This day in history 24 years ago...

It's truly amazing to me how time works. Days can seem long but then weeks and months fly by. And it seems the older I get, the faster time goes. When I look back on the past 24 years, it now seems a blur--some kind of time/space continuum thing. But I do remember precisely what I was doing 24 years ago today.

August 1, 1986 I was in the B unit on the 3rd floor of Utah Valley Regional Medical Center rejoicing in the fact that my little baby boy had been delivered safely the night before, July 31st, at 11:07 p.m. It was hard for me to believe that my 7 month odyssey had come to an end and finally I truly belonged in the postpartum ward.

After 6 months of nausea, weakness and no weight gain, I went into the hospital in pre-term labor. I had never been admitted to a hospital before--and for a cfer, that's saying something! It was a scary time. I stayed there in my cubbyhole of a room for a month on complete bed rest--no bathroom, completely flat, and bored out of my mind. No electronic gizmos back then to pass the time, only about 8 stations on the television which had one button, forward. Slowly, so very slowly, the channels would change and once you made the loop, off the tv went and then you had to wait for it to come back up again after turning it on. It was the bane of my existence, can you tell?

As hard as it seemed at the time, looking back I can see God's hand in it all. Because of his potential prematurity, I was given steroid shots to help his lungs develop faster. (He never needed O2 even being 8 weeks early...that's my boy!) Doing absolutely nothing burned few calories so I finally started gaining weight and so did he. (The morning after delivery when I stood on the scales, I was back to my starting weight.) Josh was born weighing 4 lbs. 6 oz. which surprised the doctors--he did go down to 3 1/2 lbs so we were glad he had some extra weight to spare.

Because he was so early, his body was covered in hair--like peach fuzz. He was so tiny and furry and cute! About an hour after he was born, they wheeled me into the NICU to see him. I started to cough. That little guy got up on his arms, lifted his head and looked around for me. The nurses were freaking out. I'm not sure if he was excited to see me or he was "oh no, I thought I got away from that noise." But I knew in that moment he was a fighter and he would be okay.

That day twenty-four years ago he made my dreams come true--I always dreamed of being a mom. You've come a long ways buddy. I love you.


Notice how big a regular size bottle top/binkie is compared to him. He just swims in his preemie diaper.