Birthday #1... What a Year!

While I was watching the Super Bowl this year I was reflecting a lot on the Super Bowl last year.  Last year I sent Mike off to the party with our friends that we go to every year because I just wasn't "feeling great".  Truth be told, I had been having contractions since the night before and I told Mike that I thought it was possible we'd be having a baby that night but he didn't believe me!  By the end of the first half I was pretty sure I was in labor and by 1:00 AM we were on the way to the hospital.  Colin made his arrive at 8:17 AM after a non-eventful labor (with just a bit of fentanyl for me towards the end to take an edge off the pain... I'm not sure it actually did).  As I was sitting on the birth ball around 3:30 AM I realized that it looked like Colin (or Charlotte, we didn't know if it was a boy or girl until he was born) would be born on the same day as my nephew two years later.  I'm not sure how we ended up so lucky but I think it's pretty cool.  I think the boys will as they get older, too.

The actual birth was pretty incredible (it wasn't all beauty and rainbows but I'll gloss that over a bit for the sake of the blog).  The L&D nurse who was there for the delivery was incredible (I really wish I could say the same for the one I had overnight while I was actually laboring, but I guess you go with what you get).  One of the best complements I got was her telling me that I gave her inspiration to try to go unmedicated (she was 12 weeks pregnant at the time).  It took me almost a minute after Colin was born to remember to ask if it was a boy or a girl (because of the dose of fentanyl I had gotten and Colin's laid back lack of crying he was over on the warmer pretty quickly and not with me unfortunately).  Speaking of his lack of crying, the image that will always be in my head is him looking straight at me stunned with big bright eyes right as he was born.  

Since Colin was over a week early and my plan was to finish getting the nursery ready and get my bag packed for the post-dates birth I was sure we would have, it being my first and all, we managed to throw a few things together as we were leaving the house but did not get a camera.  That said, all we had in the way of pictures were fuzzy iPhone pictures from his first bath.  (I was given quite a hard time about not having pictures to post on Facebook - I tried but for some reason my phone would not post at all.)

Luckily, Mike made it home to get the camera that night and the next morning a friend came by to get some pictures uploaded to Facebook followed closely by my mom and stepdad getting to the hospital to take more pictures.

He sure was stylin' on the way home from the hospital in his grandpa jeans

The past year has been crazy - not only because of bringing home baby and becoming mom and dad but also for all the changes we have made in our lives.  If you had asked a year ago where we'd be today, I would not have said half way across the country from where we started.  Colin brings joy to us every day and he truly has me laughing all the time.  That's not to say that he is the perfect baby, but I love seeing the new things he learns all the time.

Stay tuned for an update from his 1 year appointment, too!