Our Baby is 5!!!!

On June 4th, 2004 our lives changed forever. We were due to have our first baby, a boy, on June 18th and we were so excited. On Friday morning, the 4th, I was not feeling too great. My stomach would feel crampy for a minute or two and then the pain would fade. I knew that these could be contractions but figured they were Braxton Hicks. Joey was concerned but went to work as I promised to keep him updated. I had just finished teaching for the year and quit working at the bank so I was planning on a few weeks to get ready for this little guy. That did not happen! Over the next few hours, Joey would call me about every 30 minutes. I tried taking a bath and tried to relax but the pain kept coming. I could not believe this was happening so early. Around noon we decided to call the doctor and he suggested that we go to the hospital to be checked. So Joey rushed home and I must admit that he was so "first time Dad". It was so cute how he frantically got my bag and almost killed us on the way to the hospital because he was driving so fast. So we arrived at the hospital and they checked me around 2:30pm. I was dilated to a 2.5 which was about 1 cm more than my dr appt a few days prior. So they suggested that I walk for an hour and they would check me again. So they checked around 4pm and I was a 4.5. They knew this was the real thing and we would be staying. So by 5:30pm I had an epidural and they broke my water. I could not believe this was really happening. We made all the phone calls and got ready. By 10:30pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. Our doctor came in and said that he had someone complete at another hospital so we were going to have to hurry. How can I hurry when I don't know what I am doing? But he let me push 2 times and then pulled him out with a vacuum. This started what was to be a 10 day nightmare. Luke David Childs was born at 11:05pm. He weighed 6lbs and 15 ounces and was 19 inches long. He was a beautiful baby and they let me hold him for a second. They then noticed that he could not keep his temperature up, so they said they would keep him in the nursery overnight. I was a little worried but they did not seem worried so I tried to rest. Joey was back and forth between the room and nursery through the night. They put him on oxygen and he got progressively worse. I was so sad that I could not see him so this cute nurse brought me some pictures. I was in love! Joey and his dad gave him a blessing in the morning before they did some Xrays. They thought that he had a diaphragmatic hernia and said that he needed to be life flighted to Primary Children's Hospital. We could not believe this. They were not so kind and came into the room before transporting him. He was in this special covered bed that we could only put our hands through. They said that I should probably tell him goodbye because they did not think that he would make it. Are you kidding me? We had to just go on faith and trust in the blessing that he was given that he would recover. They would not release me until the next morning so Joey followed them up to Primarys. I could not sleep so they gave me a sleeping pill. My mom stayed the night with me. I remember not being able to close my eyes. Every time I did I would just start to pray for my little baby. I felt like I was in a nightmare. Joey finally called me a few hours later. He gave me the good news that it was not what they had thought but that he did have air outside of his lungs which is what they saw on the Xray. They also said that he had pneumonia and was extremely ill. He was on a ventilator for 5 days. We decided that Joey should go to work and save the vacation time until Luke came home. So he would drop me off at the hospital around 6:30am and I would stay there until Joey was done with work. Then we would stay together at night. Every night that we came home I was sick that we came home without Luke. I would wake up and call the nurses in the middle of the night to make sure he was ok. He made a turn around after about 6 days and was able to come home on June 14th. He is such a fighter and we were so grateful for his strong spirit. He is our miracle.
I cannot believe that five years have passed since that beautiful day. I love everything about Luke. He is such a smart boy. He loves to make people laugh and he thinks he is so funny. He is so sweet and is a great example to Harlee and Nash. For his birthday today he will have some visits from family and then tonight we are going to go to dinner then presents and cake. Because I have a RS meeting tomorrow we will really celebrate. I am going to take him to see the movie UP and then we are going to Chucky Cheese. It should be really fun. I am also making him a spiderman cake which is this years fav! This should be interesting since Luke is the only artist in the family!

We love you Luke and feel completely blessed to have you in our family.
Happy Birthday our Big Boy!

PS- Love this picture. It is so true to our Luke!