Tavin's 1st Birthday - December 17th, 2010

It has been a few days since Friday. It's been quite a whirlwind here. On Friday, we started a construction project in our bedroom. A minor thing (added doors to an open doorway between 2 rooms), but still it took both Friday and Saturday for our friend to complete it. On Friday my sister also moved out after visiting with us for a month. Koen also had his Christmas Sing at Nursery School which we all attended. Saturday Doug and I attended a lovely wedding here in Pittsburgh and the boys were cared for by friends for the morning and early afternoon. Sunday was church and then last night we went to a friend's graduation party. This morning I'm sitting in a waiting room at Children's as Koen was scheduled for some respiratory scopes this morning due to his croup episodes. So, anyways, not a lot of downtime since Tavin's big day to blog. It's probably better that there were a few days in between though because I was an emotional wreck that day. I cried at least 3 times. I can't believe it's been a year!

There's no better way to start out a blog post about Tavin's 1st birthday then with a little review of what December 17th, 2009 was like. I hadn't started the Melder Family Blog until February of last year, so it's OK to post about that special day since I won't be repeating myself. =) Next year, I'll just provide a link to this post.

Tavin's birthday is a fun story (painful at times, but if that weren't the case, they wouldn't call it labor). At 6am on December 17th, I got up and went swimming at our gym. I love swimming as a workout and particularly enjoyed it when pregnant. While swimming that morning my water broke (yeah, I know, pretty gross)! I left relatively quickly after that fearing that contractions would be coming shortly (Koen came very, very quickly, so I was afraid this first sign of labor might be just minutes or a few hours before baby would arrive).

Doug and I were very laid back about the whole thing as we waited for contractions to start. It's nice having gone through it before. It's also nice that we live a few blocks from the hospital! I called my sister and my mom. Abbie was on call for helping us out with Koen depending on when we would have to go to the hospital. Dad got online and bought Mom a ticket to fly in that evening.

Since contractions hadn't started yet, we decided to pursue our day as normal. Well, Doug had called off work obviously since we would have to probably go in at some point, but otherwise we had things to do! The biggest thing was that I actually had a court hearing to try and get out of points on my license for a frustrating ticket I had gotten for "running a red light" that November. We decided that it was worth it to go to the hearing and see if the judge would have mercy on me, especially in my condition! The hearing was at 10am and I didn't get in there until a little after that. The judge asked me why I was there and I said because I hadn't run the red light intentionally (which was true, the yellow was way faster than I anticipated!) and that I was hpoing to get out of the points and the fee if possible. She said that she could drop the points, but I would still have to pay the fine. Then she asked when I was due (it was pretty obvious that I was great with child - here's a few pics from a few weeks before Tavin was born).

I told the judge that I was due January 3rd, but that my water had broken that morning so I was pretty sure the baby would be here in a few hours. With that she quickly changed her decision and said she would give us an early Christmas gift on account of coming out for the hearing amidst my condition and she dropped the points and the fine! That made our excursion completely worth it.

Then we headed to our playgroup Christmas party hosted by my friend, Amie. I knew Koen was looking forward to it and I figured it was a good way to stay preoccupied and wait for the contractions some more. I was glad we went, but we only stayed a half hour because I was starting to feel weird. I don't know if it was the amount of liquid I had lost or my mind starting to get the better of me and freak me out about what was to come in the very near future (i.e. pain). So, Doug came and picked us up. He made me lunch and then I took a nap (well, mostly just laid there thinking about the impending future).

I had a routine pregnancy appointment scheduled for that day anyways. The doctor I saw was really chill even though my water had broken about 8 hours ago already and she just said to come to the hospital at dinnertime if contractions still hadn't started.

I went home and took a long walk with Abbie who had come to be available to be with Koen. Then I packed up things for the hospital and had dinner. Koen got up from his nap and had dinner and then we all played and then laid him down for bed. See, Doug and I took "dinnertime" kind of loosely. At that point we usually ate dinner after Koen went to bed. Unforutnately, the doctor that was waiting for us at the hospital thought of dinnertime as more like 5pm. Around 6 or so he had called Doug's phone and left a message. Doug didn't even get the voicemail until 7:30pm, so we were in trouble! Our friends, "Uncle Sean" and "Aunt Jen" came over to be with Koen while Ab went to the airport to get Mom. We then walked over to the hospital shortly after that and got all checked in around 8pm. We got a scolding from the doctor, but Doug and I were able to bring him around and settle him down. =) With no contractions, they started pitocin. This made me super nervous because I had heard of the intensity this drug causes in labor. And I prefer to do labor without painkilling drugs, so I knew I was in for it.

As I mentioned, Koen came very quickly (labored at home for 4 hours, got to hospital at 10cm, pushed for an hour and a half and he was here!), so I figured the pitocin would kick in quickly and baby would come quickly. I was right. My body really responds to contractions and it was only an hour after I had gotten the pitocin that I was ready to push. 17 minutes later Baby Boy Melder was born (11:17pm)! (I'm cutting out the lists of words to describe the excruciating pain and I was correct that pitocin really bumps up the intensity, let's just say I thought I was going to die).

We were elated with another boy (although surprised since I figured we would be that couple with 2 kids a boy and a girl). We hadn't quite decided on a boy name yet though so Tavin remained, "Baby Boy Melder," until the next morning when we finished our name discussion and decided enthusiastically on Tavin Dale Melder. My Dad was the first call we made to announce the name as the middle name is in honor of him.

Recounting this story again just blows my mind that a year has passed since that exciting day. Part of me wants to do it all over again. Those early days just fly by too quickly! (And part of me is excited to see what Tavin and Koen have in store for us and just wants to stick with that for awhile. Doug is much more into this option). =)

So, December 17th, 2010 was much different. We are in a great groove with the boys, believe me (and you know if you regularly read the blog), that we have our days of craziness and confusion, but in general, we have a wonderful home routine and we all love it. So, the boys get up around 8am. Tavin was smiling as usual when we came in to get him. Doug and I got him together and sang him "Happy Birthday."

I made us all pancakes as that has become a Tavin favorite (this kid eats so much!).

Then we all got packed up and ready to go to Koen's Christmas Sing (see blog post on that coming soon).

After the Sing the birthday boy took a nap amidst the banging and clanging of the construction project one floor beneath him.

At lunchtime Tavin opened his card from Gramma and Grampa and Koen and I sang to him again. I made us all pasta for lunch as that is another favorite for the little guy.

Unfortunately, after lunch Tavin had to go to his 1 year doctor's appointment. They didn't have a lot of options for appointments so close to Christmas, so I had to take this one. Tavin did great throughout the appointment with our doctor. So much more easy going than Koen used to be at these early appointments.

Sadly, he did have to get a shot though. It always breaks my heart to have them get shots and see this pain inflicted on them, but to do it on his birthday! I felt terrible!

Afterwards, Tavin and I went on a Target date. We rarely go out just the 2 of us, so it was fun just having my littlest pal with me as we shopped at one of my favorite stores (what can I say, I love cleaning products, home stuff, groceries and clothing deals...it's the little things in life). We got back kind of late for his afternoon nap, so he wasn't thrilled about that, but thankfully he went right to sleep and took a nap which I had to wake him up from at 5:40pm!

That night he and Koen had dinner and then it was "Tavin's Birthday Party" as Koen called it all day. Koen had been anticipating this all day because he knew we were giving Tavin chocolate ice cream for the first time. Aunt Abbie joined us for this simple affair. We sang to Tavin again and fed him his ice cream which he loved as you can see here...

After the ice cream treat we took Tavin upstairs to open presents. He wasn't really into it, but Koen was. Koen is really into the present thing in general right now since Christmas is just a week away, so we wrapped up a "party favor" for him (a set of Matchbox cars).

Tavin got a fun book from his godparents, Uncle Nate and Aunt Megan (they always get books, it's the best!). He got a gag gift from my friend who is a pediatrician and who's heard a lot about the boys' eczema. She got him intense cream. Aunt Abbie got "Tavington Bear" a fuzzy sweatshirt with a bear hood...perfect! And Doug and I gave Tavin his first pair of walking shoes. That was what we got Koen for his first birthday too, so I guess now we've made it a family tradition. The boys took a bath and then we got them to bed. Tavin gave the sweetest hugs to me after bath. It just made me fall apart. He has been such a joy this year. There were a few bumps along the way, but he has been such an easy baby, a little love who gives me so many snuggles, smiles and laughs. I am so blessed by his little life already and I do wait in anticipation to see what the next stage brings. Tavin Dale, I love you! (Now, I have to go before I cry again).