A Year in Review: 2010

I have read a bunch of blogs that review their year, I am going to attempt the same. I hope I can come up with at least one thing for each month.

January: Paul had his first back surgery. A microdiscectomy, they took out the bad parts of his herniated disc in hopes this would do the trick. It relived his pain, but only temporarily.

February: Finished the baby's room and got pregnant pictures taken by MarkD.

March: Patrick and Lexi's wedding. Got a few more pregnancy pictures taken by Kristia. Had my baby shower, that was a total blur of a day. Celebrated my nephew Christian's 2nd birthday. Waited for baby to come. Weekly doctor appointments. I went to my appointment on March 30th where my doctor told me I can get induced... March 31st, April 1st or April 2nd. I knew I didn't want my baby born on April Fools Day and I didn't want the doctor that would be there on the 2nd, so March 31st was the day we'd be meeting our baby boy. After 12 hours of labor and 2 hours of intense pushing, we finally met him. Jesse.

Photo By Kristia

The moment my life changed forever.

April: After an exhausting evening and Jesse spenting the night in the NICU, we were reunited again. We saw family, met with a specialist, spent time with our new baby boy. Friday.... Good Friday, we went home. It was a beautiful day. Might I mention Paul and I were engaged on Good Friday. The next few days were mostly sleeping and visitors. Sunday was Easter and we spent it at home, with our new little family. A few weeks later we met with the cleft team and his pediatrician.

Easter Sunday

May: 2 Trips to the Zoo. Jesse slept most of the time. Then back to work! It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. At the end of the month some friends invited us on a camping/canoe trip. My in-laws took Jesse overnight and Paul and I got a much needed break.

June: Jesse's surgery. One of the hardest days of my life. The whole week was pretty rough.

In the waiting room.

In his surgical gown.

Post-Op recovery room

Home - later that day

July: Recovery. 4th of July, went to my in-laws to see the local fire works. Our dear friends lost their 5 week old little girl. For our birthdays and anniversary, we went to the Lake and Jesse had his first boat ride.

8 days post-op

First boat ride

August: Jesse started eating cereal and pureed foods! Celebrated Daves birthday and took Jesse swimming.

First cereal feeding

September: Jesse had his Christening on September 19th. Went to Aunt Cathy & Uncle Mikes BBQ on the 26th.

October: Took Jesse to his first Sox Game on October 1st. I volunteered at the FCHN soup kitchen with my coworkers on the 7th. Paul had his double spine fusion on the 14th. It was a rough 4 day hospital stay. Jesse spent most of his time with my family. Paul was released from the hospital that Sunday and began his home recovery. Jesse impressed everyone when we visited the cleft team. Then our first Halloween! Jesse and I went trick-or-treating with Cheryl and her family.

Sox Game

After Surgery

Jesse's costume. His hat was made by Knotty & Nice Creations.

November: I did another volunteer day at FCHN. Dad had back surgery. Our first Thanksgiving! We went to my Aunt Carries. So much fun, Jesse had some turkey and corn casserole.

Jesse with my sister Kelly on Thanksgiving

December: Celebrated another Thanksgiving with Paul's family. I worked my largest event for work, about 600 people came to the Commercial Real Estate Fellowship Breakfast and it was a huge success! Santa came over for some pictures and Jesse started crawling on the 23rd. Then of course, Jesse's first Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day we popped in at my Uncle John's then went to Paul's parents for the rest of the evening. Jesse scored lots of toys and clothes. I still have not uploaded the Christmas pictures to my computer. Maybe I will get to that this week.

What was left of Jesse's dinner