Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

Today is BB's 3rd birthday. It seems so surreal. You always hear "older" people talk about how fast your life goes by, but you don't realize how true that is until you have children. I swear it seems like I was just pregnant. I remember taking the pregnancy test like it was yesterday. We had been trying to get pregnant for almost two years. BD was at the gym and I was about to take a shower. We had plans to go out with some friends, and I decided to take a test just in case. I knew it would be negative like the 25 before that. I peed on it and threw it on the back of the toilet. I took a shower and got ready, then walked over to the test to throw it away. I picked it up and cocked my head to the side. "Two lines…two lines….wait a minute, that can't be right!" I grabbed the box to make sure I was right, and I was. The test was positive.

I drove straight to the gym and ran in waving my test at BD like a crazy lady. I was crying and just kept saying, "we're pregnant, we're finally pregnant!" He had a stunned deer in the headlights look on his face, which I imagine all new dads-to-be to have when they hear the news of an impending birth.

The next nine months were unpleasant to say the least. I puked every hour on the hour, even in the middle of the night. I swelled up to the size of the Michelin Man. I wasn't nice to anyone. And I had hot flashes that would rival being on the inside of a volcano. But even after all that, I thanked God every day for giving us this little miracle. The moment we found out he was a boy BD threw his hands up in the air like he had just scored the game winning touchdown. I looked at him with tears rolling down my face and said, "We're going to have a son." We both cried, and the nurse cried along with us.

I went into labor in the middle of the night on August 18, 2005. Contractions were about ten minutes apart. I was uncomfortable, but told BD to go to work anyway. He kept calling to check on me. I plopped my fat ass on the couch and stayed there all day, only getting up for the incessant pee breaks.

Around 2pm I called and told him he needed to come home, that the labor was real. An hour later the contractions were three minutes apart, so we headed to the hospital. They kept making me walk around the hallways. I hadn't eaten all day, I couldn't have water, and the pain I was in was indescribable. Irritable is putting it lightly. At one point I told my poor husband that he could shove the ice chips up his ass, and if he didn't bring me some actual water to drink it would be the last mistake he ever made. No one ever brought me water, but they did back away from the bed.

Then came the epidural. God bless whoever invented this thing. I don't care how big that needle was, I would have shoved it in my back myself at that point. Ahhh, sweet relief. I told the anesthesiologist if I wasn't already married, I would marry him on the spot. Things progressed pretty quickly from there.

Sweet Baby Boy was born at 2:17am on August 20, 2005 after just a few pushes. He weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 20" long. Ten fingers, ten toes, bright blue eyes, and wispy strawberry blonde hair that had grown in a mohawk. He was beautiful and perfect in every way, and it was and still is the happiest day of my life.