Happy Happy Birthday Zachary

I had every intention of posting on Zachary's birthday and doing 7 years of Zach. Unfortunately the day was gone in a heartbeat and before I knew it his birthday had come and gone.

Luckily he had a good day. Cole, Nate and I decorated his room while he was at school and made a poster '7 Reasons we love Zach'. The boys had (a fun time doing it and it was totally worth it to see how grateful Zachary was. He told me thank you about 8 times and gave his brothers each about 5 hugs. His birthday was on Wednesday and his room is still decorated at his request.

We did a family birthday party (with all the cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents and great grand parents that live here). It was perfect and he had a good time. If anyone wants any birthday cake come and see me we still have lots.

So the day before his birthday I was telling Zachary the story of when he was born and I thought I may want to put it down in writing--feel free to ignore this it is mostly for me. Zachary was supposed to be born on January 14th. In true Zach fashion the child still hadn't come by 20th. That Sunday my Dad was returning from Mexico so Joel and I went to go pick him up. Since 9/11 was pretty recent the security at the airport was very tight. I had been having little contractions most of the day but I decieded it would be easier for me to get out and go get find my dad then it would be for Joel. I got out and wandered around and checked ther terminals and had him paged several times but to no avail. Finally after wandering around for about 45 minutes and having pretty bad contractions we figured out that my dad was waiting at a different terminal.

Once we were back home the contractions continued. After a couple more hours Joel forced me to pack a bag and took me to the hospital. They put me on a monitor and made me wander around the hospital and decided my labor was not really progressing so they sent me home. They were nice enough to give me some pills to help me sleep through the night. The pills worked great but unfortunately around midnight I went into full on labor. Joel had the lovely chore of getting me to the hospital but I was competely drugged so I was less than helpful. I woke up a couple of times on the drive over but only when I was having a contraction. We got back to the hospital and I was checked in right away. We hung out and I got my first epideral (which I have to admit I LOVE). My sister came and hung out with me for a couple hours. All the nurses got a kick out of Joel and his not wanting to watch the birthing or cutting the cord. Around 6:15 am Zachary was born. Joel cried when he got to hold his first baby boy. I was so touched I cried.

After a day at the hospital we went home. The first few months with Zach were very trying, but he quickly turned into the sweet (grumpy, helpful and great) boy he is.
Even though it is late I am still going to post my 7 years of Zach--probably tomorrow.