After 2 weeks of bed rest
(due to gaining 13 pounds in 12 days of water retention)...
Being induced 11 days early to ward off pre eclampsia...
After 23 hours in labor...
Our dear sweet boy had aspirated fluid... had a low APGAR score... his lungs were suctioned.
Due to this, and the scratchiness it left in his throat, our gigantic newborn wouldn't eat.
During the middle of the night, he was placed int the NIC Unit. He looked to big compared to the other little 'peanuts' occupying warming beds. A feeding tube was inserted to give his large frame the sugar & nutrients it needed. 24 hours later, we was fine... not breast feeding, but fine. I had a little cry, my hubs called our pastor's wife, a former OB nurse, in dispaIr. She advised, "It's normal for her to cry, and the baby will eat when he's hungry." I kept thinking, Mary the mother of Jesus did this... how hard can it be?
Being the problem solver I am, once home I became a milk cow. I would pump milk for each feeding & feed my son with a bottle. I continued this labor of love for 6 months. FYI, ice cubes are about 1 ounce. I froze milk in ice cube trays. I would then plop the amount of cubes he needed for a bottle in to thaw.
A decade has now slipped by. I praise the Lord for ten health years.
When the Lord made me a mother, I embarked upon the toughest job I've ever faced. I recently asked our pastor's mother (our pastor is wrapping up 4 weeks teaching in Ethiopia) if the worry of being a mom ever dissolves. She replied, "No not really, it just becomes different. You learn to pray a lot, and trust in God."
OK pray... check
Trust in God... check, sort of ...
You see I trust... then I reel it back.
When I am trusting in God, I am able to love & enjoy my son more fully.
The Lord blessed me with His amazing creation.
He has...
a big kind heart...
gorgeous big brown "M&M" eyes..
gigantic gappy grin...
the ability to never know a stranger...
my genetic vitiligo...
huge loud feet (let me know when he's comin').
a beautiful singing voice...
Psalm 133:13-14
13..."you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful"...
He can...
tell amazing stories (future writer?)
make anyone laugh...
talk the legs off a snake...
build awesome cool forts...
shoot a BB gun or bow & hit a bulls eye...
love & shepherd his younger brother...
memorize Bible passages amazingly...
make a piano 'sing'...
sketch fantastic drawings...
share endless scientific, historical, geographical facts (human encyclopedia)...
Psalm 139: 1-5 (bits & pieces) NLT
1 O LORD, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
2 ...You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3 ... You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, LORD.
5 You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
The Lord saw it fit to create and give my son to me. In this "labor of LOVE" I need to remember (especially in the teen years)...
23 Psalm 139: 23
23Search me, O God, and know my heart! (NLT)
test me and know my anxious thoughts. (NIV)
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
This is beautiful Becca! Happy Birthday to your beautiful son! ~ Krista
ReplyDeleteBecca,
ReplyDeleteYou just made me cry... Curtis was born in Dec. 2001 - at an estimated 5-6 weeks early. He was one of those 5 pound "tiny peanuts" in the NICU for 10 long days. He really did well in those 10 days - never needed a feeding tube or respirator. Curtis, too never nursed 'from me', so I, too, was the milk cow @ home. LONGEST 10 days of my life so far. I had 2 other children at home (well, at gramma's for most of Christmas break, really), the nurses there tried to be supportive, I believe, but to a post-partum mom, there is little consolation to leaving your baby in the hospital while you drive home. We carried our car seat up to the NICU everyday hoping to take our boy home, only to carry it back down to the van empty. Christmas Day they put a little santa hat on our diaper-only clad boy who had on these silly little foam sunglasses to protect his eyes under the bili-light (jaundice). I LOST IT! Had I not been trying to nurse him daily, I think those nurses would've heavily medicated me.
Now, 10 years later, he is my blue-eyed wonder-boy. (The only one with blue eyes like me.) He doesn't miss a beat, he's sarcastic and funny & absorbs knowledge like someone might tell him at some point that "that's enough - no more, stop learning."
I cherish the friendship he has with Will. They are both fabulous, caring kids -- and to me that is so much more important than the grades they make in school. I appreciate that they seem to value each other as well -- friendships can be difficult for boys in the pecking order that can prevail at school.
Thanks for reminding me to cherish my boys when I am at the end of frustrating day of constant brother-fighting and fussing. I have to remember to check your blog/twitter more often... :)