Jaxon at 13 weeks old on his DUE DATE (we took his oxygen off to get some good pics of his face)
My son has finally made it home to us! After 11 weeks and 1 day in the NICU, he has come home and is thriving and I couldn't be happier. Aubree, Nicholas and Annabelle as well because now we can re-establish some stability for them. It has been such a difficult thing to deal with not only because of having to see my newborn struggling for his life for so long, but also because of how it has affected my other 3 kids.
Left to Right: Annabelle (2), Jaxon (13 weeks), Nicholas (4), Aubree (4) -it's impossible to get one of them all looking :)
Every single day for over 3 months, they spent a large number of hours at someone else's house. We are so blessed to have an amazing family that we are very close to who helped so that they never had to go to someone's house that they didn't know or were not comfortable with, but regardless, it is very difficult for 2 and 3 year olds to not be with their mommy and daddy every day. It has been almost 3 weeks since he came home now and while he did come home on oxygen, he is doing so well and growing and getting stronger every day! He really truly is my miracle! His sisters and brother love him dearly and have adjusted to these crazy changes better than I ever dreamt possible making me wonder every day how Donny and I possibly managed to hit the jackpot 4 times!!! So, I know that is a very brief and vague update, particularly as following the details I have previously written, so I apologize but I just wanted to share some pictures of our last few months and let everyone know where we are at with Jaxon right now.
The exciting new "phase" of my life that I previously mentioned is that, beacuse of Jaxon's special needs and delicate health, Donny and I have decided that I will quit my job and stay home with my children. Not that I didn't love being home with them, but I have always LOVED working and even all through my school years I dreamt of being a career woman and have always been focused on my own goals and now...my perspective has been so totally transformed that I have no desire for the way to live my life stronger than to be home with my children and teaching and playing and loving on them all day! I am so excited for this opportunity. I am super nervous about it because I never even gave a thought to being a stay at home mom and because I am a PLANNER and like to think through every possible outcome of every decision I make, it is hard for me to so suddenly change every plan I made for myself but I know my husband will enjoy this as well.
We will see if things work out the way I am planning or not, but with me staying home, I am planning to do a lot more writing. Hopefully start putting the children's books together that I have been planning for years now. *If anyone has any connections to publishers, please let me know!!* ;) I will be posting my writings for them on here as I get it together and I would appreciate any and all feedback I can get for them so please continue checking in and also sharing them with friends and family when I get them up. (The best way is to subscribe to my blog so you get the posts when I put them up) Anyways, thanks for all the prayers for our family over these difficult last several months! Blessings to all of you!
Here are some photos from over the last few months:
Jaxon at 1 day old- he was intubated then extubated for 2 days so I was able to hold him :)
Jaxon at 4 days old (had to be reintubated)
Mommy and Jaxon at about 6 weeks old
Jaxon's decorated incubator
(I made his little nameplates and the teddy bear is from Memaw and Papa)
His EEG at about 6-7 weeks
This is at about 9 weeks old
Finally home to meet sisters at 11 weeks
His new baby blanket/quilt- 13 1/2 weeks
