2 Years Ago

At 4AM, 2 years ago today, I awoke with a sudden need to use the bathroom (not entirely unusual at 39 weeks pregnant); however, it wasn't just the usual 2 minute trip. Instead, I was leaking what I knew wasn't urine and experiencing some mild cramps. It then occurred to me that I might be in labor. I immediately woke Randy and told him what was going on. His response....he quickly jumped out of bed and started doing laundry. It still makes us laugh thinking about how he was busy doing laundry while I laid on the couch timing contractions. :-)

I then called The Birthplace to find out what I should do next. As per their recommendations, I laid on the couch, on my left side, drank a good bit of water, and watched a movie for an hour. The contractions kept on. We made it to the hospital around 6AM where the nurses confirmed that my water had broken, but that I was only 2cm and only about 20% effaced. "That's all?" So to encourage my cervix to ripen, they gave me Cytotec...and boy, that is some nasty stuff. Not more than 30 minutes later, I was asking for pain meds....I'm a wimp, I know. Once the Nubain (which is WONDERFUL stuff) wore off a couple of hours later, I received my epidural. Another couple of hours passed, and I'm a 10...time to push. I was very excited about the delivery of my baby....we had waited 39.5 weeks to find out what the Lord had blessed us with. But unforunately, it took longer than my estimate of 30 minutes-1 hour.....1 hour turned to 4 hours of pushing before I decided that my contractions/pushing/small episiotomy alone was not going to get this baby out. So we agreed, with many tears, to use the vacuum. 12 hours later and with 3 contractions, we pushed/pulled Josiah into the world to take his first breath.

It was such an amazing experience, despite the extreme exhaustion. There was nothing more wonderful than to have little Josiah placed on my chest. And the fact that he was covered in lots of goo didn't phase me....I gave him lots of kisses anyway.

So here we are, 2 years later. Our little Josiah is not so little anymore. He has learned so many things and it amazes us every day what he can do, say and understand. There have definitely been challenges in this last 2 years, but we wouldn't trade it for anything. And we look forward to this next year as his continues to learn about the world he has made better for living in it. :-)

Happy Birthday, Mijo! We love you!

And just so that those of you who are reading can feel a little nostalgia just as we did looking through the last 2 years of pictures, I thought I would include a few. Enjoy!

Birth: 7 pounds & 19 inches at 4:11PM

2 weeks

1 Month

6 Months

1 Year

2 Years

Since Randy is on-call tonight, we decided to celebrate Josiah's birthday last night....we headed to the beloved Chuck E. Cheese. Josiah just LOVES that place (this was just our second time taking him).

Following dinner and games at Chuck E. Cheese, we drove home to do all of the "other" birthday stuff...we sang "Happy Birthday", ate cake and ice cream, and opened his gifts from us (a Handy Manny DVD and a few puzzles). Since learning that fire is hot and dangerous, Josiah refused to get close enough to his cake to blow out the candles. :-) Oh well. But he did really enjoy us singing "Happy Birthday" to him...nothing but a big smile.

My mom ALWAYS baked/decorated our birthday cakes growing up....it was a big deal to flip through the most current edition of the Wilton Yearbook and "pick out" a cake for her to make for our birthday. This is a tradition that I'm keeping up for my children. Josiah is REALLY into tractors, so his cake this year was just that....a tractor. Thanks, Mom, for the pan!

(This was not my most perfect cake decorating job to date, but I still think the end result looked great--and Josiah LOVED it, which is all that matters.)