I can't believe it has been a year!

Wow!! Brady is officially "one year-old" on Wednesday, December 3. The year has truly gone fast. It seems like only a couple of months ago, that we traveled through his adventurous start to life. These pictures were taken after 5 or 6 days in the NICU. At this point he was off of the ventilator. I can't remember if he still had a chest tube in or not. The whole 12 day stay in the NICU was a little blurry. What I do remember is that I was scared when I went into labor 4 weeks early. I knew it was too early. When he was born, he was a blueish color and they had to "bag him" right there in the operating room. They thought the little guy (all 5 pounds 12 ounces) was stable, but they did have to give him more oxygen in the nursery and monitor him closely. I finally got to hold Brady when he was about 12 hours old. A couple of hours after that, he took a turn for the worse. His breathing was very labored. The nurses were feeding him through a feeding tube, but they were concerned about all the energy it was taking him to breathe. Children's Hospital was called and an ambulance was being sent to transport Brady. In the mean time a clergy member came as well as Tyler and my mom. It was difficult for them to see Brady so labored with his breathing. (They had been with him earlier in the evening and he was doing OK at that time. That was probably only the second time in 14 years that I saw Tyler cry. )Once the transport team came and put the ventilator in him, I felt a huge wave of relief wash over me. While it wasn't pretty to see our baby with a big hose down his mouth, he looked restful. I also had complete confidence in the staff at Children's Hospital. I truly felt that Brady was going to be just fine while he was in there care. During the course of his stay, he had a chest tube put in for a collapsed lung, several rounds of antibiotics to fight a pneumonia-like infection, a pic line and feeding tube put in. He was a sick baby, but look at him now! He has had absolutely no problems with his lungs to date!

Tomorrow I will post current pictures of Brady and our small celebration for him.