Meeska, Mouska - Will is Twoska!

Mickey Mouse birthday parties at two are our "thing." Eddie had a Mickey Mouse birthday cake at two. James had a Mickey Mouse party at two. You can see that HERE and HERE. So when thinking about what to do for Will's 2nd birthday, we just had to carry on the tradition. Plus, we have a little Mickey obsession around here so it worked out perfectly. I re-used a few things from James' party, bought a few new things, and pieced it together. It wasn't a big party - just grandparents and two aunts and an uncle - but I think it turned out cute!

Will's 2nd birthday party was LAST Saturday - February 15th.

Banner from Sweet Peach Paperie on Etsy.

Birthday chalkboard from One Good Name on Etsy. Invitation is on the right from PaperKiteDesigns on Etsy. I loved the invitation because it looked so different from all the others. I love Plain Jane. The clock was one Mom had at her house - maybe from Poppy's office?

Big brother felt the need to pose with everything. He had a TOUGH time at Will's party - despite the fact that he'd been spoiled rotten on Valentine's Day. It is not easy to watch someone else open gifts when you don't get to open them.

I used these pots for Mickey and Minnie topiaries at James' party but the topiaries bit the dust last year when we used them to announce "We're Going to Disney!" so I repurposed them.

Anna, birthday decorator extraordinaire, hung up paper lanterns {and all of the banners!}.

Best $2 I've ever spent! This banner has been used at almost every party. I got it in the Dollar Bin at Michael's.

This balloon wreath has been a fabulous craft as well. I've used it five or so times. I've pulled out some of the balloons and replaced to change the colors. It was SO FUN to make. I want to make another. Who wants one?

Little brother wanted to take a picture but James would NOT smile standing next to him. Told you he had a tough time.

I made cupcakes and stuck Mini Oreos on as ears. They turned out GREAT. Will LOVED them and they were SO, so, so easy.

Will had no interest in opening his gifts AT ALL. He opened a bike helmet + horn + bell for his trike from my mom and wanted to quit. James was intent that he open QUICKLY, though, so it was a little interesting. Will got some fun new things!

This boy LOVED blowing out the candle on his cupcake {so much that he blew it out before we sang and it had to be relit}. He LOVED us singing to him. So precious!

He also loved his cupcake...clearly! 

Fun party, great food, wonderful family! Happy Birthday, Baby Boo!

February 14, 2012

Well, well, well...Life is a little bit busier with two! :) In all honesty, I was exhausted yesterday and even though I had help from my mama, I am not sure I spent more than about 15 minutes on the computer all day...and that was to work on these pictures! So, hang with me and slowly but surely we'll get caught up!

These are all from Tuesday of this week!

Since I had Will so late at night and we weren't moved until 4 AM, there wasn't much sleep to be had Monday night/Tuesday morning. The hospital seemed to wake up for the day around 6 AM, so we just got up as well.

Eddie went home on Tuesday morning to shower, change clothes, and pick up James to visit the hospital. The boys picked up two dozen roses for me for Valentine's Day and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Holy cow, they were delish!

James was like a pinball at the hospital, bouncing from one thing to the next. He wore. me. out. while he was there. But he was SO sweet holding his little brother. He has really, really been excited about this new boy!

Later, James went back home with Cacky and Anna and Poppy stopped by for a visit!

And then after that, Papa and YaYa came for a visit!

I was exhausted by the end of the day. I think Eddie and I were both asleep before 10 PM. Of course, I was awake every 10 minutes for either nursing or having my vitals checked, but we did get some sleep.

It was definitely a different Valentine's Day than we've ever had before, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

BIRTH day...February 13, 2012

We're back! So thankful tonight to be home and sleeping in my very own bed! I wanted to go ahead and get things posted because chances are that if I wait to post, I won't remember anything! I'll try to get caught up before next week!

Monday was a BIG day around here! We were scheduled to go to the hospital for a 1pm induction. Yea! We had our bags packed, our house picked up, and we were ready to go!

One last belly shot! 40 weeks!

Last family-of-three picture!

Eddie and I left our house and had a picnic in our car before heading to the hospital. I had one last bowl of potato soup before delivery. :) (I've since had THREE bowls of potato soup...must not have just been a pregnancy thing!)

We got checked in and I got into a gown and in my bed. The first thing they needed to do was get my IV started. As I mentioned last week, I had to have some antibiotics before delivery to make sure that Will didn't get pneumonia. This wasn't a concern with James, but it was this time around. Unfortunately, I was dilated 3 centimeters two weeks ago and because last time I hit 5 centimeters and then almost immediately I was fully dilated, my doctor made the decision to induce before I went into labor on my own. Well...the first step in getting that process started was the IV...and the IV didn't go so well. My nurse tried three separate times to get it started and wasn't successful. She finally called in someone else to try it. That nurse took two times to get it in. Five separate IV sticks is NO fun. It took at least forty-five minutes just to get that part going. It was at least 2:30 by the time I started my IV fluids and antibiotics got started.

So...the next step was to start pitocin. There was some magical formula for how many bags of fluid I needed to have before I got another bag of antibiotics, etc. I think after one bag of antibiotics I was able to start pitocin, but I may not be remembering that correctly at all. Anyway, pitocin was started and through the entire first bag my nurse came in every 15-20 minutes or so to turn it up. My contractions (I had been having them on my own all day) definitely started getting stronger and stronger at this point.

Eddie worked during all of the waiting around. I told him that if the people he was talking to on the phone knew where he was, they would be mortified!

The second part of the day that set us back a bit was the fact that there were several emergency c-sections on Monday afternoon. This resulted in the nurse anesthetist and my doctor being tied up. They knew that when my water was broken my contractions would get worse and I would need an epidural but I wouldn't be able to get one because of the emergencies. So this held us up a little bit. I think my water was broken around 7pm.

They did continue pitocin, but they didn't continue to turn it up after my water was broken. As best I can remember, I was finally able to have an epidural around 9:30pm. (I could be completely wrong about this.) I was SO nervous this time around for my epidural. I'm not sure what it was, but I was really, really concerned about it. I could NOT relax. I think this is probably the reason that my back is still hurting today where the catheter went in for the epidural. Once that got started my blood pressure and heart rate remained okay but I started having a hard time breathing. The nurse finally realized it was anxiety because the side-effects from the epidural were SO different than they were last time. It made me feel loopy and I could not stop shaking all over. (Although, in hindsight the loopiness could be because it was gettin really late and I'd not gotten much sleep the night before!) The epidural took about 45 minutes so it was probably around 10:15 or so by this time.

I asked my nurse how we'd know it was time for him to be here after my epidural. She showed me on the monitor how his heartrate would start dipping a bit during a contraction and she mentioned that I'd start to feel some pressure. About that time I felt a LOT of pressure and mentioned it to her. She checked me immediately and laughed and said I was feeling pressure because I was about to have him. She told me NOT to push.

They got everything set up and Eddie called Mom (around 11pm). She was at home with James and we wanted him to be Will's first visitor after he was born. Eddie's mom, dad, and sister had been at the hospital since early evening so they were waiting as well. After everything got set up and the doctor came in I started pushing. I pushed a grand total of FIVE whole times before he was born. :) Wonderful delivery! He was born at 11:37pm - NOT the Valentine's baby that my nurse was certain that we'd have!

Big Brother made it to the hospital just in time to meet Baby Brother! He was not sure what to think since he'd been pulled out of bed and hauled to the hospital at midnight! The first thing he said was, "He's not in your tummy anymore!" He was very excited, but very, very quiet!

Then the other visitors were allowed a quick visit! I think everyone was gone from the hospital by 1AM. Very, very quick visit!

The hospital gives daddies a scrub shirt with all of the baby's information on it. Poor Baby Brother's little feet didn't show up, though.

Big Brother got to help push Will to the elevator when he went to the nursery. My nurse also let him push the lullaby button that they do when a new baby is born. James was overly excited and pushed it THREE times...at 1 AM. :)

After everyone left, Eddie picked up McDonald's for us for dinner. We spent the next few hours trying to sleep and waiting for my legs to wake up. One of them did NOT want to wake up from the epidural! We finally moved to the postpartum wing around 4AM.

More tomorrow from Valentine's Day!