Last Post of the Year

We had a nice NYE dinner of Burger King burgers (for us) and chicken nuggets (for Al) to celebrate the last day of the year. I know, nice nutrition to end the year. Oh well, at least it's not mac 'n cheese or cottage cheese, for a change.

2007 was an eventful year, as they all tend to be when you're in the thick of the young parenting years. We kicked off the year with a health scare- mine, in fact. We were still visiting relatives when I came down with a fever and chills, not to be taken lightly when one is 33 weeks pregnant. The nice ob/gyn staff at the hospital took great care of me, running every test imaginable, even sending in an infectious diseases doc to question me. They never did find out what it was, but the suspicion is that it was a fast-moving virus of some sort. My white blood cell count was very high, and the fever was making the baby's heartrate skyrocket, but other than that I recovered pretty quickly. In any case, they assured me that there was NO WAY I'd be delivering that baby then. Whew! Allison started school pretty quickly thereafter, another big event for us. I was only checking the place out since a good friend had already planned on sending her son there in the spring after he turned 2. Well, since I only wanted a couple of mornings a week and Allison already was 2, the director told me that she could start NOW. I was scared and really sad about cutting the apron strings so soon (after all, she was my baby!), but it turned out the be the best thing ever. She had a couple of days of separation anxiety (worse for me, I'm sure), but then she really got the hang of it. It was a nice routine to already have in place by the time the other HUGE event of 2007 took place: the birth of Thomas! It's funny because even though you've been through it before, each labor and delivery is so different that's it like the first time. It was with mine, anyway. With Al I didn't have any of the pre-labor signs; I just started having intense contractions early on. With Thomas my water broke, but no contractions started until I got to the hospital. They even pushed me along by giving me Pitocin, yikes. Both times the pain was too great to even CONSIDER not having an epidural. Both times it was a rocky start for breastfeeding, which was really hard to take with Thomas since I thought it was go so much better. (Once he got the hang of it, however, he was a much more efficient and enthusiastic eater than she was.) Anyway, adjusting to life with 2 was difficult, but it just became the new normal. We had other big events- his first plane ride, her first plane ride with her own seat; his first boat ride in Grandpa Mark's boat; his first holidays, sitting, eating solids, cruising and crawling, etc. All the baby things, you know. I am so thankful for my family! We hope you all have a great New Year's as well.