happy (belated) valentine's day

I need you now and forever

So stay right here with me

Don't ever leave

Love was kept from me like a secret

And I swore that I was through

Until you

who knew

Dear Henry,

Who knew that watching you fall asleep on my chest could make my heart physically ache with love for you?

Who knew that seeing your sweet, toothless smile would make the rest of the world (messy house, and all) fade away?

Who knew that holding your hand and kissing your little fingers would make my heart swell with thanksgiving?

Who knew that praying over you every night while you nurse would reveal so much to me about the love that our Savior has for His children?

Who knew that carrying you, giving birth to you, and learning to be your mommy would give my life new purpose?

Who knew that bringing you into our family would make your daddy and I love each other more fiercely than before?

I dreamed of you many times before I knew your face. And you know what? You are more.

You are a miracle, Sweet Boy. A most precious gift.

Just Call Him SUPER DAD!

Not that I ever had my doubts, but I have been so amazed and so thankful for the way Dameon has taken on this whole new dad thing like such a natural! Prior to Henry's birth, he really hadn't spent much time around a newborn baby and had only partially changed one diaper...

(This past summer we watched our nieces for a couple days while their parents were on vacation. While at the pool, I had to help the older one take a shower which left Dameon to figure out how to diaper and dress the two-year-old. Yep, left him high and ....well, you know. It wasn't until the next diaper change that I realized he had put her diaper on backward. When I asked him about it he said, "Yeah, she was telling me how to do it but how am I supposed to know the front from the back?")

ANYWAY...because I had a c-section and my recovery was a little more involved, Dameon really had to take the reigns in the hospital. We wanted Henry to room in with us as much as possible which meant lots of burping, lots of diaper changes, and lots of hands-on experience for this first-time daddy. I remember him having to ask the nurse to teach him how to change a diaper because I was pretty much useless at first. I think the thing that has impressed me the most is how much he doesn't shy away or get stressed out when Henry is fussy. Seriously! One of Dameon's favorite things to do is tote Henry around in his Kangaroo Korner sling. We each have one and love them!! And, of course, our sweet boy loves that closeness with his dad. Henry is so blessed to have such an amazing and doting daddy and I can't wait for them to bond over Lincoln Logs, Legos, and projects in the garage :) Henry loves his daddy and was very responsive to his voice and touch even when he was in my belly. It's so cool to sit back and watch them together. I think there's something extra special about the love between a daddy and his little boy.

And I think Dameon is surprised to realize how much he loves this "new baby" phase. Pretty sure I've heard the phrase, "by the time our 10th one comes along," escape this Super Dad's lips more than once in the past six weeks. Duggar, who?

milestones

Being a mom makes takes the whole "how quickly time flies" thing to a whole new level. Here's Baby Henry with his stuffed giraffe on his one month birthday. Notice in the top picture that he actually fell asleep in the giraffe's arms. Ahhh...so precious...

Losing My Modesty

Since I obviously have lots of catching up to do, I'm going to take you back to the Friday before Henry's birth. The short version of the back story is that after my diagnosis, the doctors knew they wanted to deliver Henry early. The goal was to wait until 37 weeks, but we needed to be sure his lungs were ready for the outside world. Therefore, they performed an amniocentisis (loads of fun, by the way) and determined his lungs were immature. The solution was to give me shots of steroids to give his lungs the boost they needed. So, I arrive at the hospital on Friday the 17th for my second round of injections. I had done this the day before, so I pretty much knew the drill. Now keep in mind that at this point I had been through about five doctor's appointments in the last week which meant pelvic exams, cervical checks, sonograms, non-stress tests...the works. Being "examined", in all of its many forms, was quickly becoming no big deal.

So the nurse tells me to go ahead and lay on my side on the table because she is going to give me the shot in a pocket right above my butt. While I positioned myself, she left to get the needle. I proceed to go ahead and drop my pants, heave myself onto the table (I'm 36 weeks, 6 days, remember?) and lay on my side so that I'm facing away from the door. I waited a few minutes, chatting with my mom (who drove me to the hospital), and somewhat dreading the painful infection. Next thing I know, I hear the nurse return and say, "Oh, honey, you're a little exposed here. You could have waited until I got back." I turn my head to see that not only was the door to my hospital room wide open, the curtain was definitely wide open as well. Nice.

The View From Here

Baby Henry sleeping in his sling...life is good!

He's Here...and he's WONDERFUL

It's hard to believe that our sweet Henry is one month old today! I am obviously soooo far behind on blogging, but I'll try to catch you up to speed little by little. As most of you know, Henry surprised us with an early arrival. At 36 weeks I was diagnosed with a rare condition called cholestasis of pregnancy. In a nutshell, this meant that my liver wasn't quite keeping up and the baby would need to be delivered at 37 weeks. After several trips to Des Moines with the expectation we would be induced, we ended up finally being admitted to the hospital on December 18. After about 12-13 hours of labor, my body just wasn't getting into gear and labor was not progressing. I was having lots of contractions but nothing was changing. We decided to have a c-section and Henry was born on December 19 at 4:25 in the afternoon. He is such a good baby -- great eater, great sleeper, great personality, and cute as a button.

I'm in the process of writing the whole birth story, which I'll share when I'm finished for those who want to read all the details. We have internet at our home now (yes, welcome to 2011 right?) so I'll be much more able to update regularly. Keep checking for more pictures still to come!