2015 in review

Well, ok, this time it’s my own fault. Well, maybe I can blame it on the baby I had. Yep, let’s go with that one. 

2015- The Highlights:

For Valentines Day we got to find out if it was a boy or a girl. It was a boy; I cried. Adam gloated. I felt bad and cried because I had cried. It was a vicious cycle. 

We named him Maxwell and started to get excited for him. We took apart my home office and turned it into his nursery. It was space themed and I painted planets for his wall. 

As true 90s kids, we did indeed include Pluto.

The end of both our 3rd trimesters approached (Lawschool at UChicago is split in three and the phases coincided almost perfectly with my pregnancy.) Adam was in his first year of lawschool so his third trimester was  a little more rough than mine, but I believe I had the harder final. 

We lived life on the YOLO, Adam and I working during the day, me with video editing and Adam with the writing competition to get on the Law Review, and partying in the afternoons. July 3rd, and a full week over our due date, I turned my last projects over to my coworkers and headed off to the lakeshore for a day in the sun with friends. That afternoon we thought, hmmm we can go to bed early incase the baby comes tonight or… we can watch the Sandlot! guess which one we did. 12:30am we crawled into bed after s’mores, movie and a night with friends. At 1am, just as I drifted to sleep I started contractions. 

A Few things I learned from pregnancy:

1. They always tell you that a woman’s water almost never breaks all at once like in the movies. watch for a slight trickle. Yeah, well sometimes it does all at once in a big startling sploosh while trying to pee in a medical cup. I thought I exploded my bladder. 
2. Watermelons are the most delicious thing. Many innocent melons were sacrificed to my unborn child.
3. The pregnancy pillow is a magical cloud of happiness but may bring marital disharmony.  
4. Full length mirrors may be handy so that one doesn’t go 8 months thinking they escaped stretch marks only to realize they were all below the equator where one can not see. 
5. The song, “Beast of Burden” hits a little too close to home. 
6. People in elevators fear you and spend the entire ride living out a fear scenario in which they get trapped and have to deliver your baby. They secretly hate you for putting them in that hypothetical position. 
7. pretending to break ones water while their husband gets ready for their law school finals is not nice. his words, not mine. 
8. epidural. 

Long story short (you're welcome)-The birth didn’t go that well. Our baby and I were both injured during the birth. Maxwell spent some time in the NICU for seizures and a brain injury but recovered very quickly.

After 21hrs of labor (4hrs of pushing,) I saw an actual human come out of me! This probably shouldn't have surprised me after 9mo of mental preparation but it was still pretty shocking. I don't think I ever fully grasped the reality of it until that moment. My first thought when they lifted him out was, "Wow. Broad shoulders for a baby."  I yelled out to him, "THANK YOU FOR COMING OUT OF ME!!!" He needed immediate medical attention to clear his airways but soon cried out from across the room. The tension broke. Then I broke. I cried--hard; from relief, exhaustion, surrealism, and at how badly I wanted a sandwich. 

Our NICU days as a new family:

Being over-term, our baby was by far the largest in the NICU.
Walking down to his nook at the very end of the ward felt a lot like,
duck duck duck GOOSE!  

Maxwell spilling out over the NICU bed. 

I asked the doctor what meds they had been giving him. Valium, Hypnotics, and other sedatives. I thought he was just a trooper, really he was just flying high the whole time. 

After two weeks we miraculously got to take him home seizure free.  

In an effort to compensate for his rough entry into this world, Maxwell was a super awesome, and as far as we could tell, easy baby to deal with. Not to mention super cute. I mean, look at this kid. :) The second half of the year was us trying to figure out parenting, loving on this cute, cuddle bug, and enjoying the holidays. Here's the snapshot version:

so cuddly

Max's baby blessing in a tux my mom made. I made his bowtie and his grandma made the blanket. 

Want some ham with that neck-cheese?

Dobby our house elf in a pillowcase and a single sock. Halloween.

Traveling to see family during the Christmas holiday!

:) Baby it's cold outside. 

Checkout the drumsticks on that 17 pounder! Thanksgiving

Following us with only his eyes. completely immobile in his snow suit.

Maxwell playing baby Jesus in the cousin's nativity. 

For more cuteness, see my Instagram ;)