52 week project catch up pt. 1

Yikes, I have fallen so behind on this project since Tommy was born. That's okay though, those first newborn days are meant to be soaked in and enjoyed without worrying about much of anything else but counting tiny fingers and toes and kissing a perfect little mouth. Now that I am actually showering and dressing myself most days I feel like I can get back into the swing of things here. I decided to break protocol and do one big long 'what we've been up to this past month' post to catch back up and then resume the 'portraits of my children' theme afterwards. It was turning out way too long though, so I think it will be broken up into two parts, maybe three. I mean, it really depends on how many pictures of us holding him you want to see because that is pretty much what we've been doing...or at least it's all I deemed necessary to take a picture of it seems. And, now that I've completely spoiled the ending for you, here is the beginning...

(Oh, and I'm just going to go ahead and skip over that pesky week I missed at the very beginning of the year if you don't mind.)

21/52 + 40 weeks:

My due date had passed and I spent this week waiting. And waiting. I took pictures off the walls and rearranged most of the house in an effort to keep my mind from counting down the unknown number of minutes until labor would start, and we finished up some last minute projects like hanging blinds in the nursery. The girls asked everyday when their baby brother was coming and tried to sweet talk him out, their little lips pressed up against my belly telling him that it was okay, he could come now. They were so excited to have him join our family. At the end of the week I went in to have Tommy monitored to make sure he was still doing okay. I watched the lines on the graph paper zig and zag while his steady heartbeat lulled me into drowsiness in the otherwise quiet room, wondering when I would finally get to meet him. Every night I went to bed thinking, maybe tomorrow.

22/52 + 41 weeks and Birth (finally!!):

The good news is he couldn't stay in there forever. Nine days past his due date he arrived in a short 4 1/2 hour induced labor after some possible complications arose during a second monitoring session and it was determined he needed to come out now. Even though an induction was never part of my plan I felt peace about it. All throughout the week I had been feeling tiny whispers in my heart that he would need to come this way. So when we walked into the hospital that afternoon it felt right even though we were a bit nervous, praying he would be okay. After waiting days for something, anything to happen it was almost shocking to have him in my arms so quickly. He was so tiny and beautiful, and after giving us a couple of scares during our hospital stay which resulted in an x-ray and more pokes for him than I would have liked, we were overjoyed to find out that he was perfect too.

And so we went home, a family of five.