Ezra is One Year Old Today!

Our little miracle baby is 1 year old! I remember a year ago today getting the phone call telling me to get to the hospital downtown because Ezra would be born by c-section within the hour and 5 weeks early. The ultrasound that morning had showed that his intestines had swelled to an alarming degree and the doctor decided it would be better to take him 5 weeks early rather than risk his intestines becoming damaged in the toxic amniotic fluid.

Blaine and I met at the hospital and waited while our little baby was being born. It was nerve wracking and exciting at the same time. Finally the nurse came out and told us that he was born, he looked good, his intestines looked healthy, and that he was 3 pounds 13 ounces! I thought that was so tiny but the NICU nurse reassured us by saying, "That's a big baby for us." After getting to be with him briefly, he was then taken into surgery where his intestines were successfully enclosed within his abdominal cavity.

Here he is post-surgery and totally drugged up. He remained that way for about 24 hours.

And then began our long five week hospital stay. Looking back, five weeks really doesn't seem that long. But, the daily ups and downs of those weeks, the long drive to and from Denver everyday, and the strain on being away from Bella so much made five weeks feel like an eternity. We thought we hit the jackpot the day we got to take him home.



Oh, you've come a LONG way, sweet baby boy. I look at the pictures of his birth and wonder, "Who is that sickly child?" Today he is a happy, little explorer who, aside from being small, shows no resemblance to that baby that we worried about so much in the beginning. He is on track in every way developmentally (once again, except for weight). He has had an explosion of teeth these past few weeks...he went from one snaggle tooth to currently working on his sixth tooth! He crawls, pulls himself up on everything, walks with a walker, and gets his point across with a language of his very own.

He has become so snuggley, it just melts my heart. Before and after naps, he snuggles up to me and as I have had the custom of patting or rubbing his back during those moments, he has started to reciprocate by patting or rubbing my back. He has the best little sense of humor and is constantly laughing and smiling. He is pure sunshine and I can't for the life of me imagine life without him. My heart swells with love for this little guy and I will forever be grateful to his birthparents and to a loving Heavenly Father who gave him to me to be my son.

I love you, little buddy!