A Whole Handful

Guess what's happening in my house today.....

Does that photo give it away? Yup, my baby turned five today. Wow! When "they" tell you that times flies, listen because it's SO very true. All day yesterday I kept thinking about how five years ago I was in labor. It was a very long labor - my longest to that point. My labors actually got longer with each child, but I was also induced for each one & I'm pretty sure that all played a role in it.

So how long was it? Um, 22 hours - very long hours. My poor hubby was sprinting stairs at around 3am to stay awake & yes, I did feel bad for him...a little anyway. I didn't have all that bad of pain at that point. I may not have even had many drugs at that point but it wasn't long after that I asked for the inter-thecal (think mini-epidural - only numbs the important parts & you can still walk).

At 6:38 am on a very cold January 15th (even worse than today's weather), our youngest made his appearance in the world. It was not my favorite labor, delivery, or postpartum time. He was literally whisked away after I had a very quick look for "breathing issues." That started a long week in the hospital. He was in the NICU for a week. I know many others have babies that spend far more time in NICU's & I now understand - completely.

I am a type 1 diabetic & that affects the baby's blood sugar. His pancreas worked great & shot out what he needed for insulin - unlike mine. So when he was born his pancreas was used to shooting out tons of insulin. He no longer needed it. It took about 3-4 days for that to stabilize. He was also severely jaundiced so he got to sunbath - a lot. They also found a heart murmur.

I still remember the pediatric cardiologist coming in to my room, finding out I was crying because I had just found out about the heart murmur, and sort of barking at me as to "why was I crying?!?!" Umm, postpartum hormones, sleep-deprivation, let me continue....

At the time I belonged to a big Yahoo scrapbooking group & they threw me a "scrapbooking baby shower." I received all kinds of neat things in the mail including lots of pre-made pages. This is one of my favorites made by my friend Jodi (I still love it Jodi!). These are pics of J with his Daddy while he was in the NICU.

It was sort of funny to see my big baby in the NICU next to all the little preemies. He was full term & weighed a whopping 10 pounds 3 ozs. And yes, he came out the "old-fashioned" way. ;-)

Thankfully his jaundiced resolved as did his blood sugar issues & even his heart murmur. He had EKG's done for the first year & by the time we were discharged from the practice he had no more heart issues. He was very much a roly-poly little boy who was bent on keeping up with his big brothers.

This was our Christmas picture from 2004 - the year we moved back home. J is about 10 months old which makes N about 3-1/2 & B eight. Yikes....

2005

2006

And today.....

Because we have AWANA tonight we are extending the celebration. We let J open three presents first thing this morning before Daddy left for work. He got two Thomas the Tank Engine books plus a fun puzzle. It has a tow truck with a magnetic "hook" & the puzzle has different cars on it with magnets so he can "tow" them off the puzzle board.



Then at lunch time I had bought a tiny cake at the grocery store last night. I let him blow out the candles & we had that for dessert.



Tomorrow night we'll have our usual Pizza night but add in cake & ice-cream. My in-laws will join us for another celebration. To top off the plans, my brother is currently visiting from California so we're having a get together on Saturday. We'll be celebrating all the birthdays for January (and there are A LOT). J will have more cake & ice-cream & presents & fun then as well.

I'll close with the top five things I love about J....

1. His laugh
2. His dimples
3. How ticklish he is - you just have to get him laughing & then wiggle your fingers at him & he will dissolve
4. His sweet hugs
5. The fact that he still wants to sit in my lap.

Happy Birthday, J!

(Pssttt...can you stop growing now? Please?)