Rolling with the punches

When you go to have a baby you picture getting to hold it right away, getting to take it home and enjoy the surreal way time stands still/moves at lightning speed as you take care/enjoy all things newborn. Perhaps you think about how your baby will be the picture of health and grow at an astonishing speed etc.

As many of my friends and family members have found out over the course of their parenthood, things don't always work out like that. Some babies get whisked away for medical attention, some look fine but turn out needing quite a bit of medical intervention and don't get to come home. Some go home looking healthy only to struggle with various ailments and problems later on.

These special children teach you many many things. These are some that mine has taught me:

That you need to cherish holding them (wherever or whenever that is). The NICU may not be very private or homey but you can still be assertive in making sure that you get lots of bonding experiences.

That people you know really do mean it when they say they "want to help." We are so thankful for everyone that took care of us and our older son Mr. B while he was in the hospital and later when we went to the Dr's offices.

That your dreams haven't been shattered just revised :) Although its not a perfect example, prior to Hoden's birth I had purchased newborn cloth diapers for him I was excited to use them and had them all ready to go. Well they didn't fit well under his colostomy so we sold them at a loss and moved on. But through some creativity we made some we already had fit low enough for him. It has been working super well. And he is pretty cute in them.

That you gotta get creative. When we have had a bag blowout we use size 6 disposable diapers up and over the bag to keep everything clean until we can get home.

That special kiddos have special spirits. Hoden is such a delight and puts up with his colostomy changes and testing like a champ.

That Heavenly Father can make you strong enough to endure whatever comes. When Hoden first came home we were at a huge loss as to how to get his colostomy bags to stick. Thankfully our prayers and those of our family were answered when a friend steered us to a blog with more info than we could have asked for/the stoma clinic at Primary Children's was super helpful. Now I can even change a bag all by myself (exciting now that baby Hoden can roll over by himself.