The journey to Two

After Paigey was born, Pete and I didn't get married right away. I took a semester off from college, and Paige and I lived with my parents. That summer I started working at a local animal hospital where I had worked in high school, and that fall I returned to college part time for my last year of college. It was far from easy, being gone from Paige so much with working and school, but my mom was watching her and I knew that it was for our benefit in the future if I finished up my degree and worked to provide for our needs. Having a child forced me to mature quickly, and I wanted to be someone she would look up to and want to emulate in the future.

Enjoying her first birthday cake!

We celebrated holidays and Paigey's birthday. It was a wild and crazy first year, but we wouldn't have traded it for anything. Pete and I grew as people, and we grew closer together...Paige just grew and grew and grew!

On St. Patrick's day, Pete had plans to take me out to dinner and to see the musical 'The Lion King,' which happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time. My co-workers were convinced he was proposing, and although he and I had talked about it, I didn't think this would have been the time. However, I was wrong, and we were engaged!

Seven and a half months later, we were married on October 28th, 2006.

Our good friends Sarah and Eric attended our wedding; they had been a huge help in the planning, as we wanted to do most of it ourselves and do it cheaply. Sarah was due to have their first child any day now, so we were blessed to have them in attendance. A few days later, their son was born, and as soon as I saw a picture, I wanted another baby.

[Side note: it's very funny and Sarah and I joke about it all the time, but when her son J was born, I wanted another baby. When our second was born, she wanted another, then had baby E. When E was born, I wanted another, and a year later our youngest was born. Sarah wanted another then, and a year later, baby L was born. If I didn't babysit baby L, I may have wanted to try for a fourth...]

Pete and I knew we wanted another child, but we wanted to get used to being married first. Although Pete was very involved with raising Paigey, going from being basically just him most of the time to dealing with a wife and child full time was going to be a rough transition, and we wanted to ease into it. Unfortunately not for Pete, that wasn't the case. We found out early in December that we were indeed expecting Baby #2!

It was a nice change of pace to know that I was pregnant, but I had no idea what to expect. Things were so different this time; I had morning sickness, food aversions, exhaustion, the worst heartburn, and I got HUUUUGE!

As big as a house, and only 7 months along!

Pete and I celebrated our one year anniversary of getting engaged by getting an ultrasound; we found out we were expecting a little boy! Pete was thrilled to get a boy; I was terrified! Although I grew up in a neighborhood of all boys and two tomboys, I knew how to parent a little girl. Would I be up to the challenges of a little boy? What if he wanted to ride a motorcycle or dirt bike when he was older? What if his greatest joy was to climb up all the furniture and hang from the light fixtures like a monkey? Could I handle it? The ultrasound showed a perfectly healthy baby, and after our appointment we went to the store and picked out a coming home outfit for our little guy. We went to Pete's parent's house to get Paige, and shared our news.

My due date was August 1st, and it couldn't come soon enough. It was one of the hottest summers we had had years, and thankfully our apartment came with an air conditioner. I could be found sitting in front of it quite often, and we even slept in our living room just so I could keep cool. I had false labor on my due date, but just as we were ready to head to the hospital, everything stopped.

On August 3rd, I woke up with contractions, and I remembered these ones. I called my doctor's office, and they wanted me to come in mid afternoon to get checked, but if anything changed, go to the hospital. At my appointment, I was indeed in labor, and they sent me to the hospital to walk around with instructions to head to the hospital once the contractions were every 3 minutes apart. We walked about 20 minutes, then head over to the hospital. My parents met us there; my mom was going to be a back up coach in case Pete was uncomfortable in the delivery room. I was at the same hospital where Paige was delivered, and guess who was on duty that night? My favorite nurse, Donna! However, the nurse who was attending me, was awful. I felt like I had to push, but as I was only 4 cm dilated, she said it wasn't possible, and that I'd know what 'real' contractions felt like when I had them. After being there for an hour or so, I was sent home. I was furious as we lived almost an hour away, but what was I supposed to do? We drove home, and I remember crying the whole way home feeling like I was a stupid pregnant lady who didn't know what contractions really felt like.

Fast forward an hour or so, and my contractions were really bad. I remember telling Pete that we had to head out to the hospital, but I couldn't get up off the floor I was in so much pain. He tried to help me up, and my water broke. He went to call his dad, who is a nurse, and I remember yelling at him that what I needed was an ambulance otherwise he'd be delivering our baby!

The ambulance arrived within minutes, and they wheeled me out on a stretcher and yet again, I was in an ambulance, in labor, on the way to the hospital. Anyone who knows me knows I can't do anything the easy way, and my labors and deliveries prove that fact! One of the paramedics was panicking on the way to the hospital, which was 20 minutes from our apartment. I kept telling her I had to push, and the baby was coming. She didn't want to deliver the baby, so I ended up trying to comfort her rather than her comfort me!

We arrived at the hospital, and Pete arrived a couple minutes later. They made him do some paperwork, so I was taken up to the delivery room without him. The doctor on call was no where to be found, so all the nurses except for one left to find her. The one nurse who was with me ended up delivering our sweet little boy at 10:20 pm at 8 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches long. Pete arrived in the room at 10:22. I told him, jokingly, that we'd just have to keep having children until he was in the delivery room with me!

We had two names picked out, and as we couldn't decide, we waited until we saw our son to see which name fit him more. It was an easy decision; Nathan Thomas (Thomas after Pete's dad's middle name) fit him perfectly. Pete's choice was Robert Wilfred. I loved the name Rob/Robbie for a boy, and Wilfred was his paternal grandfather's name, but Nathan just fit him better.

My parents arrived around midnight and met their first grandson, then made the hour and a half trip back home. We had many visitors the next day, including the brand new big sister, who was so in love with her baby brother!

Our beautiful babies

Adjusting to life with two wasn't as hard as I had imagined; the hard part was that Nate was awake at night, and Paige was awake during the day. Nate also had reflux for a few months, which made sleep difficult for him. He was a perfect fit for our family, and we were convinced after a the two crazy deliveries, we were done having children....but who was to know that the baby bug was going to bite me again?