This week our little man turned 1!!! The day started with Wes (my husband) and I talking about the whole process of getting Cruz here. Looking back on the whole experience just amazes me. Now I am going to get a little spiritual here, because there is no other way I can go about this topic. My testimony of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Happiness/Salvation is more real than it has ever been for me before. Why? You may ask. First off, Cruz is a literal miracle. I was told that after a couple of miscarriages and complications that I would not be able to get pregnant again, let alone carry a child full term. My husband and I did not want to hear that. I took it very hard because I know how much Wes was looking forward to being a father. So, we decided together that we were not going to take "NO" for an answer. It was a hard time for me personally because I had to slow my schedule down quite a bit. I was working very hard, and very crazy hours. 3 a.m. - 3 p.m. Then instead of napping I would get my running shoes on or jump on my road bike and train for whatever upcoming race I had. I thought I was in the shape of my life. I could go for miles and miles and not tire. I was unstoppable in my mind. That was until I started having weird things happen to my body. I finally went in to the doctors and they ran lots of tests. My body fat was abnormally low, especially for a woman. And my hormones were both crazy high and crazy low at the same time. There were times were they could barely detect some essential hormones for me to get pregnant. So, it was then and there we decided it was time to make some changes in my life. I quit that schedule cold turkey and started up a completely different one. I started having down time, relaxing and taking care of my body. Now that doesn't mean I quit working or working out/training for events I just cut back a little bit. After a couple of months of failed attempts to get pregnant again I got frustrated. I didn't know what to do. I thought I was doing all I could to be healthy and able to carry a child. We finally decided that if it was ever going to happen it was going to be a miracle and so we just relaxed on trying. I decided that I was going to finally open up a Cupcake Shop/Catering business store front to fill my time. We found the perfect little location and business just exploded. It was such a fun yet demanding thing. I loved what I was doing, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing people and cater awesome events. Time just seemed to fly by. A couple months after the grand opening, I got horribly sick. I lost a lot of weight, weight I shouldn't have lost in the first place. Couldn't eat, drink or sleep. One morning before I was getting ready to go into the shop, my husband and I went to Rite Aid, just down the street from us to pick up some medicine my doctors had called in for me. We got to the check out line and paid. When we got home I was looking thru the bag of medicine and gatorades and there was a pregnancy test my husband had secretly bought without me knowing. He told me that he had a feeling we should just check. I got frustrated because by that point we had gone thru SO many tests that I was almost numb to the whole "Negative" popping up. So, I took the box of tests (which had 2 in it) and peed on the dang stick. I put it on the side of the bath tub while I was washing my hands, picked it up to just glance down and thought I would see a negative and threw it away. Well, thing was... I picked it up and saw a "POSITIVE" and threw it away by force of habit. I was getting ready to open the door and walk out when I wasn't completely sure of what I saw. I curiously went to the bathroom vanity, went to the garbage can and picked up the test and was completely shocked. So me being me, I opened the other test and peed on it once again just to see if it was a fluke thing. Crazy enough, the second test came out positive as well. After being in the bathroom for 5 minutes at this point my husband yelled down the hall way to see if I was ok. I answered "yes" be out in a sec. I walked out, holding the sticks behind my back and just hugged him. He knew not to ask about the test because of past experiences, but I finally pulled away from the hug and showed him the very clear "Positives". He looked at me almost confused, and then we both couldn't help but almost laugh/cry after the long journey. The rest is pretty much history. I was told at 35 weeks that I was dilated to a 4 already and that he would be here very soon. I tried to prepare as much as possible... And just waited. Weeks went on and I hit my due date. Yet, no baby. He was cozy in my belly and still healthy and active. We finally set an Induction date at the hospital because we were done waiting to meet the little buddy. The morning of September 3, 2013 we checked into the hospital at 4:45 a.m, got comfortable in my hospital room and just waited. My contractions started coming on very strong and I didn't know what was going on because I didn't think that they had hooked me up to the PIT yet. They didn't. I was finally in labor!!! They ended up giving me some pitocin to speed up the process for me. I got my epidural and just thought in a couple hours he will finally be here. My water broke not too long after that, family surrounded me with excitement and the time came when Dr. Judd walked into the room and said "Whit, you're ready! Now are you ready to have this baby?!" The excitement overwhelmed me. And yet I was terrified at the same time. Wes was standing right by side me holding my hand and just gave me a little squeeze and said, " We can do this... YOU can do this" I knew with him by my side I could do anything. So I said, Lets do it! After 3 good pushes, my beautiful son was out and just staring at my husband. They were best friends already. I couldn't help but cry because of the amazing joy and happiness that instantly came over me. They handed our son to me after wrapping him up and I knew then and there that my life would never be the same. That experience really was amazing and I will never forget all of the amazing feelings I felt. Now after a year of lots of hard work and learning, my son is just growing faster and faster. He amazes me at how smart he is. He is walking, almost running everywhere, blabbering "mama" "dada" "ball" so many cute little words, and so much more. He has brought so much happiness into our lives and I would never wish for anything more. He is my best little buddy and I am so blessed to be his mama. I learn so much from him everyday.
On to less emotional and personal words... On his birthday, we decided to throw him a little "Baseball Birthday Party" He loves playing with his cousins and friends/family. So we had everyone over and celebrated the little guy. Here are some pictures form the fun night.
We had so much fun celebrating our little bud, I cannot wait for the years to come!!!
-wb
