My baby boy turned two years old today and I reflect on the awesome experience of bringing him into this world.

Our daughter had just turned 18 months old and we knew that we wanted to have one more child and that we wanted them to be less than 3 years apart based upon our research of birth on children getting along.  My husbands family had the kids 5 years apart and we knew that was too far apart, we had friends that had children 1 year apart and we knew that was too close so we wanted to start trying to keep them within 3 years we also aimed to have a baby in the springtime, the goal was to have a baby sometime around April.  Well we didn’t have to try long and we found out that we were due January 9th.  A pretty long way from April.

I knew I was pregnant right away.  I remember laying down next to my daughter in her toddler bed trying to help her fall asleep and waking up 1 hour later having crashed not even realizing I was so tired.  The next day I was at work and was so hungry I wanted to cry while I had to wait for my break to eat lunch. I knew that day I was pregnant even thou I was still 4 days from my missed period. I came home and took a pregnancy test but it came back negative.  I waited 4 more days and this one came back as I expected, positive!   I soon found out my due date was January 9th, 2008.

The pregnancy was good, I was tired during the first trimester, I did not gain any weight during my first trimester.  We found out at our regular 20 week ultrasound that we were having a boy and we felt so fortunate to be having a girl and then a boy. I did not develop gestational diabeties, I enjoyed the majority of my pregnancy until the end uncomfortable stage, my hips were very uncomfortable and would pop out of joint. My stomach was huge, large enough to hold twins for sure.  Weighing the risks and the fact that my first delivery was a c-section I elected for a c-section.  My OB gave me a 7 day window to schedule the delivery after my 38th week so weighing out the birthdates of our family members and holidays, and taking into account co-pays and medical expense account and throwing in an entire year tax deduction we selected December 31st.  We figured that would be a fun day to have a birthdate when our baby was an adult.

Christmas came and went, the question everyone asked was aren’t you excited to get that baby out of there?  I would always reply, no he is ok in there, he is much easier to take care of when he is in my tummy.  I think everyone was concerned about me being uncomfortable because my stomach was so huge but it wasn’t that bad.  My OB told me that my baby was “A Healthy 8 pounder” On Dec. 30th I had my bag packed, ate my last meal and went to bed and tried to sleep.  We drove in the truck to the hospital, Jon picked up a coffee and a donught and I did everything in my power to keep my stomach from growling I was so hungry.  We checked into the hospital at 8:00 AM for my 10:00 AM c-section.  Went up to my hospital room where I would be brought back to with a baby.  Got in my hospital gown, got on my IV placed and was wheeled up to wait in the surgical floor.  They had a monitor on me and kindly filled me in that I was having contractions the whole time I was there, I couldn’t feel them I just assumed it was nerves.   While we waited we had some great laughs when my husband and sister watching them put the white surgical jumpsuits on, they were the same size but fit them both very differently.  I was wheeled into the room and prepped while my sister and husband waited outside the door, we handed the cameras to the nurse and my sister took the video camera.  When they let my husband and sister in the room I was strapped down and numb from the chest down.  I was perfectly comfortable just nervous and excited.  They started the surgery and let my sister and husband in the room.  A few minutes later in a totally relaxed state they pushed my babies head out of the 8 inch cut in my abdomen. They pulled out the largest baby I had ever imagined.  Everyone laughed and giggled that it was a 10 pounder.  He had the roundest face and biggest cheeks and a 15 inch head, he ended up being 9 lbs 3 oz and  wonderfully healthy. The nurse told me that very few people can vaginally deliver a 15 inch head so that I made the right decision when I selected the a c-section. Looking back the whole experience was wonderful almost spa-like, I am so grateful I selected a c-section.

They never took him out of my sight, he was cleaned up at the warmer right next to me, they handed him to my husband so I could see him.  They closed up my incision within 30 minutes less than 45 minutes in total in surgery, they layed my baby next to my on my hospital bed and wheeled me back to my hospital room.  I was able to nurse him once they got him back to the room. He was a great baby, slept happily next to me which next to me was where he was for months until I went back to work.

He is such a joy in my life, such a kind little guy, he loves his sister, he is polite and is fascinated by the world around him.  I couldn’t imagine my life without him!  Happy Birthday Little Jicky, Mommy loves you!

I often why working parents who have children in daycare leave them at daycare when they have a day off from work. Is it because they don’t know what to do with their children when they are off?  Is it because they don’t want to pay for daycare and not send them?  Is it that they don’t have fun with their kids so they don’t want to spend time with their children?

I used to work at a daycare center while I was in college and watched too many parents leave their children at daycare while they went out and had fun.  Watching children be crushed when their parents would drop them off at daycare knowing their parents were not going to work.  They would ask, “Why can’t I stay home with you?”  and listen to the parents respond, Mommy and Daddy need some time to relax. When parents would pick up their children right before closing time after spending a full day by themselves and see those children be crushed, asking “Why didn’t you pick me up?”    After watching children be crushed for years because their parents dropped them off when they were not working, I vowed to never be one of those parents!  I vowed that would never send my children to daycare when I was not working.  If you have appointments to go to then that is not really a day off, but if you are spending a week of vacation relaxing while you ship off your kids to daycare, then why did you have kids if you don’t want to spend time with them?

I have heard people make so many excuses as to why they send their kids to daycare when they have a day off.  ‘I need run errands and my kids are hard to control.”  or, ” They have more fun at daycare than they would at home with me.”  Bologna!  Unless it is a special day at daycare, they would rather be with you. “I need time to myself.” Ugh!  Do you get to go to the OB/GYN by yourself?  Then you have time to yourself!  Next time you have to bring your kids to your annual appointment then you will learn what it means to appreciate having time to yourself. Learn how to have fun with your kids, don’t leave them at daycare, pick them up and go out and do fun stuff with them!   Enjoy your children when they are young and spend as much time with them as possible, quit making excuses of why you don’t spend time with them when you are off work.