two lil fillibens: Ford Holden Filliben

If you would have asked me during a majority of my pregnancy, I would have sworn to you that I was going to be a week or two early. But then I hit 37 weeks, and then 38...and I felt like I was going to be pregnant for-ev-er. And I gave up on being early. I had plans to do a blog post showing my packed bags and quoting Tom Petty, "the waiting is the hardest part," and I was proud at how Americana it all was. We had plans to figure out how the car seat fits in the car. We had plans to do yardwork. And then, on St. Patrick's Day, before any of those things got done, my water broke.

My water broke, actually, about ten minutes after I told Lil Fil that if he came in the next three days, he could have all of my March Madness pool winnings for the year. But joke's on you, you greedy baby boy, because I didn't have any pool winnings this year.

We headed to the hospital around 11pm on St. Patrick's Day, and little Ford was born at around 9 the next morning. Here is an illustrative flow chart Jamie made of my labor and delivery:

During my uncomplicated and relatively easy (key word relatively) pregnancy, I was convinced my labor and delivery would be a horrible experience, just to even things out. But it was a breeze - short, easy, and almost no pain whatsoever. Then, I was convinced that Ford would be a colicky or difficult baby because everything else had gone so smoothly the past nine months or so...but he is an absolute doll so far. I don't have any other baby experience, but I'd imagine he's a really good one. We've had a blast being parents the past couple of weeks. I thought I'd get bored, especially early on when he doesn't do much, but don't know where the past two weeks have gone; all he does is eat, sleep, poop, and make monster sounds, and somehow that has sufficiently fascinated me all day every day.

Today marks Ford's 17th day on Earth, as well as my two-year wedding anniversary with Jamie (now more commonly referred to as "dad"). So, although they hear that I love them every day, this blog post (which very well might be my last) is for the two main men in my life. I love you both more than you know. Thank you for both being as amazing as you are. And thank you, Ford, for being here with us today so that I can have champagne on my anniversary :)

On to the pictures! Ford's first two weeks, narrowed down from over 2,000 pictures to 25 (and as always, you can click on any of them to enlarge):