Today’s the day.  My baby is one year old.  It’s weird, because my first instinct is that the time has gone by fast, but simultaneously I feel that I can barely remember a time before he was in our lives.

I had a pretty smooth pregnancy with Matthew.  The only hiccup was that I developed gestational diabetes.  No sugar.  No carbs.  No fun.  It was rough towards the end.  I was so sick of stabbing myself with the diabetes monitor 6 times a day.  Due to his size, they wanted to induce me a little early, so we picked Monday, March 20th.

The weekend prior was our last one as a family of three.  We took Andy to the park, out for ice cream, to the toy store… all the while giving him some pep talks about how he was about to become a big brother.  Seeing as he wasn’t even two, I don’t think any of it sunk in, but worth a shot, right?

Monday morning we dropped Andy off at daycare, and I cried knowing it was the last time he would be an only child.  I headed to Morristown Medical Center around noon, and they checked me into an awesome room with a Jacuzzi.  We realized later it was the exact same room that Andy was born in!

Around 1:00 they put an IV of pitocin in my arm, and I sat in the tub watching Friends.  Usually, when I tell people the next part of this story I get slapped – but honestly, I felt no pain.  Small contractions here and there, but no pain.  The nurse assumed the pitocin dose wasn’t high enough, but before she upped it, she did a quick check at around 3:30.  9 cm.  I was confused.  She was more confused.  But hey, things are progressing, so I guess it’s working!

At around 4:30 they decided to break my water.  Turns out my lack of pain was somehow tied to that, because the next hour was filled with the most amount of pain I had ever felt in my life.  Contractions were coming super quick and lasting for what felt like forever.  I begged them for an epidural.  Unfortunately, they said, there wasn’t enough time.  The anesthesiologist was busy, and the baby was on his way.  I yelled at them.  Cursed a lot.  Cried.

Finally, after they all but forced me onto the delivery bed, I realized this was actually happening.  Two pushes later, at 5:44 pm, Matthew was born.  I honestly think the pain was a huge motivator to get him out quickly.  With Andy I was pushing for hours, but I wasn’t in pain.  With Matthew, I just wanted it all to be over as soon as possible!

They placed him on my chest, and I felt a million emotions.  I was so happy he was finally here, relieved that the pain was momentarily gone, shocked at the quick & unexpected circumstances, and most of all in awe of his ridiculously luscious head of hair! I mean, seriously, this kid had way better hair than me.  John cut the umbilical cord (the Friends geek in me asked him if it was spongy), and they did a quick weight and measurement on him.  7lbs, 12oz, and 21 inches long.

We wanted Andy to be the first to meet his little brother, so at around 6:45 pm John brought him in.  We had our first moments as a family of four, and when Andy called him, “baby brother” my heart basically exploded.

At this point, he was still nameless.  We had been tossing around 3 – 4 boy baby names, and over the course of the next few hours we would call him different names to see what fit best.  Family and friends came to visit, and finally later that evening we decided that Matthew Beckham was a perfect fit.

Now he is already one year old!  He is such a little snuggle bug!  He loves to read books, and he is so determined.  When he tries to do something and is unsuccessful, he gets very frustrated and keeps trying until he gets it.  He follows Andy around like his shadow, and Andy can ALWAYS make him smile.  Andy is the best big brother he could’ve asked for.  When Matty cries, Andy is there rubbing his back or giving him his binkie.  When Matty is frustrated, Andy is there distracting him with a toy or making silly faces.

We celebrated Matty’s 1st birthday on St. Patrick’s Day!  I snapped some shots of him before the party and during his cake smash.  Here are some highlights below!

 

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