Oops

When I was writing about finding out the results I forgot to mention the prayers that were coming in from Arizona as well. As many of you know I have Aunts, Uncles, and cousins in Arizona and Colorado. I miss all of them dearly and really wish we lived closer to one another. Growing up we all lived in Wichita, at least for a short while, and we are amazingly close. It's remarkable really, to have family like we do.....not too many people are this lucky. I hope that Blake is lucky enough to have cousins that he feels as dearly about as I do.

While we're on the subject a few words about Christmas, I'll post some pics tomorrow when I get them downloaded. Christmas was exciting as usual.....we started at our house, went to Granny Stroud's, my Aunt Debbie's (Yokum family), Arlene's (Greg's moms), and finally got back to Grandma Wards (Grammy was at Grandma Ward's as well). We celebrated her Christmas the day after Christmas this year so we could wait for Uncle Mike and Aunt Allison to get here. Uncle Marty and Aunt Candy, Leslie and Matt, and Cliff were in town for the holidays, we won't be as lucky to have them next year, so we were counting our blessings this year while we had them.

Growing up everyone came to Grandma's house for Christmas. We had a blast singing Christmas carols, playing with our new toys, and as we got older modeling our new clothes. I look back on my childhood fondly. I miss those days of everyone being in Grandma's basement opening up gifts. If we were to try this now (with the growing families) we would have somewhere around 36 people at Grandma's house! Even though it will never happen because we all have so many other obligations to people that love us and our kids, I'd love to meet one year and have a huge Christmas together!!! It would certainly be crazy!

I think what our parents and Grandparents instilled in ALL 9 of us is that family is extremely important. And, no matter how many imperfections we may have, there's nothing we wouldn't do for one another. When I tell people how close I am with my cousins (which always comes up because all of their kids grace our refrigerator) they are truly shocked to hear it. I'm shocked to know that families aren't like this, although it's definitely reality. In fact, as people have married into this family it's been fun to see the reactions to such a large, fun, and certainly rambunctious family. I know for my husband he still struggles with our issues with punctuality (it's hard to move this many people around quickly), and feelings of being overwhelmed by it all (when we are together, everything is done together). But, I think I speak for everyone when I say there's not a thing I'd change about US. We are an endearing group, I mean who couldn't fall in love with the Great-Grandchildren, they are 12 of the cutest kids we know...when the others come along they'll just join the group of cutie pies (I'm already adding Leslie's baby in there because we know he'll be adorable).

So, in conclusion, thanks for the prayers everyone and I love you all and can't wait to see you at the lake. And, for the Arizonan's drag Michelle's family with you, we miss them and want to see them again soon!

The power of prayer

Results came in on Friday, December 19, Blake is negative for cystic fibrosis. It was finally ruled out by genetic testing...which might I add was a hefty $8000.00 test, thank you US govt! You can't imagine all of the people that were praying for this kid. It's amazing when something like this happens how many people spread the word.....my entire church was praying, the churches of family and friends here in Kansas and Colorado, my old school back in Lawton, my new school, and even churches in Canada (thank you Dylan's family!). In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the name Blake Stroud was used in prayer hundreds of times over the past few weeks. IT PAID OFF!

I've always believed in the power of prayer, but have been lucky enough to not have anything tug at my heartstrings like this has before. My mom and I have been talking about what a rough year 2008 has been. After I got pregnant, I had the big bleeding scare at 8 weeks, I was sick from then on, and I had pre-eclampsia. My mom has and is still having problems with painful swelling in her joints. Grandma had the heart surgery, and Grandpa had a heart attack earlier in the year. Then, Blake was given 3 positive tests for cystic fibrosis, and Ellie my Mom's (family's) dog had a paralyzing stroke...what a whirlwind! In the same breath we've talked about all the blessings we've had this year (it's definitely been a year of ups and downs), Grandma and Grandpa are staying healthy, Blake has come out healthy, my Mom is on medicine that seems to be helping her swelling (although she could use a few prayers for this still), Ellie is recovering, and Mike and Allison got married. Life is all about perspectives I guess.

I am proud to say that throughout this entire fiasco with Blake, Dylan and I stayed positive we never got angry with God, and we were proactive...Blake wouldn't have known that his disease was dibilatating if he'd had it. I thank God everyday for answering all of my prayers this year, let's hope that I don't have to ask for prayers next year and I can just offer them to Him, worship Him, and maybe even help answer someone else's prayers.....

Family

I know this is all out of order, but Blake you will know this about your Mommy shortly if you don't know it already, I can be a scatterbrain, so this baby book may be a bit all over the place.

Throughout our stay at the hospital we had a ton of visitors! Our family was there throughout most of the labor, so they were as exhausted as we were waiting on baby Blake. I thought I would list all the people that were there or came to visit us at the hospital. The night that Blake was born I knew that everyone was waiting to come and see the new arrival in the waiting room, so I sent Dylan out to get everyone after the Doctor had given us the OK. I had no idea everyone was waiting right outside the room, so they all piled in and gushed over baby Blake! Both of my parents were there, Dyl's mom and sister, my brother, Grandma and Grandpa Ward, and Jenny were all there to greet him. There were tons of people up during the labor process and after he was born...Joe and kids, Katie, Grandma and Grandpa Yokum, Aunt Debbie, Aubrey, Tyler, Sandy and her Mom, Dyl's boss, one of my paras Lena, and I'm sure there were others I am missing. I'll update as I remember, but it was apparent that this kid is well loved!! :)

Uncle Todd is a babysitter

I am amazed at how well my brothers are doing with Blake! Todd is around a lot, so he is getting very comfortable with his role as a new Uncle. Unfortunately, Michael is too far away to see much of him, but he and Allison came up for a visit over Thanksgiving break and they spent some quality time with the little guy. Allison even babysat so Dyl and I could get some sleep, Thanks ALLISON!!

Todd and Katie have really been a huge help while Dylan has been gone. For those of you who don't know, Katie stayed with me the two weeks before the birth while Dyl was gone...poor girl had to listen to me puke every morning:(. She's also helped around the house, helped take care of Blake, and just been a blessing all the way around. Thanks KATIE!!

Anyways, as Christmas is approaching I realize I really should have gotten some shopping done before Blake was born. I was way too sick everyday to do much but go to work towards the end of my pregnancy, but I should have at least gotten some of it done....

Because I have so much left to do I asked Todd to babysit for me for an hour while I ran some errands with Mom. Todd is doing so excellent with Blake I couldn't have asked for a better babysitter! Anyhow, we left, came back and Uncle Todd informed us that Blake had baptized him into the diaper changing thing by peeing all over himself...I believe the steady stream missed Todd and came splashing down on Blake's head. I was proud of my brother though, he cleaned him up, put a new onesie on him, wrapped him up in a blanket and all was well. I really got a kick out of the thought of Todd frantically trying to stop the little guy from going everywhere...here are a few pics of Todd and Blake after he was born. I had to put the creepy one on there because Todd always takes a creepy pic!

Newborn woes

Many of you know that although Blake is a little over three weeks old he's spent at least 15 or 16 of those days making trips to the Doctor's office or to the hospital. I swear since this child has been born he's done nothing but scare the life out of me (my hair has been going grey for a while, and all of this has not helped that situation).

While we were in the hospital he failed his first hearing test (yikes), but later passed with flying colors. We were told when we were leaving the hospital that Blake was jaundice, which meant that we had to endure watching the poor boy be stuck in the foot daily for a week so that they could check his levels. After watching my poor baby go through all of this, we were finally told his levels were going down. I was elated and he was beginning to not be so lethargic from the jaundice, so I was enjoying my beautiful baby boy. The challenges of teaching a child to breast feed coupled with the sleepiness due to the jaundice meant Blake had dropped A LOT of weight! I was scared to death and doing everything I could to help him put weight back on...in fact I still am supplementing him with formula a few times a day! After a few days of solely working on putting weight back on this kid, I got one of the most horrifying phone calls of my life...Blake had failed his newborn screening and was testing positive for cystic fibrosis.

Some of you may wonder what my first reactions were...I believe it went something like this: 1. What the heck is cystic fibrosis? 2. What did I do wrong to make my son get this? 3. I called my mom upstairs and the tears began falling (I'm pretty sure she started crying too). For those of you who don't know cystic fibrosis is a disease that causes a build up of mucous in the body's organs (specifically the lungs and pancreas). People with cystic fibrosis often have to have special diets, a variety of daily meds, and breathing treatments to try and delay the progression of the disease. It is a disease that shortens a person's life, which to me is the scariest part to me, causes them to not be able to gain weight, and can cause failure to thrive in newborns.

I had to take him in for yet another blood test, and wait a week for the results...yet another positive. So, we were sent to the hospital to get a sweat test done. For this test they put little muscle stimulators on the baby's arm to make him sweat and then use this sweat to test the saltiness of the sweat. This test came back in the middle range (inconclusive). We are now awaiting the results of genetic testing to find out for sure if our son has cystic fibrosis. I'm pretty sure I've gone through all of the stages of grief, and have finally reached acceptance. If our son has cystic fibrosis, which I truly believe he's fine, we will deal with it and he will lead a very normal life. He will still do all the things we dreamed he would do, it just might be a little differently, and with a little more caution.

If he is positive it means that Dyl and I are both carriers of the recessive gene that causes cystic fibrosis. Although this is completely out of our hands you can't imagine the amount of guilt we both feel about potentially dealing our son such a hard hand in life. Keep us in our prayers, we will hear the results this week. I will post the results when we have them.

We are the RICHEST people I know

Wealth can be measured in so many different ways.

I remember in my youth being envious of material things that other people had that I could have never afforded. There are still a zillion things out there I can't afford, and will never be able to, but there is nothing in this world that I need. I have a loving husband, a supportive family, good friends, and the most amazing son...I couldn't ask for anything more! Can you tell that I am still riding on the high of being a new mother? It is the best feeling in the world! Dylan and I truly do feel like God has given us everything we could ask for and we ARE the richest people in the world because of this new blessing!
Blake James Stroud was born on November 19, 2008 at 12:14 am (3 weeks early, due to pre-eclampsia), weighing in at 8 lbs. 8 1/2 oz. In typical Amy fashion I haven't gotten around to starting this electronic baby book until now (I love this idea by the way, thanks Kerry!). I went into the hospital Monday, November 17, 2008 for the induction at 6:00 pm. Dylan and I had the least relaxing night of sleep we've ever had and awoke Tuesday morning early, hoping to hear that labor would be getting started right away...he was supposed to leave to go back to South Carolina at 2:00 that afternoon. Unfortunately, baby Blake wasn't ready to make his entrance into the world and I could see the disappointment in his poor Daddy's face when they gave us the news I hadn't dilated at all. Luckily we were able to call the airline and get another flight out at 5:00 the next morning (Wednesday). Dylan was required to be back at work on Wednesday at 12:00, so we were really pressing our luck, it turned out to be a good thing (God was watching out for us!), and Dylan was able to attend his training and finally get some sleep after being awake for 40 hours! Anyway, he was able to stay for the birth and I am so glad we were able to share that time together. I've never seen him prouder in his whole life (although I think he was a bit disappointed that Blake looked NOTHING like him when he was born). He was there to cut the cord, videotape his first moments, and cuddle with his newborn son. I was so in awe of this perfect angel that I'm pretty sure I forgot to thank him for being so persistent in trying to make it home for the birth. A lesser man may have given up when he was told no, but not Dyl, he went straight to the top and pleaded his case. Thankfully, they agreed to give him the time off that he needed to be home with us.
In the end, he had to leave about 30 minutes after we got into the recovery room. But, I think I speak for both of us when I say what an amazing thing childbirth is, it was worth every bit of hard work that was put into working up to that day (yes, even all the puking). It is truly remarkable the love you feel for your child, there's no other way to describe it but love at first sight...