One Year... (+One Day)

(ok so as typical lately, I started something that has taken longer than normal to finish... Yesterday marked one year, but bear with me)


Mr. Benjamin:

A little over a year ago, as I was running low on hope and nearing an EDD for a precious angel baby, I posted about numbers...

and now there's a new tally:

170 OPKs since Nov 2011
250+ tampons and counting since May 2011 (first official cycle off BCP)
17 35+ HPTs since September 2011
2 7 U/S
1 saline sono.
1 lots of* Positive HPT *Lost count after the first week of taking them...
12 Pregnancies
1 miscarriage
...

Our new tally is one sweet, precious baby boy

And exactly one year ago [plus one day!] I found out I was pregant with you! I fell to my knees, tears flowing and blurring the two pink lines I could't stop staring at... my hands shook as I took picture after out-of-focus picture on my phone and Canon - as if documeting it would make it more real, a souvenir for when/if I woke up from this dream..

I peed on sticks far more than any one should (I should have bought stock in Wondfo!)

A former EDD that loomed like a lurking shadow for months, passed without much fanfare - at 6 weeks pregnant, I had you, my little snow pea, nestled in.
We saw you for the first time, your little blueberry heart beating away...
By the next time we checked in on you, you started to resemble a gummy bear - with waving arms and legs! We were ready to tell our families: two sets of excited grandparents and countless aunts, uncles and cousins...

We got to experience something for the first time - we were able to begin reassuring ourselves (daily, sometimes twice daily!) that your heart was steadily thrumming away on our can't-live-without-it Doppler..(and we celebrated when we passed out of the "your baby is the size if a prune!" stage... prunes - yuck!
And then we really saw you for the first time

Your little button nose made its first appearance, and we fell in love all over again...

Your daddy and I had an INCREDIBLE last pre-baby Valentine's Day (get your nasty minds out of the gutters, readers!) lol
We found out just exactly WHO belonged to that button nose - you were our baby BOY!

And then it started - the nursery prep (although very slow - a PGAL brain is hard to overcome...) 

And the buying of baby things, and the next time we got to see you, when you passed your Antomy Scan with flying colors! (And we triple confirmed that yes, those WERE boy parts, and we finally were able to add some blue to the baby shopping cart!)

We marked a day that was one year since we said a goodbye, a Mother's Day so much different than the one before...


And then we were cruising...

Baby showers!

The collecting of little boy clothes - oh the CUTENESS! 

And the completion (along with the OHMYGOD IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?! feeling) of your nursery, one of my favorite rooms in the house..

And one year after you first REALLY entered our lives, here we are, having gotten you baptized on Sunday!

My baby boy, Benjamin - what a year since we first "met"...

"You had me at PREGNANT!"