Welcome My Sweet Baby Boy Starstrom

Today we welcomed our second son into the world at 7:51 am. He weighs 4 lbs 10 oz and is 17 1/4 inches. He is identical to his brother, when he was born. Because he was 6 week premature, his little lungs are not as developed as they need to be. He is on a CPAP right now, which is a high pressure oxygen delivery mask. He doesn't have the strength yet to eat, but he is on IV fluids. And unfortunately I can't hold him because of all the tubes and wires he has surrounding him. But he is a fighter, and I have confidence he will be just fine. He just needs a little extra help to transition to life outside my belly.

Not to be graphic, but the delivery was a dream. I suppose since he was so small, I literally pushed once and out he came. I wish I could say the same for labor. It only took ten hours, but they were oh so intense. I pretty much got through it by cussing like a sailor and verbally abusing anyone that I came in contact with. Until I got my epidural that is!! But that was only the last two hours of the ten hour ordeal. Ofcourse I would do it a million times over if I had to.

Some people may not like seeing pictures of a preemie in an incubator. But I think he deserves to have the limelight today, it is after all his birthday!!! Happy birthday baby boy, get better ASAP. You've got so many people who love you already and can't wait to meet you.

Yes, his name is pending at this time. Give me a break will ya? I thought I had six more weeks to think about this.

More Bday Party Pics From School

Here are some more pictures from Evan's birthday party at school last Friday. Meema took these, they aren't much different from the ones I already posted, but I gotta lot of time on my hands these days. So why not?

Change of Plans

Unfortunately, Evan's birthday didn't go as expected. At 32 weeks and 6 days, my water broke, so I am now in the hospital on bed rest. They want to keep me pregnant until 34 weeks if possible so the baby can get a little bigger and stronger. So that means lots of time for blogging and face booking, if I just had some pictures or fun stuff to blog about, now that would be really great!!

The hardest part, other than worrying about my unborn baby of course, is missing Evan. This is the first time I have ever been away from him overnight. He is with Meema, so he is in good hands obviously, which helps. But it is hard to hear about his day and not be a part of it. Today was his birthday party at school. I had all the stuff to make cookies for his classmates. I was even going to let Evan help me with the icing and sprinkles :( . Luckily I have an awesome friend whose son is in Evan's class, who took over the party preparations and got a cookie cake for all the kids. Evan's favorite part of the cookie cake was the icing, and since he was the birthday boy, he got seconds and third helpings of icing!!! He got to wear a birthday hat and they all sang to him. I am just so distraught I missed it. But luckily my friend and Meema took pictures to share with me.

Like my OBGYN said, this is harder on me then it is on him, but that it's basically boot camp to teach him he isn't going to be the center of attention any more for a while! But that's so hard to imagine, because he has been for so long, 2 years and 1 day! Anyway, enjoy my girlfriend's pictures along with me! It's the next best thing to seeing him. I only get to see him for a little tiny bit each day, and I can't really hold him. But enough venting and rambling. Check back for updates on my poor un-named baby no. 2. And leave name suggestions if you have them. Top name of the week is Drew Michael Starstrom. Coming in second is Luke Edward Starstrom. And Paul's all time favorite is Nathan Michael/Edward Starstrom. But I am not feeling like this baby is a Nathan. Meema's favorite is Will Starstrom, but no middle name sounds good with that. Bottom line is we need all the help we can get!

Birthday Eve

My friend Jen (the amazing baker I have referred to before) brought Evan a cupcake today for his birthday tomorrow. Of course once he laid eyes on it, he wanted it ASAP. So after dinner we sang Happy Birthday to him and let him devour it. I had to help him with the last few bites, and I can attest to the fact that it was one delicious cupcake!!! Happy Birthday Evan!!! You get to be more fun each and every day, and I can't wait for the coming year.

Martha Would Cringe if She Saw These Pops

Meema and I decided to make free form lollipops yesterday during Evan's nap. I was inspired by a blog that I had seen. They were just so colorful and pretty. I thought they would be cute to give in the goody bags at Evan's birthday party, or give to Evan's classmates at school. I didn't want to use molds, I really wanted them to be free form, to give a Willy Wonka/Candyland vibe. What I thought would be super easy, turned out to be super hard. The liquid started hardening up the second we started pouring it out. So we basically just made a mess in the kitchen and have a few sad looking pops to show for it. I will try again later this week, if I get brave enough. Otherwise, Dum-dums are looking pretty good to me at this point.

Choo Choo

Meema got Evan some trains and tracks for his train table and Evan loves them!! I had a hard time pulling him away from them yesterday for his nap, and it's the first thing he wanted to do this morning when he woke up. I took some pictures of it, although they didn't turn out that great because that room is so dark. But you can see the sparkle in his eye just as well. He LOVES his choo choo. His train table was a gift from a stranger. Any mom of a toddler boy knows that train tables can cost hundreds of dollars. Luckily I have an amazing and generous neighbor, who a few months ago decided Evan "needed" a train table, so she handed her son's table down to Evan. Apparently her son had outgrown it, and I was ever so thankful!

Let the Festivities Begin

Evan is going to have about two weeks worth of festivities for his birthday. This past weekend Meema and Grandma and Grandpa Starstrom were in town, so there were many presents to open!!! This is the first time Evan even really knew what to do with a present. He would take a small piece of paper off and say "cool", then hand the paper to me while saying "thank you". He is used to me saying thank you when he hands me something, so now when he hands anyone anything he says "thank you"!!! It was adorable. He loved his birthday teddy bear Grandma gave him, it sang a song and danced, and he danced right along with it.

School Days

Friday was "bring someone special to school" day. We had a picnic outside near the playground. Daddy was able to sneak away from work long enough to come and eat lunch with us and get some play time in at the playground, as Evan's someone scpecial. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Evan and Daddy together. Evan was so excited to have us there at school, he was running around like a wild-boy! He was most excited that Daddy came to school, and it was as if he was beaming with pride and showing him off to his teacher and friends. He kept pointing to him and saying "Daddy!" Then during our picnic as Paul was lounging on the picnic blanket, Evan literally stood on top of him and put his arms in the air and screamed "Daddy!!!!" Also pictured is Evan's best bud James, and another one of Evan's classmates whom I don't know the name of yet. But all in all, it was a super fun day.

Too Cool for School

Here is Evan getting ready to go to school today. Unlike last week, he was actually looking forward to it. I was trying to take his picture and he was trying to get out the door and into the car! He still cried for about 30 seconds when I dropped him off and clinged to me as I tried to ease out of the door. But I didn't cry! And I looked in the window 30 seconds later and he was playing with his buddy James without a second thought about missing me!!! This is big progress for my little Mama's boy!!!

Showering A Friend

Monday I cohosted a baby shower for my friend Dana who is expecting baby Drake in about 6 weeks!! I got to see some of my close friends who I don't get to see that often, so it was really nice. I just love baby showers.

Evan's First Day of School

Evan started his Parent's Morning Out Program today. He is in class with seven one (soon to be two) year olds, and two teachers. It's Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:15 to 12:15. Let me preface this by saying I have never let anyone watch him except for his grandparents and close friends. So anyway, I dropped him off and he ran towards the toy section and grabbed some trucks. I talked to the teacher for a few minutes and then went over to kiss him goodbye. I think that's when he realized I was actually leaving him. His bottom lip started to sag and he seemed like he was going to cry. We hugged as tightly as I ever think we have before, then I started to cry. I didn't want him to see me like that, so I basically pushed him away and ran out of the room without a second glance. I proceeded to cry on and off for the next hour or so as I wandered aimlessly through store after store. I kept thinking I was missing something, and I was.... Evan!!! But when I picked him up at lunch time, he didn't even come running towards me. He continued to play with the bubble machine. He looked over at me, said "bubbles", and then just kept playing. I had to go pick him up and drag him away from the place!!! So apparently the whole day was much harder on me, than on him. Thank goodness for that.