Happy Birthday B!

Five years ago today, at about this time (~8 am) I was on my way to the hospital after being pretty sure that my water broke in the shower. I still remember like it was yesterday. I was sitting on my pilates ball counting the minutes between contractions wondering what the heck could be going on because I still had 6 more weeks to go! Thankfully I did manage to eat breakfast (maple and brown sugar oatmeal) and left for the hospital after J got out of the shower. Once we got to the hospital it was determined that I was in labor, my water did in fact break and we were having a baby - today! Before my baby shower. Before I had anything prepared for this poor kid! So off they carted me to another hospital (as the first one did not have a NICU) and during the 20 minute drive (which seemed like an eternity to me) I dilated from 3 cm to 9.5 cm. Had I been sitting up, he would have been delivered in the ambulance! Immediately upon arriving to the second hospital I was whisked away to the delivery room and 30 minutes of pushing later he was born at 11:39 am weighing 4 lbs, 7 oz and 17.75" long. He was small, but otherwise quite healthy for being born so early. Thankfully he was only in the NICU for a couple of days, then he spent a little over a week in the special care nursery so he could gain weight. He came home on Nov 9th.

And here he is now - at 43" tall and almost 45 pounds -

And yes, I made that cake myself - Lightning McQueen from Cars. It took me 4 hours to frost it... It took them 10 minutes to devour it...

B and his cousin - they get along so well together!