CloverandFig: Happy 1st Birthday Clover!

I can't believe my baby is one!! This has been the fastest year of our lives. Last January 14th (Clover's due date) I went to bed feeling suspicious that tonight just might be the night. Even Charlie was acting a little strange. At 2am I woke up with my first contraction and immediately couldn't walk, talk, or sleep through them, which is what my Midwife told me would be the sign that I was in real labor. Michael packed up the rest of our bags and loaded the car while I took a bath and we were out the door by 4am. It became clear during the drive in that I would definitely be needing an epidural. From the beginning, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart lasting 1 minute each. We got checked in and the midwife told me I was already 5cm dilated. I got my epidural at 6am. By 10am I was 9cm dilated and they decided to break my water. It took 4 more hours to get to 10cm and then it was time too push. I pushed for an hour and out came Clover Ann at 3:17pm! 13 hours of labor, 1 hour of pushing, and the beginning of the best year of my life.

Clover's birthday was a special day. I was a mess the entire week leading up to it and once it arrived I didn't want it to end. We were happy to have our closest family and friends here to celebrate and had a great time.

Our good friends Jack and Terri Adishian sent this box to Clover, complete with Birthday balloons and a new Summer outfit! She played in the box for two days, played with the balloons for 2 weeks, and is looking forward to wearing the outfit in a few months! Thanks again...we love you!

The garage refrigerator all set with party food.

Ellie and Kaj aren't wasting any time on the Pirates Booty :)

My beautiful cupcakes! I've never made anything like this before and I'm really proud of how they turned out.

Fairy cupcakes up close.

Name that baby game. Michael's sister Heather won!

Clover's favorite snacks....cranberries, cheerios and blueberries. I put Michael in charge of counting. Our friend Greg won this game.

The happy birthday girl with one of her favorite gifts.....Mommy and Me swim lessons with our neighbor Sydney and her Mommy Christy!

It was a full house!

Clover opening all of her birthday gifts.

Clover eating her smash cake! I made a giant cupcake that matched all the little ones. She loved it! I put so much frosting on the top though that it took her awhile to get through it all to the actual cake. By that time she was full, so she ended up with a belly full of cream cheese frosting and ran around the house like a wild monkey for the next two hours.

When Clover was around 3 months old I had the idea to start organizing pictures for a slide show documenting her first year. I gave them all to Grandpa and he worked his magic! We played this slide show during her party. *Warning* you way want to grab a tissue :) Enjoy!