Completely, Wonderfully Preoccupied

The last four weeks have been a whirlwind. We welcomed our new addition and everything that goes along with having a newborn, celebrated Christmas, saw family in three different cities- some of whom I had not seen in 15 years!-, and have tried to adjust to being a family of five, all while getting two hours of sleep at a time! Whew! I'm tired. It's a good tired though. I am

so thankful for all God has blessed us with here, at the end of the year.

Abram is thriving. He is now a healthy, awake at night, asleep during the day, four week old. I love him so much my heart feels like it may burst. It's been hard to sit down and put it all in words for two reasons: 1. When I have a spare moment, I do things like shower or eat. 2. How do you put into words what I'm feeling!? I have no clue where to even begin. I'm hoping my heart and mind will get there eventually because I don't want to forget all this...I want it in a tangible form to relive.

Aubrey and Blaine have adjusted well. Aubrey is ever the little mother, watching out for her baby brother and doing things like fetching pacifiers and handing over diapers. Blaine minds his own business. He goes about life as though nothing has changed and the majority of the time it seems as though Abram is invisible to him. I did catch him telling Abram "It's okay little guy." this morning while Abram cried impatiently waiting to eat. Life is good.

Well, there's a quick update. Hopefully I won't be away so long this time. I hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas like us! Next time, I hope to have time to post pictures too :)

The moment we'd all been waiting for...

Dawn started having contractions last Sunday morning at 2am. She let me know around 2:45, but she wasn't sure it was the real thing. This was her 7th delivery and she has always been induced- NEVER had natural labor. We texted back and forth for awhile and then at 4:30, she went to the restroom and saw she was bleeding lightly. She decided it was probably time to get to the hospital- not that anything was wrong, but that that meant it was real. She was still pretty comfortable and really wanted to labor as long as possible at home, but decided she should be checked just to be safe. We got to the hospital about 6am, they checked her and said she was 7-8cm! We were shocked. They went ahead and ordered her epidural. It took about 15 min, they came in gave it to her and broke her water. Almost immediately, Abram had a big decel in heart rate. They had her turn on her side and put the O2 on her. It worked for about 15 sec and then his heart rate skyrocketed. They put on an internal monitor and found it was even higher 220+ and not coming down. The doctor said he was going to watch it for 2 min and if it didn't come down, they would head for the OR. He checked her again, about 15 secs after he said that, and she was bleeding dark red blood. He said "That's it! Let's move!" He told us he thought there was a possible placental abruption. They took her back and so began the scariest 35 min of my life! It's impossible to describe what it's like to sit in an empty labor room, staring at a clock tick, while fearing for the lives of your unborn child and your best friend. Makes me cry just thinking about that morning. We went from arriving at the hospital at 6am to delivery by emergency c-section at 7:17am. He came out screaming and good. Doctor really thinks the placenta had begun to detach early. The whole thing could have ended much differently, but I'm ecstatic to report that both Abram and Dawn are well. God is so good!

Abram stayed for a mere 24 hours, being born at 37 weeks 1 day (not too shabby on timing :). He's a delightful baby and nursing is going wonderfully. Aside from his very first feeding post-birth (by the nurses in the nursery..ugh!), he has been exclusively breastfed! We are now a happy family of 5.

Without further ado, presenting James "Abram" Bello, born November 29, 2009 at 7:17am, weighing 7lbs 7oz and 19 3/4 in long. Carried, with love, for nine months by his surro-mom, Dawn.