easter do-over

easter was a little low key around here. 

i ended up at the hospital two days before easter (after 2 ridiculous days of pain that i tried to pass off as gas pain...)getting my gallbladder removed.  not something that i had planned for, and not really the easter weekend i had planned. but i must say, i'm feeling much better without that pesky gallbladder...

there went my plans for easter baskets, egg hunts, making matching easter pants for the boys and making surprise rolls for easter dinner.

instead the husband was doing a great job taking care of me and the babe, while evan was blissfully unaware and spending the weekend with my sister and his cousins.

but i couldn't let it go.  i was sad that all the little plastic eggs that were out on the kitchen counter had never been filled with candy.  moreover, i had never even purchased the candy to fill them with.

so easter morning we logged on to lds.org and listened to all sorts of goodness that helped us remember what the day was really all about.

then we made up for the rest of festivities over the next few days.  i didn't care the day, just enjoyed doing them together, and watching evan explore all these new things to do.

bonus:  when you buy the easter candy the day after, cadbury mini-eggs are $1.25!  i may have purchased more than necessary to fill those plastic eggs...

 

 

 planed in our pear blossoms

 these crazy plastic things are everywhere!

  jackpot! a couple eggs were filled with new matchbox car and i'm pretty sure he thought that was even better than candy...

 

 the best part of decorating eggs were the stickers.  otherwise he tried to drink the colored vinegar water and take giant bites out of still shelled eggs.  yuck.

  and sharing the stickers

really the only reason to buy robin eggs.  i thought about painting will's lips too... bobby talked me out of it...

 that is a real smile folks.  that is pretty big around here!  (awesome bow tie sponsored by katrina!)

  

 

one of them is a little more excited about this arrangement than the other...

and a bonus just because he was smiling...

now if we can manage a do over for our anniversary from a month+ ago when evan had a fever of 103, my best friend was getting married the next day, and willis ended up in the hospital a few days later...  how do the best plans and intentions end up by the way side with a mere 2 little ones?

little will - 9 days old

  

and because i couldn't pick between the 400 pictures we took...  here is picture overload!

 

 

and my awesome big brother

who wanted to steal the show

photos by megan hess

bebe brother

when your first babe comes 10 days late, and even then only after a little coaxing, it is hard to know when to expect bebe brother to make his appearance.

so when i went to the doctor tuesday morning, 11 days before my due date, i was surprised to have her tell me she didn't expect me to last the week- I was at a 3, 75% effaced and had a bulging water sack- hey if you don't want to know- don't keep reading! but i didn't really believe her much- i know babies come when they want to, and that is the only thing that matters.  she stripped my membranes at this appointment too, because research has shown done at 38 weeks it can reduce the need to be induced later on.  but even with that happening, i still didn't anticipate that labor would begin anytime soon.

the contractions started almost immediately.  a little mild, but fairly regularly.  but who has time for braxton hicks or false labor contractions when they are hosting book club at their house that evening? so i puttered around getting the house cleaned and getting food ready mixed with chasing and entertaining a toddler, and occasionally pausing to let a contraction pass.

come 7pm, ding dong, the book club members start arriving, and i am still having contractions pretty regularly. i'm pretty sure i was still in denial at this point.

that night sleeping didn't really happen, and the next morning the contractions were every 6 minutes. i was starting to believe that this might actually be happening. i was just waiting for them to get closer together.  then they were 10 minutes apart, then 12, and basically all afternoon, they were all over the place, averaging contraction about every 10 minutes, and i was pretty sure that i was going crazy.

so much so that i asked bobby on a regular basis, am i going crazy?  this can't be labor right?  they have to be closer together right?

come 10pm wednesday night i was completely in tears, sleep deprived, breathing through contractions every 7- 10 minutes, am i crazy? i called the doctor on call, even though i thought i knew exactly what she would tell me. she said to go to the hospital when the contractions are between 3-4 minutes apart. what??  at this rate, a day and a half of contractions at 10 minutes apart- how long was it going to take for them to get to 3-4 minutes apart?? and how crazy was i going to feel by that time??

sleep didn't happen again that night.  i decided that apparently this wasn't going to be real labor for me, and i had to just ignore it and try to live my normal life-  so i went to work for my last day that morning.  that part makes me think i really was crazy.  i was breathing through contractions during my morning meetings and went to a goodbye lunch with friends from work- chatting it up and pausing occasionally trying to pretend that contractions didn't hurt pretty bad.

when i went home for the afternoon, i tried to take a nap or at least lay down and relax during evan's nap. but there was no relaxing.  every 6-12 minutes the contractions were rocking my world.  i was timing them, but they were not consistent. we were going on more than 48 hours of irregular contractions.

i called bobby at work around 3 bawling.. i don't care if i'm crazy, i'm going to the hospital.  i know they are going to tell me that they can't admit me until they are regular and i'm in labor, but i can't take this without sleep anymore.

i was so irrational, that when i talked to my sister kristin about coming to get evan, i told her that i was going to take him with me to hospital, because if they didn't admit me, i didn't want her to drive down from salt lake, and if they did admit me, i wanted him there to be able to say goodbye to him. we can just say that i was having a hard time letting go of it just being him and me as little buddies, and inviting another little buddy into our lives. good thing she was a little more sane than i was, and said that she was just going to start driving down and would meet meet me at the hospital.

bobby came home from work and off to the hospital we went, with our little buddy! at the desk in the labor and delivery wing, the waterworks began again. i know i'm not supposed to be here, i explained through the embarrassing hyperventilating type of tears, my contractions are still too far apart, but they hurt and it has been two days. the poor nurse was so nice. she said "well, tears are a good start!"

they put us in a room and a nurse checked my progress. 6 cm and ready to go she said. you are staying and having this baby.

i am not crazy!  i think i said that to bobby about 100 times, and to the nurses too.  i really had felt like i had been going crazy
.

they brought in a brigade of nurses to get everything ready worried that it could be just 1 contraction that would take me from 6 to 10 cm.

i got an epidural, and was more comfortable than i had been in 2 days. my doctor broke my water and we just waited for this little guy to decide to come.  5 hours later, with the help of a little pitocin (apparently my body doesn't like to have contractions that are closer together) i was ready to have this little baby.

willis michael porter was born at 10:01pm - february 9, 2012 at 8lb 1oz- 20 inches long

 getting to know each other

 named after bobby's grandpa willis mceuen, and his dad, michael porter.  i love that our sons have such great men to look up to.

this is why i started calling him my little monkey!

ho ho ho

a message from our little guy. 
excuse the camera lady... she doesn't know what she is doing!

we are family

 sunday afternoon.  we took advantage of taking photos in our backyard while the leaves were gorgeous. (by meesh)

this one tells the real story.  i love me that bebe boy!

proud mama moment

though evan was sleepy face and walking around with his blanket smothering his face, he apparently wasn't ready for his nap yet.

20 minutes in the crib brought about a lot of chitter-chatter and a throwing of everything in sight, out of the crib.  when he was no longer appeased in the crib, and i went to get him, he just started giggling.

i decided that this was the perfect time to run my errands.  about 20 minutes into it, it was apparent we were revisiting the need for nap time.

this is where the mama desperation set in.  you see, falling asleep in the car would result in not transferring to the crib, and a very tired, somewhat miserable afternoon -for both of us-

and this is why any good mama needs to have emergency snacks in her purse- but i didn't.

so then i looked around for what would keep him awake for the 10 minute drive home.


krispy kreme. the drive through was right there...


done.  i went through the drive through and bought a dough--nut.  for the boy who i hardly ever feed junk to.

i then proceed to toss bits of doughnuts into the backseat at the bebe boy hoping to keep him awake.

a few minutes later i look in the rear view mirror and see a boy, with his eyes closed, still doing the hand-to-mouth motion.  poor tired thing.  then the motion slows and he is drooping, eyes closed and wad of doughnut in the fist.

i tried to sing every song i know and make it the last 3 minutes home.

when we pull into the driveway, and i go to retrieve the bebe boy, i find a glaze and crumb covered sleeping boy.

wish i had a picture of that.

that was a proud moment as a mama.  the insanity i attempted resulted in a 20 minute nap.  better than nothing.

***warning:  a summer's worth of procrastination has been looming over my head. i finally gave in uploaded an entire summers worth of photos, apologies for the bazillion posts that follow.***

bebe brother!

couldn't be more happy to say that the little munchin fluttering inside me is a bebe brother!

full disclosure: the husband and i were watching the munchin on the monitor at the doctor's office, hoping to hear that everything looked healthy and find out what awaited our family next. we saw immediately that we were going to have a bebe brother.  (he wasn't shy).  we grabbed hands excitedly.  there is nothing that makes me more excited about this that imagining my bebe playing with his bebe brother!