We Made It!

Six and a half years ago, I brought my youngest bundle of joy home. He was my biggest baby - 22-1/4 inches!...and even though he was so long, he found a way to flip himself around between weekly doctor's visits. The day of his birth, my doctor and a partner, tried to turn him by external version. My big strong man, who has never quivered at the site of blood was on his knees in the corner as white as a sheet. I cannot even tell you how painful it was. It was worse than any labor I'd ever experienced.

The decision to quit trying was made by my inability to endure, along with the doctors concluding that they weren't making any progress. Hayden's little rump was indeed stuck in my pelvis and wasn't going anywhere. This was a real situation of biblical proportions where if it were not for the conveniences of modern-day medicine, I would have died in childbirth - and probably Hayden too.

After the c-section, Bill brought the little guy up to my head for me to see. I was feeling quite traumatized. I remember thinking, "That's nice." My body shook with the cold shakes of shock. I itched from the pain medication, but my arms were strapped down, so I couldn't do a thing about it.

My recovery was really hard - partly because I was depressed, partly because I felt defeated, partly because a few things didn't go so well. The pushing on my abdominals to try to turn Hayden, didn't help the c-section recovery. I was stapled shut, and the staples didn't come out quite soon enough, resulting in an infection that went all the way into my tubes before my doctor got back from vacation to correct the antibiotic that was given to me - since the original one was harmful to nursing babies.

Hayden was severely jaundiced, but the small hospital only had one bili light, and there was another baby that was worse. We went home, but had to make the daily drive to the hospital (45 minutes away) to have his levels checked while they looked for a light somewhere in the state that we could use for him!! Eventually home health care services kicked in. Baby boy sat under a bili light for two weeks. I could only take him out to feed and change him.

Ian was 19 months old...still a baby. I could pick him up. He couldn't climb on my lap. He didn't understand.

I will share more of my story concerning depression soon. I've been gearing myself up for it. But the point I want to make today is that there were 1,000 days I didn't think I'd make it through those stages of life.

I brought Hayden home to a 860 square foot house. I had three other kids depending on me. My church was an hour away. I had two in diapers. I could go on.

I really thought I might lose it. I really thought some days that I wouldn't survive.

BUT, today, my baby graduated from kindergarten.

There will be no more 1/2 day kindergarten schedules. We are long done with diapers (eight straight years of 1-2 kids at a time). Our kids generally never bother us in the middle of the night. In six months, we will be done with car seats.

We made it!

We aren't done parenting, by any means. But we are done with the preschool years, and we survived. We do have a few gray hairs. But we have made it to the other side and lived to tell about it.

AND YOU WILL TOO!

Praying or you today!