One year ago today we became a family of four.  In fact, as I am typing this (Monday night) I am remembering going to bed at 9:30 with very strong but very irregular contractions thinking I would NEVER have the baby.  I was due on the 30th, I was just impatient.  The next two hours would have more very painful but very irregular contractions which would annoy me greatly.  Then from 11:30-1 they would get a little more regular and then from 1-2 am, BAM, the contractions went from 7 to 6 to 5 minutes apart.  By the time I woke Matt up a little after two and we got to the hospital at 2:45 they were approximately 2.5 minutes apart lasting one minute and I could neither breathe nor walk or even move through them.  I remember when we walked (haltingly and bent over) into the ER everyone was very excited because Matt was a resident at the hospital and they all knew him from his consult visits for the OB-Gyn department.   I remember for some reason refusing the wheelchair they offered and insisting on walking until I had another mind-numbing contraction then I ceased caring and they got me right into a wheelchair!  Not surprisingly when we got upstairs I was 6cm and 100% then fully dilated within 30 minutes.  They thankfully got my epidural in quickly after we got there (yeah, you drug-free women are my HEROES, seriously) and let me labor down (for those birthing newbies, that means they let the contractions move the baby down into the birth canal and into delivery position).  Then less than three hours after walking in, with two sets of pushes out came our beautiful baby girl.  I still remember Matt telling me that it was a girl and being SO surprised.  Anyone who knows his family and the sheer number of boys he has in it would never have thought we would have a girl.  She didn’t have a name for the first hour or so.  With Nolan we had known weeks ahead of time.  But with Layne, we had it down to Charlotte or Layne and decided after we saw her.

So now it’s been one whole year.  One year of being the mommy to a little girl.  One year of having two children.  One year being a family of four.  One year where we no longer outnumber the kids.  One. Year.  And I am left trying to figure out where the time went.  It has been a complete whirlwind.  I look at this beautiful precious 23 lb 31 inch tall baby girl and wonder what happened to my newborn??  My life has become even better since she arrived in it.  I thought it was good with Nolan.  Its even better with Nolan AND Layne.  I am as completely in love with her a year later as I was the day she was born.

I have learned how to change a girl’s diaper.  I have figured out that no-slippy-clippies are the only way to go.  I have learned that onesies go under the tights if there are bloomers and over if there aren’t.  I’ve learned that tights are really annoying to put on babies.  I’ve finally gotten pink in my house.  I’ve learned to coordinate that pink with just about every other color in the world.  I’ve learned that, unlike with Nolan, I actually am SUPPOSED to coordinate the outfits.  I’ve learned that while I thought I couldn’t possibly love a second child as much as I did my first, that it was possible.  I have learned that though I thought our life as a family was complete when there were three of us, it wasn’t even close.  I have learned a lot in a year.  And my life is a million times better for all that I have learned.

I love you my precious, sweet baby girl.  You are a true delight.  Your laughter makes my heart sing and your smile melts me.  Happy, happy first birthday.

The past year in my favorite photos.  And no, I did not take the first photo.  I am not THAT ambitious of a photographer 🙂  This was taken by Matt about 20 seconds after she came out.

And then just today (Monday).  One day before turning one year old…she just took her first real steps on Christmas…