40th Birthday

Gabe was actually due two days after my birthday, but I always get induced a week early, so I had him 5 days before I turned 40.  40 was always my cutoff for having babies, so it was really important to me that I had him before my birthday, so I could say that I was still 39 when I had him.  That was my focus my whole pregnancy, having him before my birthday.  But then I had him, and 3 days after coming home from the hospital, it was my birthday.  I had never even considered how having him before my birthday would effect me.  40 is a big deal and I've always imagined having a big party to celebrate.  But my birthday came and I was a complete mess.  Nursing wasn't going well, I was a zombie from lack of sleep, my hormones were all over the place and I would break into tears over nothing, and I couldn't wear real clothes yet.  I cried to Scott that I didn't want to have a birthday while I was such a mess.  He suggested we just do a small family celebration, and then later when I was up for it we could do a proper celebration.  We never did celebrate later, but the small family celebration turned out pretty great. 

Scott cooked a fancy dinner for me (Spanish tortilla).

Gabe was very good and let me put him down long enough to enjoy my dinner.

Scott went to the dollar store earlier in the day and got decorations for me (a cute table cloth and black balloons).

Scott also let the kids each pick out a gift at the dollar store to give to me.  Owen drew me a picture.

 Scott got me a gift card to Kohls so I could go shopping for clothes when I was ready (after losing baby weight).

 Savannah decorated the cake.

 

 

All of my babies are allergic to milk, so we just assumed Gabe was too.  Since I was still nursing, I couldn't have any dairy.  Scott found a recipe for a dairy free cake and made it for me.  It was delicious!

So my 40th birthday came and went without much attention or hype.  Maybe it was better that way.  My best gift was my new baby (even if he had made a mess of me).