The Last First 11/26/12

Today marked the last of the firsts for my littlest man! Today, the baby turned 1 year old! And I went through my day remembering every little bit of that day last year. The day I gave birth to my last baby!

I am so happy to have this little guy in my life. He has made me smile each and every day. If I was sad or upset, he got me into a better mood each and every time! His smile lights up my heart! the story of today, a year ago...

Around 10 PM the night before my sweet boy came into my life I was being admitted and told they were going to break my water and we were having a baby because he was a full day over due! I was supposed to have my little guy on Thanksgiving Day 2011. He obviously had other plans! I had NO contractions what so ever on Thanksgiving. And hardly any the next day. But that night I had a few really good ones so I called my doctor and in we went! By 12:30 AM on 11/26/11 My water had been broken and we were ready to go! They gave me some pain medication once the contractions were really hurting and I received a few heat packs to keep my back pain to a bearable point. I, as is normal for me, fell asleep during some point of labor (I think this is my body really getting to that point of knowing it is about time to push so it just shuts down for a bit) and when I woke up I wanted more pain medication but she said she could only give me one more of that kind so if I wanted to wait it out just a bit longer I could. I tried that, it didn't work out too well. I ended up getting more and this caused my contractions to almost stop!

So, they bumped up the pitocin and we were rolling again! They had me at 12 drops per minute at one point and that is pretty high! Everything went great for a bit... As long as you weren't ME! The pain was starting to get worse and all I wanted to do was make it stop! My nurse (who turns out was the mother of my oldest son's bully in school!) suggested I try standing for a little while. I had NEVER tried to stand while in labor before so I figured why not, let's try! This was my last pregnancy after all! So at about 10 AM on November 26th I stood there holding on to my Husband and crushing his arms during each contraction that seemed to come closer and closer together. Almost as if they did not break between them. Finally I caved and asked my nurse to give me the pain medication I am allergic to (it makes me vomit and on top of everything else I did not want that as well!) and she informed me that she would need to check my cervix one more time before she could do that. Sure enough, I was dilated to 10 cm and as she was "finishing" her check and removing her hand, my body decided it was time to push! I involuntarily gave a good push and my nurse let the doctor know to get in there quick that it was time to have a baby! The doctor barely got her gloves on and to the table as push number two came (again without my being able to stop it) and Baby Boy followed right with it and I am thankful that she had a great catch! He was born so fast that I was almost in shock at the time. They put him on my chest and he wasn't even crying. I knew that he needed to do that so I asked him to please cry and sure enough he did! There was my baby, handsome as ever! He weighed 9 pounds 0.4 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches in length!

I had to step away from this little guy just 7.5 hours after he was born and go into surgery. I was having my tubes tied. The hope was just to do the surgery and then bring me back to the room. However, I had a slight panic attack and ended up having to be "put under" so that they could finish the surgery in peace! LOL! I was then taken to recovery for an hour or two. That is the only chunk of time I do not have a great memory of due to the amnesia effects of the medications they had to inject into my system! I do remember wanting to get back to my baby so I could nurse him and hold him and just simply be with him! We were released the next afternoon and sent on our way to go be a family with his 3 older brothers! His youngest older brother was leaving just a few days later to go spend time with his Aunt so we really wanted to get home so that he could spend a little bit of time with his baby brother before he left.

But! Only 6 days after this guy was born we were on our way back to the hospital! The doctor thought I had a spinal headache from having an epidural for the surgery (not for delivery, only IV medications for me! LOL) when they took me into the room I asked for the light to be off because I couldn't handle it. They turned it off and then they took my blood pressure, well, tried to at least! It was so high that the machine couldn't even read it. they had to try 3 more times and on the 4th try they got a reading of 205/98! Yikes! The even scarier part was my BP that high with my pulse being super low! My pulse was in the 40's! So they started to give me more medicines and kept me laying down and calm (or as calm as one can be when they are freaking out on top of all of that!) and the room dark! I was readmitted to the hospital in the labor and delivery section and my new baby and husband were allowed to stay there with me! They pumped me full of different BP medications and magnesium until I was back to a normal BP. They determined that I am a freak! LOL! (That was my doctor's exact words!) I had developed Postpartum Preeclampsia. This is so rare that my doctor had only had one other patient have it happen that far out in 30 years! He said that it didn't normally happen that long after having baby and was caught a lot sooner! I hadn't even thought of calling my doctor until 6 hours after a Vicodin didn't even begin to touch my headache! LOL! In any case, I obviously got better... Here I am typing this little story to you!

COOKIE FACE!

Now, a year later, my little guy is still a dinky guy! But he is full of spunk, character and LOVE! Lots and lots of love! I am also very proud to say that this guy has been breast fed for a full year! With only minimal amounts of formula that he spit up 99.9% of anyways! (Take that, nurse who started giving it to him while I went to the bathroom!) He loves his nursing times and I am not sure he plans on stopping any time soon. He has backed off a bit but he still nurses like crazy! Specially at night! He is for sure a night drinker/eater! LOL! Just like with all my boys I can not wait to see who he is going to grow up to be! I love him so much!

Now that I have just rambled and rambled on about what happened to me a year ago...

Let's come back to today! I have below some of my favorite photos from today. I hope everyone enjoys them! Here they come! Enjoy!

The cake!
Made with love, by Mom!
Red Velvet with blue colored vanilla frosting and chocolate in the middle!

"My cake!"

"You mean I only get this small piece?"

"Well, it does taste alright...."

"I do NOT know what happened to that Smurf! I swear!"

Too good to pick up!

"Nom nom nom!!!"

"What?!?! It was yummy!!!!"

"Hooray for more Giraffe toys!"
The only "good" picture of gift time my phone let me have!
I swear, unless the lighting is just right I do not get good photos!

There it is folks! My baby is officially a whole year old! No more "months" Well, maybe! I usually stop that about 18 months old! LOL! So, maybe another 6 months. But he will always be MY baby! I am not one of those people who says the months all the time.... If I was, I'd have to say I am 323 months old! MAN! I AM old! LOL! I had this conversation with my favorite Starbucks employee today and he reminded me of the part in the movie Grown Ups when Chris Rock asks Kevin James how old his son is and Kevin replies with "48 months!"..... Chris replies "That's 4!" LOL I just so happened to have my 4 year old with me who said to tell them that the baby can walk too, (which yes, sadly, he has taken a bunch of unassisted steps... Grrr .. I want him to slow down on the growing up thing! LOL) so I said, "My 48 month old wants to you know the baby can walk too!" and he replied "THAT'S 4!" LOL! Anyways, that is how today went. Now all my boys are in bed and I am about to do the same! Take care!

~TTFN!