October 22.

October 22 is a date I had firmly ingrained in my head. "When are you due?" October 22. I probably said the date October 22 at least 5 times a day every day since we announced we were having a baby. Which has made October a very strange month for me. I had my eyes focused on the end of the month, but everything began to unfold right at the start.


My blood pressure was high. Alarmingly so. And so I was sent to the hospital to do overnight testing to see if I had preeclempsia on September 30. Sent home. Rechecked again at the Dr.'s office on Monday, October 5. I headed to the Doctors on that Monday with a shopping list in hand for what I was going to pick up at Target on my way home that afternoon. I had no idea I would show up at the Doctors and have the OB GYN tell me that she recommends I head to the hospital to have this baby.


I think I looked at her and said, "like, now?"


Yes. Now.


So....I then had to call JVD and tell him that we were heading to the hospital to have this baby.

At some point, I will want to write out the whole birth story....but so much of it was not the most pleasant of memories for me. It was, by far, the hardest thing I have ever been through. I have never felt so helpless....but I also cannot recall a time in my life when I have had so many people praying and pulling for us. And yet there is a great paradox because even though my week's stay at the hospital was not at all what I had pictured or imagined when I envisioned having a baby, at the end of day on Tuesday, October 6, I had a beautiful baby boy. He came out crying with a great set of lungs and was given a fabulous clean bill of health. He very much still is such a little guy, but he has a tenacious spirit about him that I already love.


So on this October 22, I celebrate the little boy who entered our home and our hearts.


Here is a video I took last Thursday....amazing how much he changed in just a matter of days and how much he has even changed since!