Oh let me tell you how much fun I had creating this birth announcement! My little guy needed something to make his birth stand out from all the others. He is, after all, my third child and knowing how the third child can sometimes be forgotten (although if you talk to my sister, she swears as the middle child, she always got overlooked), I wanted to make sure, everyone knew he was here.

Years ago, I had seen a birth announcement done in an FBI Most Wanted style. As much as I would love to take full credit of this awesomeness, I can not. The dad created it for his little one and I can remember he didn’t make invitations or anything of the sort, but that’s all I can remember. I tried to find the link when I found out I was pregnant with another boy, but I couldn’t. So, I had to come up with what to do for it all by my little lonesome. But that’s OK..it made it more personal and I always love a challenge

I started off with a mini file folder and stamped on CONFIDENTIAL in bold red. I also added his full name to the tab portion of the folder to make it look more official.

My original thought was to only insert the picture with the black and white striped hat to keep it with the theme, but this kid came out with so much hair that I had to include one without something covering his luscious locks. So I inserted those on the left with a paperclip and some glue.

On the right, I included the perps (is that even how you spell that?! I’m not down with all the cop lingo.) I included his aliases to show that he isn’t alone in the house of criminals. We even included the Bunny who is wanted for pooping a lot. (Seriously! Have you ever had a rabbit?? That’s all this one does is eat and poop–way worse than a baby because they never outgrow it!)

So there you have it. What I have been working on for the past two months and now that most people have received there’s, I was FINALLY able to share it with all of you. Wow. That one was a hard secret to keep. I gotta run now…the little convict is demanding attention….

PS…Like the hat?? Check out: Mad About Color   It’s where I got William’s and I LOVED it!!

Oh this little one wanted to make an entrance, that’s for sure. He had us running to the hospital the Monday before he was born only to be sent home and told the contractions weren’t helping me dilate. I knew as soon as I got there, my contractions would stop but I have this fear of not getting to the hospital in time and being told it was too late for an epidural. Crazy afraid. Lol

So Tuesday night, when the contractions started and kept me up all night, I figured it was another false alarm. I was right. Wednesday night was a repeat of the two previous nights. Contractions kept me awake from 2am to roughly 7am–just in time for my other two to wake up for the day. It was getting quite old at this point and I just wanted to cry.

Thursday night, I decided to take Benadryl to help me get some sleep. I kept going back and forth about taking it. What if I didn’t wake up and they were the real deal this time? What if I had to pee and didn’t wake up, resulting in me peeing the bed and waking up to think my water broke? My sister assured me I was being silly and I would wake up if it were the real deal. I swallowed the pills at 7:30pm and was asleep by 8:30. Around 9:00pm, I woke up to a stabbing pain. I wanted to cry and punch something about the same time. I couldn’t believe that I took Benadryl and it STILL wasn’t helping me sleep. I was looking at another sleepless night.

I gathered up my pillows and went into our spare bedroom to wait it out. I figured my husband could at least get some sleep instead of waking up to me tossing and turning and groaning.

I downloaded an app on my phone that helps you time your contractions and keep track of how far apart they are. I figured it would be pointless to try and time these suckers again because it was just going to end in a few hours but I decided to do it anyway just to kill time. Fast forward a few hours and still the contractions were about 8 minutes apart. I was having them where I would have a big one that would make me want to cry with two little ones that weren’t so bad in between. I was timing the big ones that lasted for about 50 seconds. Was this the real thing?

I jumped in the shower about 12:30 to see if that would ease the pain. When it didn’t, I called my sister to head on over  to stay with the kids while we made our way to the hospital. I was sure they would tell me these contractions weren’t close enough or weren’t doing anything to help the process and send me home again but I thought maybe, just maybe, they’d give me something to help dull the pain.

My husband, still half asleep, went to warm up the car and came in to tell me it would be a few minutes because there was ice covering the car. He kept telling me to be prepared, that it was going to take longer to get to the hospital because the roads were icy. He kept talking to me like I was a four year old and couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. It was annoying the hell out of me. “Yeah. I get it!” I kept saying to him in a not so nice tone.

He called the hospital on the way to let them know of our impending arrival. He acted like I was a gunshot victim when he talked to the doctor and told her he was running red lights. Apparently, the roads were bad, I just didn’t care enough to pay attention and running the red lights were helping make up the time we were losing in having to drive slowly. I just kept thinking how the nurses and doctors were going to laugh at us when we got there and tell me  I wasn’t in active labor.

Finally, in what seemed like forever, we arrived and I walked the mile long hike from the ER to the L&D floor, arriving around 1:30am. They were getting ready to check me into Triage but a nurse came in and said she had a room ready for me. Apparently Joe freaked them out enough to make them think this little guy was going to come out at any second. (And I found out later, that a woman had delivered in the parking lot of the hospital the night before, so I think they were trying to avoid another crazy delivery like that)

Once I got into the room and up on the table, they checked me and I was already dilated to 7. It was real. He was coming. I was relieved and nervous. More about the knowledge that a needle was going to be put in my back. I wanted the relief of the epidural but I didn’t want to actually go through the process of getting it. I’m a wuss like that.

But I got it..and it helped. I tried to sleep but a sharp, stabbing pain running from my belly button down kept me from doing that. I was little peeved the epidural didn’t get rid of ALL my pains. But that was just the sleep deprivation coming out.

Around 4:20, the nurse checked me and I was complete. She called in the doctors and with a few pushes, William Grant arrived into the world just as perfect as could be. And now that I type this, I realize in my tired, zombie like state, I have been telling everyone he was born Thursday morning when in actuality, it was Friday morning. Oops.

His hair is what amazed everyone. Our other son was bald until well after his first birthday. So to see this little guy with locks of golden hair, surprised us. He’s so amazingly cute. We decided to keep him William Grant

2/22/13 @ 4:40am

7 lbs 10 ounces 20 inches

I gotta tell ya…I kinda slacked on the Valentine’s Day breakfast table this year. By the time I actually thought about it, I was too tired to thoroughly think it through. I am hoping once this baby comes, I will get a renewed burst of energy. (yeah right!)  But I also have to mention, that none of the kids cared. They still thought it was great. Kids are so easy to please

For the centerpiece,  I used a red feather boa I had in stock and used foam hearts I had from a Valentine’s Day party I had for the kids a couple of years ago. (I still had fishing line on them from when I hung them from the chandelier and I didn’t even bother to remove them. I told you–major slackin’.)

I found these cute little buckets in the dollar bin at Target. So I got one for each kid. I filled them with shredded red paper and of course, Valentine’s Day candy.

Trey loved his Valentine’s book….until he noticed the candy.

And Quinn was too tired to really focus. (Could it be that it was because she woke up three times in the night calling out for one of us?) but she said thank you so I guess that’s all that really matters. LOL

And last but not least, I made the simplest breakfast ever–canned cinnamon rolls in a waffle iron that I then cut into a heart shape. Cute..but neither kid ate it. Good thing it was simple.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!