From The Very Beginning (Part 6)

After the bout with jaundice, things went fairly well. Though there were multiple trips to the Drs. office and several visits to our house from the lactation consultant, all still seemed to be going well. But unfortunately when you were 28 days old, you ended up back in the hospital. You were 4 wks old and still had not made it back up to your birth weight. Your Dr had said that if it were not for the fact that every time she said to come in for a check up that Mommy and Daddy made sure you were there she would have put you in the hospital a whole lot sooner. You were classified failure to thrive. Mommy tried everything possible to get that milk to come in for you, but it just did not happen. Mommy tried Brewer's yeast, Fenagreek, Reglan, pumping, nursing you, and more pumping. Know the Mommy really did try very hard. While you were in the hospital they would weigh you, Mommy would nurse you, and then they would weigh you again. They found out that Mommy just was not producing enough milk and that you were burning more calories eating than you were getting in the maybe 1/2 an oz. When Mommy and Daddy started supplementing formula in earnest, you started growing by leaps and bounds. Still had to take you to the nursery at the hospital every other day for about 2 wks to get you weighed to show that you were still growing well. Auntie AL did the most amazing thing. She started increasing her supply and started pumping and freezing the extra. Eventually it got here and you loved every sip of it. Lots of people thought we were crazy, but Mommy really thinks that is why you have been so healthy. Between the antibodies that you got from Mommy's milk and the different ones from Auntie AL, you were truly blessed. Thank you to Auntie AL for doing all that work, to T for sharing, and to Uncle N for agreeing that it would be a wonderful way for their family to bless ours. The Lord truly works in amazing ways. Know that lots of people thought we were all very weird, but it was worth every strange look to provide you with the best things in life, and that at the time was truly the best thing every.

Things continued to go well. At some point within the first two weeks after your birth, your Dr. did do your circumcision but she sure botched the job. She did not take off enough of your foreskin and this is a constant problem still today. Hopefully as you get older that you will grow out of it.

Now originally Daddy was going to stay home and take care of you and Mommy was going to go back to work, but then Daddy realized that taking care of you was just more than he could handle and he renewed is efforts to find a job. Believe me this was not because he didn't want to send time with you, actually it was the opposite. He loved you soooo much that he realized that was just not something he was going to be able to do. When you were about 2 wks old, Daddy was finally able to get a job working out at Feather Falls Casino, the Taco Bell/Pizza Hut Express. The boss really liked his work and wanted him to learn everything. She did the best she could to make sure that he had full time all of the time, but that ment that she kept moving him from one schedule to the next. Daddy started having all kinds of trouble sleeping and kept drinking more and more. It was really yucky and Mommy is so glad that you were too little to remember. Mommy would get up every morning, do her best to keep you quiet so Daddy could sleep, clean the house and then go to Grandma C's house. On May 11, Mommy went back to work. She was so sad to have to do that, but it was necessary. At least you were going to be spending lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa C and Cousin C. Mommy felt good about that. It took a while for her to get back into the swing of things, but she was able to and then again things seemed to be going okay for a while.

Between not getting enough sleep, the drinking, and something that was obviously already wrong that no one knew about, Daddy started having some real problems. Then in July 2005, the scariest thing to happen yet, even worse than the hospital recovery nurse....