{Happy Birthday, Isaac!}

This is a long post...Isaac's birth story and all...Happy Birthday to my little guy!

Isaac in the hospital nursery

Me and my precious little guy

Daddy and Isaac--still in the nursery


Isaac and me--December 2008


David and Isaac, Father's Day 2009

Today is Isaac's 5th birthday. WOW! I can't believe he is 5 already! We are planning on just having a nice relaxing day at home, since we will be having a party at Cowabunga Bay on Saturday with family. I made him a special breakfast this morning, and now he's counting down the hours until David gets home so he can open his presents from us. He's gonna be really excited. We got him a new big-boy bike and helmet. We found a bike with mostly green on it, which is his favorite color. I can't wait to see his face!

Since I shared Eli's birth story, I thought I'd share Isaac's as well--hope you don't mind. I found out I was pregnant with Isaac on November 21st, 2003. It was and interesting day--we had been at the hospital with David that morning and found out that he had kidney stones. Big ones, that ended needing surgery to help break apart. I had been feeling kind of strange and knowing that we had been trying to get pregnant I had a feeling that I was. It was still on the early side to get an accurate test result, but when we got home I took a test anyway and saw the faintest of lines on it. I was pregnant. Yay!

The pregnancy was pretty great. Other than a little nausea and fatigue I felt great the entire time. I worked up until the day before Isaac was born, and even went golfing the week of my due date...go me! Well, my due date came and went, and no progress had been made and no signs of labor. My doctor was seeing me every two days after my due date. A week past my due date it was determined that Isaac was simply too big and wasn't going to be coming out on his own. I went in to the doctor expecting him to say that I could finally be induced, only to be told that I would need a c-section. I had told my doctor that my mom had big babies--Jarrod being full term and weighing a whopping 10lbs 3oz. I was concerned from the beginning that I would end up having big babies, too. He didn't think it would be an issue. Well, a week overdue and it became an issue. Dr. Barton asked David and me at that appointment if we wanted to have Isaac that day, or the next. Yikes! Holy cow--it became real so fast! We decided to wait until the next day. I was a nervous wreck that night. I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight--which was horrible. We had to check in at Cottonwood Hospital at 10:30am and we were put in a labor and delivery room where I was monitored until the operating room was available. A couple emergency c-sections pushed us back a bit, but around 1:00 they were putting in IV's and getting David in a funky outfit to wear to the OR. Then, they made me walk to the OR...I was so scared! Once inside they gave me a spinal that numbed my whole body from the chest down, set up the curtain, and began the c-section. It took about 5 minutes before I heard the doctors say "There he is." Then, "Holy cow, he's huge!" Then I heard a loud cry. My little baby was out and crying. Isaac's stats were 9lbs, 11oz and 21.5 inches, born 08.04.04 at 1:29 pm. He had a full, thick head of black hair and a scrunched up little face. I was in love. After being in recovery for close to an hour we were taken to our room where we had many visitors, including my brother Jarrod, who was diagnosed with Leukemia the very next day. My mom and David's mom as well as my sister-in-law, Valerie had all been waiting while we were in the operating room.

Later that night the nurses came to take Isaac to the nursery for the mandatory check-up. They did it at 8am and 8pm, every day. After a while we called the nursery because they hadn't brought Isaac back to the room. The said they'd bring him in, but didn't. Finally, I sent David to the nursery to get him. He came back without him and said that they had to keep him under observation because he was breatihng more than twice as fast as he should have been. We weren't given any other explanation. I just knew that I couldn't have my baby with me. They ran some tests and took cultures. They thought that most likely he had pneumonia or possibly menengitis. They had to put him under an oxygen tent and he had to be fed through a tube. It was horrible. Finally, the day before I was to be discharged, Isaac was doing well enough to be in our room constantly. They found out that he had swallowed some amniotic fluid and some had ended up in his lungs. His lungs eventually absorbed it so he was allowed to come home with us when I was discharged after 4 days in the hospital. It was an incredible experience, and I am so grateful for my little Isaac. I call him my best little friend.