Tax Day Baby

It all started on April 14th, 2005. Chad, Jackson and I were hanging out at the house after work that day. Chad and I decided we wanted to make taco's for dinner but we didn't have all the fixin's so Chad headed out to the grocery store, which was like 5 minutes away. The ONE time in his life that he should have grabbed his phone and he left it at home! So Jackson and I were playing in the LR, I was sitting on the couch, on the very edge and jackson came running up to my very pregnant belly and kind of bounced off of it, that along with my position on the couch was just enough to break my water! It's so funny looking back now what a panic I was in, you know how they say that each labor will be faster than the one before, well the one before was like 21 hours so I shouldn't have expected anything soon but I started to freak because Chad wasn't home. I called my parents, his mom...I called my friend Melissa because she had volunteered to watch Jackson when this happened. I think by the time Chad got home,everyone but him knew! By the time we got on our way to the hospital it was about an hour after my water broke...I started having some pretty intense contractions. The hospital was about 30 minutes from our house and I remember telling Chad that I wasn't going to make it, he had to drive faster, so we're flying down the interstate with our lights flashing, no telling how fast we were going, it's amazing that we didn't get pulled over. So once we get to the hospital the nurse is like "okay, we have to test you to make sure your water DID break", another nurse walks behind me and says, "put her in a room, her water broke all right"...I had been riding with a towel between my legs and another under me and by the time we got to the hospital they were both soaked. One thing for you to remember if you haven't had a baby yet...if your water breaks, as apposed to "leaks", it will make a mess! Oh, I forgot to mention that I had just been in for my check up that same day and was like 1 cm. The dr was expecting to have to induce me the next week. So, after all the hullabaloo that goes on, I got comfy with my epidural, mind you I was going to try to do without one but after a few hours when they told me I was only at 3cm, I knew I wasn't going to make it. All the next morning I was having major back labor and could feel everything so the anesthesiologist came in to readjust my epidural. It didn't help much, I was still hurting really bad. When it was finally time to push the dr checked me...the reason I was having such pain was because Gray was turned face up with the back of his head on my backbone. The dr also discovered that in the past 17 hours ...yes, that's right, 17hrs Gray had flipped himself and was breech and face up. If anyone uses Willow Creek then you probably know Dr Seal, tiny lady...thank God for that because with those tiny little hands she was able to turn Gray to position him head down! After an hour of pushing our little Grayson Conor was born on April 15th at 12:19pm!

Easter '06--1 yr old

As stubborn as he was in his birth, he has stayed that way ever since, especially in the 2 yrs since he's been the "middle child"! Gray would never go to sleep in his own bed, for the first year of his life he slept in his swing, once he outgrew that he started sleeping with mommy and daddy. To this day he goes to bed in his own bed but ends up in our bed sometime during the night. Those of you who know us, know about his hair fetish....he is always playing with my hair at night, this is his comfort mechanism. We've tried different stuffed animals and such over the past few years but he still prefers the real thing! He started having night terrors when he was just a little over 2. We had his tonsils/adenoids out last year and that has had no effect on his sleeping or behavior. Gray may be little but he is quite the spit-fire and can take care of himself. Always' the picky eater, he sometimes chooses not to eat at all, not because he doesn't like what we're having necessarily, but he just doesn't want to eat. (He actually has an appointment later this month to address some of these issues.) Gray is the only one of the boys that is really good playing by himself. The other 2 like to have someone there with them but Gray can get a motorcycle or a race car and play for hours on his own (except of course today while I'm working from home and he wants me with him in the floor!). Mommy had a stomach bug yesterday and Gray had it when he got home from school so the poor kid is spending his birthday having bouts of the cha-cha's at home with mommy! Other than that, he feels fine. We love you Gray Gray! Happy Birthday!!!

His first worm! April 6th, 09