"dude I am done. Time for bed".

Cake time!!!!!!!

Thanks for the walker Grandma Connie

Emmitt's very own vacuum. He loves the real one and now loves his own.

"what is in this bag?"

"what's going on?"
Amazon.com rocks!

Checking out all the gifts. Most sent via Amazon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMITT!

My baby turned 1 on Jan. 20, can you believe it has been a whole year? To celebrate the occasion I made a cake, Apple Swirl with Cream Cheese frosting. As you can see in the video he didn't want to eat it, but made a great mess of himself and the cake. That was all I needed to see! We had some friends over and opened up gifts from Emmitt's family. Kevin and I gave him a pretend vacuum cleaner, which he adores. When Kevin brought it in the house he started screaming and ran to Kevin. He then hung off his leg until we could distract him long enough for Kevin to get it out of the packaging (damn packaging these days is crazy). We are having a January birthday party with friends at Gymboree tomorrow. Should be fun.

With Emmitt turning 1 I have had to grieve a little. My little baby is now definitely growing up and soon will look at little babies and say "baby". I am sad in some respects as the time has gone so fast, however I am excited for Emmitt and all the learning he will do over the next year. It has already begun.

On the 19th I began to think about what I was going through a year ago, the process we went through leading up to Emmitts birth and eventually his birth. I thought for his birthday blog I should recount the days. It seems in a way this blog has become a journal of Emmitt's life. I hope to be able to share it with him someday, so describing his birth seems appropriate.

Emmitt's original due date was Jan. 6, 2010. I quit work a few weeks early, mostly because I couldn't focus on work and needed to concentrate on the life changing event around the corner. Kevin and I had prepared for Emmitt's arrival/birth probably more than most. Kevin was quite a trooper. Our prenatal care was group care(called Centering), so every week we met with several other couples to discuss the process of pregnancy/childbirth and got a check up. Along with the Centering group we took an at home "hypnobirthing" class which lasted 6 weeks. We also took baby CPR and safety and bringing home baby. We were prepared!
January 6th came and went. I then began to get quite manic in anticipation of his arrival and began to freak out that I was using my maternity leave to hang out at home, instead of with my new baby. All this anxiety gave me energy and focus to have Emmitt as soon as possible. SO, I started walking. I walked the biggest hills in Seattle. We walked to the movies, walked to dinner, walked to brunch, walked in the rain, walked in the sun, walked alone, and with other people. I walked so much that I had routes that had bathroom breaks figured in. I knew where I could use the bathroom for free and where I should buy something. Along with walking I started doing massage, prenatal massage and Mayan abdominal massage. I did acupuncture, ate the spiciest Thai and hot wings I could find. I ate the core of pineapple, took primrose oil, and some other crazy things I won't share. The only thing I wouldn't do was drink caster oil. I don't regret that decision. My last ditch effort came 1 day before doomsday (induction day), January 18. I decided to have my membranes stripped. We went into the clinic at 5:30pm and the procedure was over in 15 mins. This hurt like hell, but worked(we just didn't know it at the time). After the procedure I went home, bummed that I was only 1.5 cm dilated and was feeling no contractions. Kevin, my doula, and I sat on the couch and ate a huge greek salad, probably had a glass of wine, and maybe some chocolate. We started watching TV and I noticed that I was leaking (you all know what I mean). This was not the "typical" pregnancy leak. I called the midwives and they recommended I go to the hospital. I was still not having contractions, but they confirmed that my water had broke. So, we checked into the hospital and tried to get some sleep. This was about 10pm on Jan. 18. Throughout the night I began to have some light contractions. They were not significant enough to cause any pain, but were noticeable enough to not get any real sleep. We got up the next morning about 7AM and the midwives recommended that we start walking. The 24 hour c-section clock had started when we checked into the hospital so we needed to get labor going ASAP. I went straight for the stairs and began to climb up and down, slowly. My contractions became stronger and were more frequent. Kevin bought a Santa Claus watch from the gift shop to time them. Eventually, the stairs put me into real labor and then the fun began. I will spare everyone the details of the next several hours. It wasn't pretty! I labored for about 12 hours with some progress, got to 8cm, with no drugs. At this point I was getting very tired and needed a break. I requested the tub. Unfortunately the tub was full. I had used up my reserves and began to tense up. This made me go from 8cm to 6 and was quite devastating. I decided I needed to have an epidural if I was going to be going in reverse. I received the epidural and was able to get some sleep for a few hours. During this time I dilated to 10 CM and they gave me the go to start pushing. I started pushing and continued to do so for about 2 hours. However, Emmitt was turned on his side, refused to move no matter what position I tried, and what we found out later was he had the umbilical cord coiled around his cheek. So, every time I pushed his heart rate would slow. After 2 hours of this the midwife decided it wasn't safe to continue and informed me I would need a Cesarean. I was devastated. Yes, now I can look back and say "but he came out healthy and that is all that matters" which is true, but I was truly devastated not to be able to naturally birth my baby, the way I had envisioned it and the way I wanted him to come into this world. Anyways, they gave me the cesarean and pulled out this little peanut. Kevin was great, I was doped up. Kevin turned to me when they revealed the sex and said "it's an Emmitt". I think we were both shocked at first because we had anticipated an Evelyn. Emmitt was (and still is) the most beautiful thing I have every seen. He had dark brown hair, big blue eyes, and the sweetest nose. He wanted to nurse immediately(and with some delay after surgery he could) and latched on without any problems. Emmitt was born at 1:35AM on Jan. 20, 2010. He was 8lbs 1 ounce. He now weights 19lbs 11 ounces. He is the joy of our life. Happy birthday Peanut! We love you SO much.