my baby blue

my little hunter lewis will be 5 on april 1st! it is seriously so stinkin' crazy how fast time has gone by! my parents always told me "wait till you grow up, time goes by so fast" and it really does when you can see time go by in your kids! to think i was in the hospital with him almost 5 years ago is just nuts!

i am SO bummbed that i don't have pics of hunter and i on my computer from when i had him in the hospital. my hubby "misplaced" the external hard drive that all of our pics are on from my old computer! ahhh! it makes me so sad!

ok, so i am writing this to celebrate his birthday....

woohoo, happy birthday hunter.

but also to write about my first weeks as a new mom. 

first off, i loved being preggo so much! i literally didn't get sick once my whole pregnancy. it was amazing. so since that was oh so amazing, i thought motherhood would be too!

i was induced on march 31st at 8 pm . four days overdue. i wasn't dilated at all, wasn't having contractions, but my fluid was low. 

this was the 4d ultrasound we got the day before he was born

i love this so much

i texted/called all my family and friends and they all met me at the hospital, i think there were at least 20 people at the hospital by 10pm, i remember my brothers bringing their friends from their b-ball team, haha, all my sweet friends were there, my family, it was really a lot of fun and my labor was going really smooth, especially after my epidural!!!! that was  the most amazing thing on earth!!!!!! i can not put enough exclamation points after that!

ok, so i have this adorable little babe within 8 hours from the time we checked in the hospital,

he was born at 4 am on the dot 

april 1, 2008

6 pounds 14 ounces 

21 1/2 inches long

 i think everything is going to be even more amazing from here on out....

well, my epidural eventually wore off and i could feel some major pain.  i cant take pills but tried to choke down a pain pill in yogurt ,jello, crushed up , then in pudding but kept gagging, for some reason they didn't have liquid tylenol, so the pain continued, i hadn't slept since the night before because i had visitors the whole time i was in labor, i'm nursing this babe (which was one of the hardest things i have ever done in my life, which will be a post for another day), and  the thought of circumcision for  hunter made me cry....all day long!!! 

so here i am, boobs sore, baby making parts sore, crying, trying to nurse him, in between having a ton of visitors and crying, fun times!

have you ever heard the phrase "cry me a river"...i could of done that within the next few weeks!

i cried and cried....and cried. then would go to sleep and wake up in the middle of the night and cry....then cry, you get the point! i cried non-stop for the first two weeks of hunter's life and then would cry more because i didn't know why i was crying! i would stop then cry more because i felt like the worst mom ever for crying, haha!

a picture of a picture

this was when hunter was a week old

no one ever told me that "crying" was some what normal! i had never heard of anyone doing that before! the only person that knew i  was so emotional  was shawn. i told him not to tell anyone because i was so embarrassed! i didn't even tell my mom! i remember people would bring us dinner, i put a happy face on for them and just say i was tired, then as soon as they walked out of the door, and i mean the second they walked out, the door closed i would lock it and cry! i felt so bad for my sweet hubby! he didn't even know what to do!! i didn't know what i wanted him to do! so he would just hold me! :)

after about a week, i was at my mom's and asked her if she ever cried after she had any of us. she said "no, why hunny? do you?" and then i started balling!!!! she called a nurse friend of hers and told her about my little situation! the nurse told her to make sure i was eating protein and getting some sleep! sleep?! ahhh, what was that?! i was nursing hunter morning, noon and night, and not eating because i didn't have the energy {the plus side to that is i lost all my baby weight the first two weeks} my mom then came and spent the night with us and got up with hunter and would make me plates of food and make me eat them! she and shawn were my lifesavers. shawn was up every single night with hunter and i at least for the first month to help me {and to hand me tissues}

thankfully the  "baby blues" only lasted 2 weeks! it was the longest two weeks of my life! but you know how crazy a mama can be, i would love to go back to when he was a tiny babe and hold him in my arms again. i guess maybe i'd pick when he was a month old or older! 

{wink}

this probably isn't the happy birthday post you were thinking it would be for hunter! but that was my reality the first two weeks of his life! thank God everything has been smooth sailing after that!

 he is the sweetest, funniest, craziest little boy ever.

 love my baby boy so much!

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY HUNTER LEWIS HERSHBERGER!

my favorite night of the week: date night

i love dates with my husband!

there is nothing better than giving kisses to our sweet kids, and driving off, holding hands, smooching the night away, pulling into a restaurant and having an un-interrupted conversation over a nice meal!

have you ever seen those couples who sit at the table and don't talk?! it's so awkward. most times they are  on their phone or starring at menu cards or something! how sad!  and i hate to say it but it seems like it is always older couples and or couples with kids! and i can tell you why that's happening.....

they stopped dating years ago. maybe after they had kids....

it's so easy to make everything about the kids, the kids, the kids...then bam, your kids are adults and moved out and your sitting across the room from each other with nothing in common! maybe your kids are even still young and the one time you go out, you have an awkward silence or have nothing to talk about but the kids.

start dating.

 it will change your marriage. 

i think its kinda crazy that if i put a picture on social media, people are surprised that we go on so many dates, especially having small kids. setting aside 3-4 hours a week or sometimes every other week , is not very much time together. i wonder, why isn't everyone dating?

when i was little my parents went on dates every week! every monday night to be exact! when i got old enough, i was the baby sitter and would make hot dogs and mac n cheese every single monday night

 {i remember that like it was yesterday}

 i was probably like "come on, i have to baby sit so you can go on another stinkin' date!" haha, but i am so glad they did! it really showed us kids that date night was a priority!

there is no excuse not to date. but here are some common ones:

we have kids.

get a baby sitter.

 my kid cries when i leave them. 

i heard something i thought was a super good point from a pastor that came to our church, do you want your kids crying now because they miss you for 3 hours? or would you rather them be crying in a few years because your getting a divorce?

 BAM.

i understand not wanting to leave your kids. carter would cry sometimes when we left for dates and  i would feel so bad. i had to put those feelings a side and realize, he will be fine, we are just going away for a few hours, he's in good hands and i need to do this for our marriage. nine times out of ten he would stop crying 5 minutes later:) 

we have a small babe.

when each of our kids were little babes,  we still made dating a priority. i pretty much nursed the kids on demand too, but that's not an excuse. we would go somewhere 5 minutes away, so if i was needed we could be there!

we don't have the money.

um, when you were dating before you were married, did you ever just go get 

a pizza and go to the dollar theater? do the same! it might make it fun to reminisce too!

it doesn't take a lot of money to go on a date! 

and if you can't afford a babysitter, see if you can switch baby sitting for another couple!

your too busy...

you will make time for things you value, 

so if you don't have time for your spouse , you need to rearrange your priorities!

this is just a little bit of encouragement to start/keep dating! 

we hadn't been on a date in 2 weeks (which is a long time for us) so we asked my parents to watch the kids while we went to get coffee, a donut and looked at Christmas lights for an hour!

this is a double date we went on to a really cool place in 

akron called "dante boccuzzi"

casual date night

our most recent date night 

p.s. when you are on your dates, 

don't get on your cell phone unless its your babysitter calling, make that a rule! so if you don't have kids, don't get on your phone!