My Baby.....

.....Is going to be 2 years old Wednesday. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. He is such an amazing blessing. He is incredibly smart. He knows more words than I can even bother to count and talks in sentences. I can carry on a conversation with my 2 year old. He can sing just about any country song and in fact can tell you what the song is just by hearing the first 2-5 cords of the song. He usually knows what the song is before I know. He loves to sing. He's been walking around the house singing "happy birthday." We went to Lowes yesterday to get things for his new pool and he was singing "twinkle, twinkle." He's so smart. Joey asked me yesterday "I wonder how we got such a smart child." I replied "well Joey we are not stupid people." Again, I am so blessed. We took him to get a hair cut Saturday. This is the first time he has not cried since his first hair cut! He spotted some suckers as soon as he sat in the chair so I think that he just couldn't wait to get a sucker. He looks like a little man with his new hair cut. We were able to get his pool set up Saturday into Sunday and are now just trying to get the chemicals right. I've pretty much got his party all planned. I've got to go this week and get some more plates, cups, utensils and napkins. I bought some designed plates etc, but since I'm out of work right now didn't want to spend a ton of money on jungle designed plates that adults at the party could care less about. So I'm just gonna get some plain plates etc to match his themed stuff. Some of our good friends Ashleigh and Russell and their little one Hayden are coming in from Lexington and I can't wait to see them. We've not seen them since right before Landon was born. We've never met Hayden and they have never met Landon. We have a picture of their family up on the refrigerator and Landon knows who they are. I'm excited for him and Hayden to play together. And so glad the pool will maybe be ready and not so ice cold. Oh I can't believe my baby is going to be 2. I guess I can't call him a baby anymore. I still feel like just yesterday I was going into labor with him.....

.....Landon was due 7/11/08. The whole time I was pregnant the doctors told me that I would never make it to term because of my size and they were fairly certain that he was going to be on the bigger side. Well my due date came and went. I went for my 40 week check up on a Wednesday. I hadn't dilated and really hadn't effaced any at all either...NOTHING. So I got a "see you next week." I was like see you next week, what about this child is going to be too big for me? My answer was we'll see you back next week and if you haven't done anything we'll talk about inducing. Inducing I say, but you have been telling me this whole time that I'm not gonna push this kid out unless he is 5 lbs and we already know from the ultrasound 2 weeks ago that he is over 7lbs. (I had an u/s at 37 weeks to see how big he was, if he was 7lbs they would schedule a primary c section a week before my due date. He clocked in at 6 lbs 14 oz. 2 oz away from a scheduled c section). Needless to say I left that appointment upset and angry. I had a copy of the on call list, which I had printed off from the hospital before I went out on maternity leave. I knew that the doctor that I liked would be on call come Monday. I had made the decision that I was going to call Monday morning and some how, some way, I was gonna be seen and my child was gonna be born. I was so miserable. I cried for the rest of the day. Due date was Friday and that came and went. We woke up Sunday morning and had plans to go over to Joey's moms pool, as we did most days. He was out of school and I was on maternity leave so we spent most every day at the pool. The pool was the one thing that made me feel better. It helped with my swelling and took some of the weight off me. I loved the pool. Soon after I woke up I started having what felt like stomach cramps. After I would have the cramp I would have to use the bathroom. I was like great, I'm overdue and now I'm going to get a virus or something. We went on to the pool and made it there about 930-10am. These cramps were happening about every 15 minutes. I got in the pool and would have to get out about every 15 minutes to use the bathroom after my "cramp." Finally I told Joey that I just didn't feel good and wanted to go home. I called my mom on the way home and told her how I was feeling. She was like "Holly, that's how my labor with Daniel started." She had diarrhea but thought she had just eaten too many grapes the day before. She decided to make the trip to Mount Olive. I remember she came and started cooking supper, by this time, I knew it was labor. I was having contractions about every 6 minutes and they were stopping me in my tracks. I didn't eat much, frankly I just didn't feel like it. My best friend Jessica and her husband Jesse came over to visit. I had been with Jessica when she was in labor so she wanted to give me some pay back. We were all sitting around and by this time my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and if one came on in mid sentence, I had to stop and breathe through them. I would have these intermittent sharp pains in my pelvis, which made my mom nervous. She had been trying to get me to go to the hospital for a while but I brushed her off because I knew if I went too early I would be sent home. It was about 11pm and I had another sharp pain in my pelvis and she was like that's it, we're calling the hospital and we're going. So we called and I told them that I had taken my Tylenol, drank plenty of fluids and had been laying on my left side and they weren't going away. It seemed to take forever to get to the hospital. When I got there and checked in and they put my arm band on, I saw that the doctor I wanted was on. I let out a "yes," the lady checking me in giggled. Once up in L&D, an IV was started and I was hooked up and shackled to the bed. Dr said he was going to start fluid to see if the labor stopped. I knew it wouldn't, hello, I'm past due. I was given some pain meds IV which did nothing but make me sleep in between contractions. Dr checked me and I hadn't dilated and was only about 20% effaced. I was like you're kidding right. I've been in labor since 830 am and I've done nothing. He sent my mom and Joey's mom home telling them it was going to be a long night, nothing was happening anytime soon. About 630am I started to have those sharp pelvic pains again but this time they weren't going away. It was close to change of shift for the nurses so I hated to call. So about 730am my day nurse came in, I knew her from working at WMH, and I grabbed her hand and told her to please help me. I had been crying/screaming for over an hour (Joey is over on the couch asleep). She went and got the Dr and he checked me thinking maybe Landon was about to come. Still hadn't dilated and only about 45% effaced. He gave me two options, he could give me an epidural and we could wait it out and see if I would start to dilate or we could do a c section. C sections scared me so I didn't give him an answer right away. My nurse came back in and we talked and I decided to go ahead with the c section, I had been laboring for almost 24 hrs and hadn't dilated a cm. I started being prepped for the c section which included a bolus of fluid and no more pain meds. I had to pee every 5-10 minutes. If my bladder got full it would make me contract. Dr was in with another delivery so it was about 9am before I was taken to the OR. It took 2 tries to get my spinal in. I am very claustrophobic and don't like to be held down. So I've got a curtain in front of my face and my arms are strapped down...I was not a happy camper. The spinal had numbed me up to my shoulders so I couldn't feel myself breathing on top of everything else. Landon was born 0946 and I saw him for a few minutes when the anesthesiologist asked me if I was ready to go to sleep. I was, I was so anxious. I don't remember too much of the rest of that day because I had so many medicines in my system. He was worth everything that I went through and every ache and pain that I had when I was pregnant. And he's about to be 2!!!!