One year ago...

Yesterday was Payton's first birthday... our little girl is officially a year old. Payton Marie Hall was born at 10:52am on February 27, 2010. She weighed 8Ibs 4oz and was 21.5 inches long.

3 weeks before Payton was born... that's a lot of baby in there!

I wasn't due for a couple more weeks, and since everyone told me that your first baby almost always goes overdue, Kyle and I were sure we still had a couple weeks and decided it was a good idea to visit family in Albany for the weekend. He convinced me by telling me that it would be one of the last times he could hang out with his brothers like the old times, without any responsibilites. He was very, very right :) I was laying in bed reading a book late at night (about childhood vaccinations, which I never got to finish unfortunately) when I felt like I was leaking. I went to the bathroom and confirmed it, so I woke Kyle up. We called my doctors office and they told me to give maternity a call and tell them that I would be coming in later that morning. She told me to go home, get a full nights sleep, take a shower, then come into the hospital to get checked out. We waited for Kyle's mom to get her bag packed so she could come with us, then took off. I had started to have some cramps, nothing too bad though. We got in the car, and when Kyle turned the corner to get out of the neighborhood my water GUSHED; and the real pain began. Kyle said that he's never driven so fast on I-5, we went 80-100 mph the whole way there. I couldn't even talk I was hurting so bad, by the time we got to Portland my contractions were 2 minutes apart lasting over a minute... needless to say, we didn't have time to swing by our house and pick up our bags, instead we headed straight to the hospital. I had to be admitted through the ER because it was about 4am on a Saturday, but they took one look at me, threw me in a wheelchair and took me straight to maternity. I got dressed in a hospital gown, and a nurse came in to check me; I was at 9cm! So about two hours after my water broke (and without any anesthetic), it was time to push. And push. And push, and push, and push. The only good thing about pushing for so long was that my mom got there in time, I was really relieved to see her. After about 3.5 hours of pushing and getting absolutely nowhere, the midwife who was attending me (it was a Saturday so I just got whoever was on call) called in a doctor to assess me. He gave me the option of manually turning the baby with forceps and then pushing for ANOTHER couple hours (and it only worked about half the time), or a c-section. I wasn't comfortable with my baby spending so long trying to get out, and Kyle and I had talked about it before and we really wanted to avoid the forceps and vaccuum, so we opted for a cesarean. They had just started another one, and since they weren't fully staffed because it was the weekend, I had to wait my turn (again, still without anesthetic!) to get into the OR. Finally, about 6 hours after arriving at the hospital, I was wheeled into the OR to have my baby. I didn't even feel the spinal shot, but I did feel the immediate relief from the pain that it provided. It was AWESOME. The whole morning had gone by in a blur, but it was like time stopped when my baby was born... it had been an extremely stressful morning, but when we heard our daughter cry, it was all worth it. At 10:52am, she was finally here!

Sweet little angel...

We pretty much just stared at her for the next 3 days we were in the hospital. She was perfect, and we loved sharing her with family and friends. We were discharged on March 2nd, and made the trek back to our house in Beaverton, back to the real world to start our lives as a family of three!

One year later, and our baby is growing up. She is definitely showing her personality! She loves music and loves to dance. She is getting more and more excited about reading books, and has started to point to different things while I'm reading. She is constantly on the move, crawling and climbing. She definitely doesn't sit still! Her favorite toys are anything that make noise, and she really likes touching mom and dad's toys (also known as our cell phones and computers). She loves to eat, and wants whatever you're eating (and she will yell at you until you give it to her!) She loves splashing in her bath, but she gets tired of it pretty quickly and is ready to move on to the next exciting activity. She's so much fun, and she even said her first word yesterday; she told her Aunt Chelsea "bye bye"! :)

This last year has made me and Kyle grow up a lot; I thought we were pretty responsible, we were homeowners, had college degrees, but nothing quite prepares you for parenthood. It has really been a journey, and we look forward to the many years we have in front of us as a family. We are very, very blessed :)

We had Payton's party yesterday here in Albany, which was a success. Kyle and I were probably more exhausted than the birthday girl, it's a lot of work to throw a party!

Kyle's cousin Sarah and her friend made these adorable cupcakes for Payton; they were delicious!

The birthday girl!

Payton and I with Mindy and Payton's second cousin, Melina. Her birthday is next month!

The Hall family

Opening presents! Payton got lots of great stuff!

I got a message this weekend that Payton's glasses were ready for pick-up, so after I got off work today we headed over to Corvallis to get them. It was funny, when the optician first put them on her face, she just sat there and looked around... made me wonder if she was seeing things a lot clearer and just taking it all in. She's tried to take them off a couple times, but we've been pleasantly surprised that for the most part, she kept them on without a problem. Hopefully once she realizes how much better she can see with them she will love them, I think it just bothers her to have something on her face. They look VERY cute on her!









I will definitely let you know how it is going! I have a feeling it is going to be an ongoing process :)

Happy birthday to my cute, sweet, funny little girl!