Jonah's First Birthday

Where did the year go. It seems so recent that I was sitting at work at 8:00 in the morning on May 13th wondering, "Was that a contraction?". By 9:00 I had called Kris to let him know what was going on and by 12:00 I had left work to go home. At 6:22 am on May 14th Jonah was born at 8lb 5oz and was 22in long. One of the the nurses told me to glance over to the left and I saw my boy going to get cleaned up. We were able to take one family picture before he was taken for additional assistance.

During the first 10 days of parenthood, Kris and I had to experience the hardships and stress that can be involved with parenthood. We had to let go of the situation and give this to God and the nurses at Rex Hospital. Letting go was hard. Kris and I stayed as strong as we could and held on to each other each night. I remember waking up at 3:00 am to pump and we would go and visit Jonah in the nursery. When we were home, I was the parent to call in the middle of the night to see how he was doing. God bless the nurses at Rex Hospital, special needs nursery.

One year later, Jonah is a healthy happy bouncing baby boy. Although, there is not much baby left in him. He is walking and talking (baby talk, but talking), laughing and loving. Kris and I make a great team and have grown as parents over the past year. We have been through the 3:00 am 103.4 fever, ear infections, ear tubes, wheezing, dirty diapers, bumps and bruises. We have also experienced first smiles, rolling over, crawling on the floor, first steps, laughs and all the love a family should possess. He has taken his first trips to the beach. He enjoys playing in the sand, knocking down sand castles and eating the sand. I can not wait for more trips to the beach this summer.

Jonah is a blessing to our family. My heart is full!

Jonah had a great birthday with birthday blueberry muffin breakfast on Thursday of last week. As the pictures show, he really enjoyed the dirt cake served in a dump truck. At first, he did not know what to do with the cake and kept raking the cookie part into his lap, but eventually he got the hang of it. The pictures are perfect.