Happy 1st Birthday, Levi!!!!

This day last year started out like any other. Luca and I got up and had breakfast and got ready for the day. My plans were to go to Airdrie to get Chris some work shirts for the summer (he only had long sleeved dress shirts, mostly). So, Luca and I headed into town to get some shopping done.

We came home and had lunch, then it was off for a nap for Luca. Surprisingly, I wasn't tired this afternoon (I had napped ever afternoon for quite a while before this), so I watched a movie. It was the first afternoon that I would stay awake. Little did I know that I would be up a lot of the night with a newborn!

At 5:15pm, Chris called to say that he was going for some drinks with the guys from work as it was the last day for a few of them that were heading to school for a few months. I told him that I had had a contraction a few minutes prior, but we didn't think much of it as I had been having contractions off and on for a week now.

Within 15 minutes, there was another contraction and then another. After a little while, I called Chris back to say that he didn't need to hurry, but that he should come home. He was just going to finish his meal and head this way. That was fine by me, as I thought we had tons of time.

Within a few more minutes, I called back and told him to leave now and to hurry. My contractions were about 8 minutes apart.

I reached transition and was laying on my bathroom floor between heaving into the toilet. Luca was quite concerned that I was going to make a mess!

Chris arrived home at 7:15, got Luca strapped into his car seat and me into the Jeep between contractions. They were coming hard and I couldn't talk through them at this point.

Just before 7:30 we were on the road, only to have to wait for a train before we could leave Crossfield. Chris drove confidently (but fast!) and I watched the clock and timed contractions.

I don't remember a whoe lot about the drive except for at each town that we passed, I would think "Didsbury....40 minutes......Olds....30 minutes......Bowden.....20 minutes........Innisfail.......15 minutes......Gasoline Alley......5 minutes.

We arrived at the hospital at 8:30, with my contractions 2 minutes apart and lasting about 90 seconds. Pat and Joanne were there to meet us and to take Luca home with them.

Chris got me into a wheelchair and pushed me upstairs to labour and delivery. When we arrived, I managed to tell the nurse "They are 2 minutes apart and strong. I want an epidural!"

She got me to go to the bathroom and then would check me. As I emptied my bladder, I felt the baby's head move down into the birth canal. I couldn't get up. At this point, there didn't feel like there was a break at all between contractions. It was just one constant one. The nurse and Chris managed to get me to the bed where I was to be checked.

At the same moment the nurse declared that I was 9.5 cm dilated, my water broke and I had to push. There was no holding this baby back!

2 pushes later, at 8:44pm, with only Chris and a nurse there, Levi Allan was born! The poor nurse only had time to get her gloves on to catch him. We had been at the hospital for 14 minutes. They didn't have a chart for me, and barely knew my name!

He was perfect! At 7lbs 7oz he was exactly a pound smaller than his big brother was. He had so much dark hair, and beautifully colored skin. His head was perfectly round, afterall, he didn't spend much time in there to get a cone head!

Chris managed to get this photo, my all time favorite picture. This is just seconds after birth, the cord still attached. You can see the nurse passing the scissors over to Chris to cut the cord.

We were so shocked to have had a baby that quickly. On the ride to Red Deer, I knew that I was in the advanced stages of labour, but had no idea how advanced! I honesltly thought that I was about half way there. We had no idea that Levi was so close to being born on the side of the highway! Thankfully, I had a full bladder that I'm sure kept him higher up!

Luca was a bit nervous to meet his new brother, but seemed excited too. Or maybe he was just interested in all the gadgets at the hospital!

We were thrilled to come home as a family of 4.

I can't believe that the year has passed so quickly. Levi is crawling; so very close to walking, says a few words (Mama, Dada, Hi, and Lula for Luca), and is a happy little boy. He loves to follow his brother around and tries to do everything he does.

The next year is going to be busy and fun- I'm looking forward to it!

Happy Birthday, Levi! We love you!

Photo blog

Here are some photos from my new camera over the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Daddy and Levi checking out Easter eggs

Luca hunting for eggs


First family photo in quite a few months

Luca at Nona and Papa's

Finding eggs at Auntie Jay and Uncle Brock's house

I just love those lips!

The beautiful flowers my wonderful husband sent me while he was away last week.

My little man

Growing up so fast!

Luca and his best buddy George

Our mini vacation

Ok, so not so much "ours" as mine.

Chris had some meetings in Edmonton on Thursday and today. When he told me about them about a month ago, I sort of jokingly said that I should come. Mostly because there is something about staying in a hotel that I love. I don't get to do it very often and Chris does, so he thinks that I am silly.

Anyway, somehow my little joking comment turned into "Why not?". We made a call to Pat and Joanne and they were able to babysit, so it was a go!

I had been excited about it for a while, but a bit apprehensive, too. I hadn't yet left Levi overnight. Luca was 15 months before I left him overnight and it was tough. This time it wasn't nearly as tough. I don't know, maybe having 2 kids and really, truly needing some time to myself is what did it. Or maybe knowing that they were in completely capable and loving hands helped too. I think it was a combination of both.

Chris came home early from work on Wednesday and we were leaving Crossfield by 2:30 that afternoon. We marveled at how strange it was to be driving and having an uninterrupted conversation. And not having to point out to Luca every tractor, semi truck and farm animal that we drove past. We almost didn't know what to talk about. The comfortable silence was nice, too.

We arrived at the hotel just before supper time and checked in. Our room was very spacious and had been recently redecorated. I was really excited about the king size bed. It was a Sleep number bed, which I was excited to try out. (My number is 25, btw. I like it really soft). What I didn't know is that getting out of a soft sleep number bed is pretty much like getting out of a waterbed. Not so easy. Humorous though. So, after fiddling around with the bed settings we headed out for dinner.

We had chinese, which was ok. Not great, not bad, just ok. We then went to the movie, which is another big treat for us. My grandma had given us a gift certificate for the theatre for Christmas and we hadn't had a chance to use it yet. We saw "Knowing" with Nicholas Cage. I have a theory that all of his movies are weird and I usually don't like them, but the preview for the movie looked good, so we thought we'd give it a try. And it was good. Until about 20 minutes before the end. I won't ruin it in case any of you wanted to see it, but the ending killed the whole movie for me. I was really into the movie until the ending. It was just so....stupid. Oh well.

On Thursday Chris didn't have any meetings until after lunch so we slept in (until 8:30!!! Big deal when your kids usually wake up around 6:30!), had leisurely showers, watched some daytime tv and just hung out.

It was my Auntie Linda's 50th Birthday on Thursday so her and my cousin Amanda picked me up and the 3 of us went for lunch. It was a nice visit, and I don't get to see them often. We then went back to my Aunt's house where I shopped in her store and got myself a new Louis Vuitton purse and a Coach purse for a fantastic deal. After my grandma arrived, they dropped me off at Chapters.

This was what I had been really looking forward to and it was the hilight of my trip. If you know me, you know that I love to read. A bookstore is one of my all time favorite stores to just "be" in. I was thrilled to be able to browse for as long as I wanted without children. It was a glorious hour and a half (I could have spent longer but Chris called to say he was done his meetings). I came out of there with 7 new books and only $50 poorer. I got 4 books for myself and 3 for the boys. It was great.

Chris picked me up and we had appetizers at Kelsey's before going to another movie. This time we chose a comedy, "Duplicity" with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. This one was much better than Knowing was. It was funny and a bit of romance with a twist. It was fairly good.

We awoke to room service delivering our breakfast. Mmmmmm. Another fun thing about hotels- room service. Its a treat that you don't often get, so I appreciated it. Especially not having to cook my own food!

This morning while Chris was in his meeting I had a long shower and got ready for my date with my friend Carri. We went to the mall where I did a bit of shopping for myself and had a nice visit. It was short, though as Chris was done a bit earlier than he thought he would be.

Chris picked me up and we went in search of a new camera. We were sold on a new Panasonic 10.1 megapixel, 18x optical zoom. Very similar to the Olympus that I led to an early death, but newer, so faster and with a few more options. As I type this, Chris is playing with all the gadgets on it.

We then headed to Tokyo Express and had one of our favorite "fast food" meals- teryaki chicken and rice bowls. Mmmmmm.

Then it was time to head home to see our little munchkins, with a quick stop in Wetaskiwin to get my vinyl lettering from Jessica that I had ordered at her party.

The boys weren't quite as excited to see us as we were to see them, I think. I guess spending a few days with grandparents beats mom and dad.

The getaway was a really nice break for me, and I am home rested and rejuvenated. I better be, Chris informed me this morning that he has to leave tomorrow morning for a week.......

I guess my little vacation couldn't have come at a better time.