Lukie

Luke, I feel bad that I haven't written about you. We've had our hands full since you arrived;) You are not the hand full though, life is.

You birth story is:

I was at work, and dad got a call from Paris that they wanted to see his portfolio. they wanted to see ift "the next day" and they wanted to see everything on his website. Dad had to shoot that day, which left me at the office to put the portfolio together and print it, and get FED EX to pick it up. This was a big job to do, and I had prints everywhere, the portfolio is huge - 16x20 inches, and I was putting stuff on the floor, on table, trying to get the whole thing together. This is when the contractions started. They were really strong, but only 1 an hour. I knew from Jude's birth that THIS COULD GO ON FOR DAYS! So, I carried on, took a bath break, and continued on.

Howard was in town, so that night we ordered food in, and ignored the contractions- they could go on forever, like I said earlier! Howard was somewhat worried that we were carrying on like normal though all of this!

We went to bed, and at midnight, I woke up feeling more crampy. I knew things were progressing. But 2:30, I couldn't sleep, so I sat up in bed and felt a POP. Then I got out of bed, and there was a splat of water on the floor. Then your dad said something that he will never live down. He said something along the lines of "I don't want to have the baby today. Can we wait a day? He's going to be born on Sept 11th" This was crazy because I was dying to not be pregnant anymore, and labor does not wait! Being somewhat in denial that could be my water breaking, we tested the fluid with a stick that turned blue if it is amniotic fluid. It was blue. Yeah! Then we got up, and got everything ready to go to the hospital. It took more than an hour. And it was icky because I kept leaking!

Howard was still in a haze as to why were weren't speeding to the hospital.

We got to the hospital, and I wasn't having that many contractions. They checked me and I was not dialated at all. Not a good sign. Especially for a second pregnancy. I opted for a C-section. I was ok about that, started to get a little stressed laying on my back after they numbed me, and I was alone, and the operating room is so cold and sterile. I was very comforted by your dad who then came in and put his face next to mine and I could smell him. That made it easier to concentrate on our family rather than the operation. At one point the OB looked over the blue face curtain at me and said "you have really nice insides!" and her glasses were spattered with my blood. Luckily, I am not that queasy and it didn't bother me. it bothered your dad though. You were born at 6:37 AM, on 09/11/09 and weighed exactly 9 lbs.

My first thoughts when I saw you were "who is that? who does he looks like" dad said "he looks like darryl" It was a bizarre moment because I expected you to look like Jude, and you didn't. You cried and cried.

Then we went to the recovery room, where you nursed, and cried and cried. The nurse said to the other nurse "this is luke, and he cries like this. that is normal for him." and i thought 'oh no.... please don't be a crying baby, luke!"

After we got up to our room, you could not be easier. You slept in your crib, you slept all the time! You slept so much I was bored for 3 days in the hospital. Tom brought me the laptop so I could work on some photographs there. I would sit there with you cuddled up next to me on the bed, we'd hang together and I would touch up my photos, and the nurses had some kind of secret high alert to watch me because they must have thought I was in denial that I had just had a baby because they thought i was "working" and shouldn't be.

Jude came to see you the first time with nonna and poppy. He was so happy to see you. I have never seen such a genuine, in awe, smile on his face. He loved you right away, and seemed to understand everything that was happening and was very happy by it. He did not even have an adjustment time at home really, we just went right into the swing of things.

You were such an easy baby. You were chubby, and solid, and content to go and sit or be with anyone that would hold you. You loved to eat! You loved me! If you didn't have me around to breastfeed, you would not eat until you were 10 1/2 months old and I stopped breast feeding.

At 6 months, you were 20 pounds. 10 months 24 pounds.

You love to have us bounce you or hold you and dance while we hold you. You also like to bob your mouth up and down on my bare shoulder to make a "ba, ba ba" noise. You are very calm, and easy, and relax me. You love to play with balls at the moment, and can actually throw them to us. I think that might be amazing for an 11 month old. You say da da. I would even say that you have said da da before ma ma. Sometimes you call me mum. You wave goodbye, or hi to dad usually, with both hands, and it's so cute. You have a wicked diaper rash right now and we suspect you are allergic to milk. We are trying new formula now to try to take care of it. For how sick the allergy is making you, you don't complain.