Yesterday my little boy turned 1 years old. It was such a bittersweet moment because he is my last baby, and now he is a full fledged toddler. To be fair he was pretty toddler-like at 10 months old when he discovered walking, running and since then climbing stairs etc.

This touching video made me cry and sums up so much (on facebook): WATCH HERE

Two years ago when my little girl turned 1 (she will be 3 this year) I still wasn’t sure if I wanted two little ones. I grew up with a sister though, and we are the best of friends, so I (clearly) decided that I could tackle a second pregnancy and give her a sibling.

When I say tackle, I really mean dig in and survive. I do not do pregnancy well; in fact, I would most likely be dead if it wasn’t for the magic of modern medicine. Both pregnancies saw me get sick in awful ways (not your classic morning sickness at all, we are talking blinding migraines, severe vertigo, high blood pressure) as well as getting pre-eclampsia both times.

My daughter’s birth was nothing short of traumatic; eventually resulting in an emergency c-section. I suffered PTSD after, waking up with terrors and flashbacks. I do still deal with the effects of Dysautonomia of the Autonomic Nervous system called POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) that my first pregnancy exasperated.

I believe I have always had POTS; however, it got ramped up 100x after my little girl (a traumatic event is one of the leading causes of exasperating nervous system dysfunction). It was so bad during my second pregnancy I had to go off work months before my due date because I often wound up on the ground of my office floor not being able to stand.

Fast forward to my little boy’s birth (a relaxed c-section with no trauma) and that opened up a new can of worms. I had the quite rare affliction of Lactation anaphylaxis….I actually don’t have any allergies so this was a curve ball from left field. I literally would have such a severe allergic reaction to breastfeeding that I had to go to the hospital, take steroid allergy medication, take an obscene amount of allergy pills and be given 2 epi-pens.

The doctor and I quickly agreed that if I didn’t stop breastfeeding that I ran a real risk of dying (what is it about babies and me on a death bed? I am actually a relatively healthy person). We changed to straight formula and magically all my allergy symptoms disappeared.

Now all that is left of my pregnancies is a semi-controlled case of POTS. It is no longer debilitating, but it flares up sporadically. We are working on determining the cause of it (thankfully my heart is tickity boo), which currently seems partially diet related, and 100% temperature related.

You may ask – Would I go though it all again to have my beautiful children – Yes, a resounding yes! Happy Birthday my sweet little boy – I love watching your happy little mischievous self grow up.