One Year

I've been waiting a whole year to be able to write a post like this. Knowing that it would be amazing to look back over a year and see how far we have come! Never in my wildest dreams would I have pictured us where we are.

Today in the midst of potty training and waiting to hear back about jobs I think back to a year ago! boy! have things changed for us! This is the last picture of me pregnant with Landon right at 34 Weeks! My water broke on Sept 5th. (landon was not due until Oct 14th. ) I had an aweful day at church wondering if things were ok b/c I just didn't feel right, I went to the triage room in the hospital and got checked out, but they confirmed it was not amniotic fluid and sent me home. I was home literally about an hour and my water really did break! That time I knew for sure. Panic struck me! I don't have anything ready! The house is a mess! i don't have baby clothes out! In fact I don't have ANYTHING out! I'm not ready! this cannot be happening. i stood in the shower sobbing on the phone to my sister not knowing what to do. As Richard ran around the house, calling his sister to come and get Carson, trying to get a few things together for the hospital stay! This isn't supposed to happen! I'm not ready AT ALL!!!!! How is the baby?!???? Will everything be ok with the baby???!!??. So many emotions that I was feeling.

 Our stay in the hospital was long.(at least it felt long to me) Labor did not kick in right away and I was put on bed rest in the hospital with IV and antibiotics and talking with a lot of doctors. It was Labor day weekend then too so the normal doctors and U/S techs were not there. So we just waited. At that point my expectations of delivering naturally were slowly being changed assuming there was no way!
the next couple days were spent in a lot of prayer and begging God for wisdom for us and the doctors with the decisions that lay ahead. If you want to read the whole birth story go here. In short God allowed me to delivery naturally and I could not be more thankful for that!
Long story short - landon was born a healthy 6lbs and 9 oz!!!!!!!!!!!! For a six week premie that is very good.

 

This picture is not really meant to be seen by many - oh well
It is the first time I held him but only for like 30 sec before he was wisked
away - and then I had to wait more than a day to hold him again.

This is all I could do at the beginning to comfort him. I did not
even feed him for about 36 hrs

 
It was heart breaking to see him like this, but I knew it was helping him.

 Slowly things progressed and more and more "equipment" was taken off of him. It was such a joy to watch him as he got more and more independent with his breathing and his eating.
 He did experience a little Jaundice and this is mainly what kept him in the NICU for a longer period of time. (although it was only 6 days which is not very long at all compared to a lot of babies)

 I was overjoyed when i could hold him and feed him as difficult as it was b/c he had a feeding tube in his nose still. But those first few times I held him in the rocking chair in the NICU were so precious.

Marks from the tape from feeding tube

We caught him chilling out in his Jaundice "tank"
He still lays like this a lot!

 
 After 6 longs days we finally were able to come home! Not without much anxiousness and worry from me.

I stand in awe now looking back over the last year. Landon has grown to be a very healthy boy! He has caught up in all his developmental areas. He is one of the most pleasant babies I've ever seen. I am truly blessed. A year ago - we were sitting in the hospital wondering and worrying about what our new life would hold. Now today we are sitting in Fort Collins in our new apartment, in a new city, with 2 healthy boys, potty training the older one, and teaching Landon to drink milk from a cup! We don't have a "community" around us yet, but we are building one slowly in Fort Collins. I can't believe how much has changed in our lives over the past year.

Richard and I are closer than we were a year ago, b/c of what we experienced together. We grew in our knowledge of God's love for us, and the blessing of having a church body to care for us. Looking back at how God has lead us down the road we are now on - it's amazing. We are psyched to look ahead at what this next year holds for us! What changes will we experience this coming year?

And now this is our family! Landon celebrated his 1st year (although it's not until the 8th so expect one more "one year" post. hahahaha). and we are in colorado with a healthy family!