her role as a mother to our children. I could not be more pleased or feel more blessed or even feel like the luckiest man in the world to have married a woman like her. She is the single most important thing in my life and I am so glad to have a soulmate. I love you Dev, I always have and I always will
--Hoss