Happy Birthday Bubba-Rocks!

My baby turned 7 today.  He tries to tell everyone that he is 9 - he wants to be older than Nathan.

It's hard to believe that 7 years ago I was walking into a hospital.  Going in to get an amnio to check to see if the baby's lungs were mature enough for him to be born.

1: I needed a repeat C-section and was previously (with Noah) classically cut - so they wanted zero chance of my going into labor on my own, there was a fear about how quickly labor would advance.
2: I was utterly and completely miserable.  It had been 12 years since having a normal non-premature/low baby weight baby ...  this was a full term, fat hefty baby.
3: We wanted everything safe for both him and I ... so the biggest worry was if his lungs were ready.

So, we had gone in on September 2nd - and the amnio had come back immature lungs.  So we waited a week.

I woke up the morning of September 9th - already in labor.  My amnio wasn't until the afternoon.  I didn't even really realize that I was in labor.  You have to take account that I had been having contractions since I was 5 months pregnant, and on bedrest.  So having contractions was nothing new to me.  I was being a nut-job cleaning and getting stuff ready, re-ready, double checking, making sure everything for Noah and Nathan was done - that my Mom (who was staying with us to help out for the first few days and while I was in the hospital) had instructions, and everything she needed...  Mom and DB kept asking me, repeatedly, if I was having contractions.  They didn't feel any thing more than what I had been having, so I kept telling them no, nothing more than normal.

However, when I had to stop cleaning to breath through contractions?  Well....

So it came time to go to the hospital and I still thought that the contractions were pretty much nothing to worry about.

We walked through the parking lot - and the part of the hospital before getting the door where cars pull up (street) area ....  as we were crossing, and DB was way up there infront of me, I stopped in the middle of the road.  Stopped.  DEAD stopped.  Gripping my stomach.  STOPPED.  DB turns around and says "Are you having a contraction?"  ....  and I snapped my head up and shouted, "No, I thought I would try to get hit by a car" ... he immediately started shaking his head and said "never going to live that stupid question down" .. and hell no he won't.

But we got up there, I got strapped up to the monitor and realized I was having contractions every 2 minutes.  So when the doctor came in - I told him - I'm having contractions every 2 minutes.  He starts talking up the amnio risks and stops in the middle of it and says ... "you really are having contractions every two minutes" ... he checked me and I was 3-4 cm dilated.   Plans changed real quick.

I think had I not had that appointment, I probably would have stayed at home until it was almost too late.

So our little Monkey was born.  It's kinda funny - Noah was born on 02-01-02 ... had he waited one more day, it would have been 02-02-02 ...  Kaedyn came on 09-09-08 ... LOL..  almost a triple digit thing again.

The crib card on the collage above is the same one beside his big fat 7 year old hobbit foot below.

He got home from school and had one of those Happy Birthday crowns :)  AND a birthday sticker

We still had to go pick up his cake, so we took him with us.  He was looking through the book trying to "guess" what we got.

So she brought it out and opened it up ... and he leans over to me, and he whispers "I love it" .. lol.  Made my day.

He picked out pizza for dinner...  

Of course the cake....

I got a "birth" day cake too!!  I have five birthdays a year.  The day I was born, and the day I gave birth to each of my children.  LOL

He got to go with us later when we had to run out and I stayed in the van with him, he of course had to be goofy.  True to his character and personality.

Throwback Thursday #1

 Today's edition of Throwback Thursday is brought to you by the letter X .....  and the number 3!

So I don't have kid pictures of DB, and I don't have any of Kale or Shila - or I would include them, Elly would "throwback" to last month ... ha ha ha ....  and I could include Claira (even though she'd "throwback" to last year, or the year before, but they are all unshared photos by me) ....

Annissa:   Yep - that's me.  I would love to play in the dirt when I was little with my mullet.  Yep.  I was a bit of a tomboy...  maybe more than a bit.  I used to get baths in the big old wash tub in the basement laundry room because I was too much for the bathtub! LOL...

DB:   I love pictures of DB being a Dad.  I love it.  Here he was trying to do something and Nathan kept making suggestions ... LOL... random suggestions - but everyone had to be considered with the backspace button.

Calahan:  We went to Wisconsin Dells on a bit of a vacation shortly after Cal & Noah's Dad and I split up (after 10 years of marriage) ...   and I was rather depressed, because I was still in that "I feel like a failure" stage and not in the "thank the stars that asshole is mostly out of my life!" stage.  But we had a really good time in Wisconsin Dells with Nana and Papa.  On our last day there, we went Mini Golfing.  The three of us had a BLAST.

Noah:  Same description as above.

Nathan:  Looking out the window, mesmerized, by the falling snow....

Kaedyn:  I mean - that face.  COME ON ....  THAT . FACE .

Okay - that was your Throwback Thursday for today......

Sewing Elephants ....

Today - Elly has been alive for 24 days!  Doesn't seem like that long.  Almost 4 weeks, inching in on a WHOLE MONTH OLD!!!

All the animals love her.  Mellow was a bit protective today.  Kinsleigh is kinda afraid of her.  LOL

So I'm making this home-made mobile for above Elly's crib.  So I've been working on that as I can.

In the middle of me working on it, DB rushed into the room and said "Gimme the house phone" ... so I did.  He goes "I gotta call 9-1-1, Aaron fell!"   Aaron is our neighbor.  He has a lot of medical stuff going on.  He can barely walk on his own - he needs a walker.  He has a medal plate in his head, towards the front, and brain damage.  The story is he was in a really bad car accident.  The kids all love him to pieces.  He has crazy inappropriate stories, he swears a lot, but he's a good time.  We all love him and look out for him.  DB had to break into Aaron's room yesterday morning (while I was at the boys appointments) because he fell out of bed and couldn't get up, and the door was locked.  So he broke in through his bedroom window and got him off the floor.

Today - the story was - Aaron opened up his apartment door and looked to see if UPS left him a package, they didn't.  So he turned around in the doorway to go back inside, and instead, with his back in the doorway - facing into the apartment - he lost his balance and fell backwards.  He was half in and half out of the doorway, and he - literally - cracked his head.  His head was in a pool of blood, I have pictures, but not going to share.  Kaedyn was on the sidelines, extremely concerned about him.  His caretaker had run out real quick for meds, and came back after the ambulance arrived.

DB ended up taking his caretaker down to the hospital (literally a few minutes away - just down the street, one turn, and down that street) ... and he couldn't remember how to get there, so DB took him down there...

Elly is starting to get some bad baby acne....

More on the elephants for the mobile ....

So I'm making a homemade mobile for above Elly's crib. A bunch of homemade, hand sewn elephants .... my elephants are ... cute, but ... totally - ya know - horrible. At least you can tell they are elephants. But I'm telling you that - the FIRST person who says "oh that looks so cute and homemade" .... I'm gonna take it as an insult. So what if it's true. It's like saying "Bless her heart..." in the south, what they mean is what a stupid bitch. And what you are saying by telling me it looks homemade is - that should be burned. Burned with a thousand spiders. See. Insult.

I'm looking at the ibuprofen and realized .... there was something wrong. It is neither meltaway OR chewable..... I looked at Dennis and I yelled "YOU HAD ONE JOB" ... and he looks at me all scared I'm turning into my angry white woman self. "What?" he goes. "Ibuprofen that Noah can take" cuz he can't swallow pills. He says "It says grape!" (rolls eyes) ... "I thought if it says grape, it was chewable" .... I look at him, "If I can't break it with my fingers and have to use the pill cutter, it's not chewable. You had one job." He looks sad and says .... "No I had three, I didn't get the ibuprofen right, I made dinner and burned it, and I was supposed to watch the dogs and the Jax thought the potatoes for balls I failed today, but that's okay - tomorrow is another day, and I'll fail then too....."

And yes, I'm aware that under the 24 in the tiny print it says chewable.... but I had DB believing that it didn't ..... and that was the most fun!