Here's Owen during his NICU days. In some senses its hard to believe its only been 5 years, but in other ways his early days seem so far away. I read some where that for every month a baby is in the NICU it takes a year to recover. He was in for 5 months, now he is 5 years old. In a lot of ways Steve and I can see that this last year he's really grown and matured. Other than a bit of trouble with speech (which we have yet to address-Matthew's speech therapy was a giant waste of time and we wouldn't have the benefit of having it covered through insurance this time- I'm sure we'll have to deal with that in kindergarten), his preemie issues have resolved. Lungs, eyes, liver, heart, feeding (although he's got a pretty sensitive gag reflex, but so does my mom). It's all OK. He's come through it all. God is good.
Owen at 4 days old. I know he was less than his birth weight of 1lb, 7oz. This is one of my favorite pictures of O. Looks like he's soaking up some rays on a beach instead of under plastic wrap and bili lights. I found this very amusing at the time (maybe a coping mechanism?).
Owen about 2 months old, still on the vent. Wearing some of the first clothes I could buy. Preemie onesies, size 3-5 pounds.
Going home day, August 10, 2003! Weighed about 7.5 pounds by then. With continuous NG feeds, oxygen (which he had for the next year), apnea and pulse ox monitors. I don't remember much about that day other than I was overwhelmed. I had alarms for the feeding pump and monitors, then alarm clocks for medication times. I was so spazzy about everything. We soon grew so used to having the wires and monitors to tell us we were ok. When we adopted Liam it felt strange to have a healthy newborn without that stuff. I wanted constant confirmation he was still breathing. This baby stuff stresses me out. Matthew is much luckier that he was a toddler when we got him.
Anyway, back to the main reason of this post...Happy Birthday Owen!!! We love you!!!
4 comments:
wow yes, we love you lots miracle baby! 5 years has gone too fast.....GOD IS GOOD!
happy birthday to you
(olivia is pooping on my lap right now as i write this)
tgp
...let me clarify that Olivia is 8 months old and wearing a diaper! way to go livi!
God is GOOD! I agree. Owen is an amazing little boy. And everytime we were in the NICU with ours, I would think to Owen and how PERFECT he is now. Happy Birthday, big guy!!!
Sarah, you gave me chills reading your post. Amazing, absolutely amazing.
Owen,
Sorry so late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Hard to believe I took care of you sooooo long ago now. You have come a lonf way. Can't believe you are riding a 2 wheeler either. Hi to all.
Luv Ya,
Sharon
SCHC NICU
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