All about #1

Today is Max's First Birthday!!! Exactly a year ago, after the second Sat. session of General Conf., I started to have some regular contractions. They just felt like my usual Braxton Hicks, so I sent Scott off to Preisthood session. Luke had been throwing up for the previous 24 hours, and still had a high fever, so I was kind of hoping that my contractions would fade away like all the times before. They did not! By the time Scott returned home, my contractions were every 2 minutes, and getting a little stronger. I called up the babysitter, and then we called up our Bishop to help Scott give Luke a blessing. Then we headed to the hospital at about 9pm. I felt silly, just strolling up the ER entrance like it was nothing, and I was sure the nurses were going to send me home for not being in "real" labor. Once they checked me in, I was dilated to 5cm., and my contractions were indeed 2-3 minutes apart. I was there to stay.

Scott and I walked around the halls for a half hour, smiling and laughing. The nurses finally got me back in bed to check me again, because they said I was too happy to be in real labor, and they wanted to see if I was progressing at all. Well, silly nurses, I was then dilated to 7cm. They called my doctor, but he was lazy and didn't want to come in the middle of the night to break my water, so I sat there, doing nothing. My water never breaks on its own. At 1am I decided to get the epidural, just because I chickened out of another natural labor like Luke's. Then we slept for about 6 hours, all the while sitting at 8cm and the contractions basically dying out.

Around 7:30am, family started to call because they thought something was either wrong, or we had forgotten to call and tell them that we had the baby. Neither was the case. My doctor came and broke my water and then said he'd go back to his office and wait. I told him he'd better not go far cause this isn't going to take very long. He listened, and stayed, and sure enough, about 30 minutes later I was pushing. The pushing was a hoot! We'd watch the monitor, or I'd concentrate to feel a contraction coming, and then push, push, push, stop. Then we'd all chat and giggle, waiting for the next contraction to come along. We did this 4-5 times, and then beautiful Maxwell Toolson Pingel came into this world. He was a lovely 7lbs. 2oz. and 20 inches long. Needless to say, we missed all of the Sunday sessions of conference last April. I think we had a pretty good excuse, don't you?

One year later, these are a few tidbits about our loveable, huggable Max:

Weight: approx. 21.5 lbs.
Length: approx. 29.5 inches
Hair color: dirty blond, or light brown color
Eyes: brown, brown, and more brown

Things he can do: clap everytime we say "yeah!", crawl up and sometimes down stairs, walk along furniture, reach and grab anything he can from tables, scrunch and sniff his nose, give kisses, and just be too cute.





Likes: Pulling off his pants, playing with his brothers, playing with tupperware, opening drawers and cabinets, tugging on cords and wires, banging on windows, playing with his brothers, getting tickled, fuzzy blankets, and food.

Dislikes: strangers who make faces at him, adults who he loves walking out of the room that he is in, getting dressed, changing his diaper, basically anything that requires he be still for more than 10 seconds, trying to make him walk, and waiting for food.

We love our Max, and we're so glad that he is in our family! Happy 1st Birthday!