SURPRISE!

“IT’S A GIRL!” The words my parents were not expecting after me being born 3 months early, and them being told they were having a boy up until this very moment. I was born on October 21st, 1999 at 7:49 pm. The day of what was my baby shower. Crazy right? Well, buckle up because it doesn’t end there. From what I have been told my whole life, the story of my birth is a very intense, unbelievable one. My mom says she woke up feeling normal that morning, as normal as a pregnant woman can feel at least, and was very excited to celebrate her pregnancy with our family and her friends. It was set to start at 3pm and of course, almost everyone was running late including my mom so it didn’t actually start until about 5pm. My mom says she was having so much fun opening gifts, eating, and laughing with everyone when suddenly she felt excruciating pain in her stomach and back. My grandma at the time was a labor and delivery nurse (how convenient) and told my mom to lay on the couch as she checked and felt around my moms stomach to try and see what was wrong. My grandma almost instantly says “she need to go to the hospital somebody call 911!” My mom says that was the moment she knew, I was going to be coming out early. Fast forward to my mom now being at the hospital, giving birth to me, the doctor and nurses all say in unison “IT’S A GIRL!” My mom says her jaw dropped and she was in complete disbelief. After being told that I was going to be a boy all the way up until this moment, she couldn’t believe that I was a girl. She didn’t have any girl names picked out, all my clothes were boy clothes, and to top it all off, I was premature. The doctors don’t expect me to make it past 3 days to a week and after being a nameless, NICU baby for 2 weeks, a heaven sent nurse comes to my mom and says “you should really cherish this baby, she’s special.” And BOOM! There it was! My name! “Cherish Alyse Every.” With “Alyse” being a more creative way of saying “at least” and my last name being Every, it couldn’t have been a more perfect name.