Jedi's 11th Birthday--Thankful Thursday!

So very thankful for this boy. My only boy. My wonderful boy.

He is so loved by his sisters, I had to show some of the love today:
Sweetie Pie makes this face when we say "smile!"
(please ignore the crazy morning hair)

Look at these girls just adore their brother....
(this is at 6:55am they all sprang out of bed to give him their presents)

Card from Ballerina Rosie....

Love, love, love...

Colette's beautiful cards for him.

She's been making cards for his birthday for over a week now and has a box filled with more cards for him.

Mary Hannah's card:

"You are my best friend that I could have!

I love to play with you!

I love to play miniatures with you.

I think you are the smartest boy that ever was made!

You are the coolest boy

God bless you

I hope you have the coolest birthday ever!"

His birth story:

I was 32 weeks along (8 weeks before due date)

during the night I got up to go to the bathroom around 2am.

I went back into bed and felt something coming out.

(sorry to be so graphic)

I got up and --whoosh!!

Water broke!

I woke up Tom, "Tom! I think my water broke!"

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know, but we need to call the hospital"

We called and they said we needed to come in.

When checking in, here's us, thinking they were going to fix it and let us go home.

They told me that I would not be going home without the baby out of me.

The contractions were happening,

they did a quick ultrasound, finding he was transverse (sideways in me)

Quick prayers for baby to move head down.

They decided to prep me for a C-section.

More prayers for him to move.

He moved!!

Head down!!

No C-section (yet)

They waited for me to deliver naturally, I guess it's like 90 some percent of women, when their waters break, they have the baby within 24 hours.

Not me.

Thank God

My contractions stopped.

They had me on bed rest til he was 35 weeks along,

flat on my back, no getting up, except to go potty and sit showers.

They induced me at 35 weeks,

Every day in my womb, was saving 2 days in the preemie unit.

But at this time, the risk of infection is greater than baby being a preemie.

I was in hard labor from 6 am til 4pm,

when the nurses checked me and

they looked at eachother with a "look"

I said "what?"

They said, "Jamie, you have not progressed at all"

Zero.

Nothing.

I wanted a drug free labor.

I asked, "when am I going to be in that 3rd stage of labor?"

They said, sympathetically, "Jamie, you've been in that all day"

"Give me drugs!"

They gave me something and then the doctor decided to take the baby C-section,

since nothing was happening--he was just too little.

SO, my little 5lb 11 oz baby boy was born and rushed to the preemie unit.

where he was for the next week.

28 days I was in the hospital.

Totally worth it.

So very thankful for my healthy, wonderful boy!

They say if you think these years have gone by fast, double their ages, so double 11,

22 years.

Wow.

Those next 11 years will go even faster.

Makes me so love and cherish this time right now.

Happy Birthday Jedi!!

I love you so very much!

More pictures to come, we have plans to go to Mass today, lunch at Pizza Ranch with friends for his free birthday meal, then on to the old Wal-mart abandoned parking lot, where it has become the dumping site for all the snow in our town!! Huge snow mountains to climb and play on!!