My Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Elias!

O third child of mine. You were the only one of my children thus far who was cloth diapered from the very beginning. You have just your name written in your baby book, and have spent more time in p.j.s than either of your siblings.

You were the only one of my kids so far, not born in the Twin Cities. With you, I wore you in a sling all the time instead of being wary of you getting too used to being held. With you I never timed contractions and tried to figure out if I was in labor. My water broke, and then we just went to the hospital.

You were a bit sick when you were born, but we weren’t worried. We knew you’d be fine after a little while. We were more tired than worried! You took a helicopter ride a few hours after your birth, and I cried when my room vibrated as you took off and I couldn’t be with you. You are still the only one in our family to have been on a helicopter ride!

 (Here’s the picture Daddy took of you before you went into the helicopter.)

Here’s you chillin’ in the NICU

I got to you as soon as I could, and soon became a thorn in your nurse’s side. With your lung issues, I didn’t like how she smelled a bit like cigarette smoke. I didn’t like how she wouldn’t give you enough time to eat and would just put milk in your feeding tube without asking me.  She wouldn’t budge on any rule, and I had to ask her to hold you, and she didn’t like you held too often.

After 4 days of being on oxygen, your lungs were better, but it was 3 more days before we could get out of the hospital due to the strict guidelines that the NICU required for us to leave.  You simply couldn’t latch on instantly, as many newborns don’t.  Since you couldn’t manage eating a full meal for 20 minutes every 3 hours, and I was stubborn in not letting you have a bottle in the day, they didn’t let us go home.

So after we had arguments and meetings with the dr.s and lactation consultants, and nurses, and social workers, I was finally allowed to feed you when you were hungry, for as long as you wanted.  The next day, you met their standard, and we got to go home.  Not before one last scare from one last doctor who thought you had a hip issue, which required a fiddly brace and more follow up doctor’s appointments.

Fortunately, once we got home, not one doctor we saw could see what the other doctor saw, and we decided to get rid of the fiddly brace after you were in it for almost 2 weeks.

As we wondered before your birth whether you would be more like your sister, or more like your brother, we soon found out that you were neither.  You were our third different.  Your hair grew in like a mohawk, and you giggled yourself to sleep instead of crying.  Everything to you was, and still is funny.  You walked late, talked late, did pretty much everything late, but none of that ever bothered you.  You feel fulfilled as long as you can wiggle a smile out of somebody.

You were back in the hospital after a few months with RSV, and a year later with a cold that caused breathing problems due to the episode of RSV the year before.  It’s been an eventful 2 years, but about the most joyful we have ever had.  You keep everyone in the family laughing at supper time.  You snuggle more than any baby I’ve ever known.  Last night, when I got up to change your diaper and give you a sip of water, you looked at me and gave me a big kiss, and then wedged your head into my neck.  The number of heartwarming moments like that with you have been overwhelming.

You now say new words every day.  You run to keep up with your siblings, and you love being around babies.  While your brother body slammed Silje’s dolls, you give them kisses.  When you’re in the bathtub, you make the 2 rubber duckies kiss too.  You tell the little girls in the nursery that they’re pretty and you love to stomp around the house growling.  You look people right in the eye when you talk to them and are completely a daddy’s boy.  You follow him everywhere and love to eat whatever is on his plate no matter how spicy.  There is no food you’re afraid of…yet.  You have our dog wrapped around your little finger as she does whatever she thinks you might like.  At the age of 2, you have already mastered the art of teasing your siblings.

Yes, Elias, everything was different with you, and it will always be that way.  God made you so special and you bring Him, and us so much joy.

Happy 2nd Birthday Elias!