Three Months {Bellingham Baby Photographer}

You know you have a large family when...

...your children feel sorry for families with only six or seven children.
...people ask if you're competing with the Duggars.
...even your friends aren't sure how many children you have.
...your family no longer fits in a 15 passenger van.
..complete strangers feel welcome to comment on your fertility and contraceptive methods.
...two of your daughters go for a walk...and get asked by a neighbor if they're foster kids.
...you have to carry three health insurance cards in your wallet- because that's how many it takes to fit everyone's name.
...you take the wrong child to the dentist...simply because your handwriting on the calendar was messy and both started with a "j".
...grocery shopping for 30 children and 12 adults for a two day camp constitutes a "small" shopping trip for you.
You find yourself relating some small incident to your husband and starting with the words, "Well, I only boiled twenty-six eggs for breakfast..."
...you buy a 40 pound box of bananas intending to make banana bread and freeze a bunch for smoothies...but your children eat them all first.
...you find an afternoon root canal relaxing.
...it takes you twenty-three minutes on the phone to schedule your children's dental appointments.
...you've given up on using your toaster entirely and make all of your toast under the broiler in you oven.
...you are seriously tempted by the stacking cribs you see at Goodwill for $19.99.
...you find yourself thinking, "Wow, the house is so quiet and peaceful with only nine children".
...you have enough children to constitute not one, but TWO large families.
...you have a laundry basket devoted entirely to lonely socks seeking their mate.
...when you got to buy your children those cool "spin toothbrushes" because you think they get their teeth so much cleaner...but the store doesn't carry enough styles/colors for your children to each have a different toothbrush.
...when you can't take all of your children to the doctor's office at the same time because the waiting room has only 10 seats.
...when you still have seven children that are required by law to sit in a carseat or booster seat.
...you call the doctor to get your children tetnus shots, and they tell you they don't have enough in the office and need to order more from the health department.
...you take up more than one entire pew in church.
...you take only half of your children to the library, and STILL get asked if they're all yours.
...you go to fill your children's flouride prescription at the phamacy and you clean them out of every pill they have...and it's still not enough.
...you spend sixty dollars on socks...and not everyone gets new socks.
...you go shopping at Costco and the cashier asks if you're having a soccer barbecue.

September 26, 2010

It's true. My beautiful Apollo is three months old today.

Three months since the worst moment of my life. The moment I saw his umbilical cord hanging out as I sat alone in my bathroom in the middle of the night.

Three months since the long minutes ticked by...waiting for the ambulance...waiting, for them to load us in...waiting on the drive...the OB checking to see if he still had a heartbeat...waiting and staying calm...knowing that keeping my cool and a c-section were his only hope...waiting and praying...

Three months since the moment I awoke from surgery to discover not only was he healthy and fine, but he bore no effects from his dramatic delivery. They suctioned fluid from his tummy and he had to stay in the nursery due to "crackly lungs" but after that was given a clean bill of health.

Three months since putting my baby's life in God's hands...to Him giving him right back to me. I'm old enough to know life doesn't always have a "happy ending" and I treasure every moment with him.

Sorry to wax so poetic here, but every milestone for my baby is a reminder of that night.

On a lighter note, he's developing perfectly. He is now 13 pounds 2 ounces. His smiles are generous and he's just begun laughing out loud this week. He has gorgeous smooth baby skin. He has napped for 2 hours three times this week! That's big news in our house. I am beginning to hope he is growing into sleeping like a regular baby. He will coo and talk up a storm to anyone willing to interact with him. He is just beginning to put toys in his mouth and spends much of the day with his hands clenched together chewing on them. He drools like a St. Bernard.