6 months

I realize that this is a week late, but it is better late than never.

As of July 7, we have had the privilege of being parents to Samantha Grace for 6 months. After 6 years of an interminable cycle of hoping, dreaming, praying, wishing, waiting, crying, not understanding, giving up, accepting, not accepting, praying more and beginning all over again, we finally welcomed our sweet baby girl into the world. And now 6 months have flown by. It hardly seems possible.

During this time, we have seen and done a lot. We have come a long way and Samantha has come even farther. She was forced to come into the world 5 weeks before she was due, 4 weeks earlier than we had planned, due to my having dangerously high blood pressure and bad liver function levels. She was born 1/7/08 at 9:31pm, weighing 5lbs 13 oz and measuring 18 inches long.

She spent 9 days in the NICU, coming home 4 weeks before the day we were told to expect her home. She has struggled with eating issues but we have wonderful doctors who work with us to be sure that she has the right medications and routines. She has been a challenging baby with her eating issues and the pain surrounding that, but the medications have helped a lot. It has been at least a couple of months since she has screamed because she was hungry but hurt too much to eat. Other than when she is hurting, she is a very happy baby. I’m so grateful, because her infectious smile and pleasant personality have made the challenges easier to bear. She still does not nurse very well, often refusing to completely, but she does nurse consistently every morning, giving me some of that aspect of the special relationship between a mother and child.

Samantha smiles all the time and will laugh occasionally. Usually when her daddy is playing with her, but once in a while when she sees me walk into the room. She loves to sit up and stand up, although she is not able to do either on her own yet. She can stay sitting for a few moments on her own once we help her up. So far she has made it as long as 14 seconds. She rolls over from back to tummy and tummy to back. She gets around on the floor by rolling to her side, then scooting her legs, rolling to her side again, and scooting again until she gets to where she wants to be. She is eating baby food and loves all of her vegetables but does not like her fruit at all. Perhaps that is the result of all the veggies I ate while I was pregnant, although I also ate fruit…so, who knows? 

She is a wonderful blessing in our lives and we can’t imagine life without her. Whatever did we do before? At this point I don’t really remember what life before Samantha was like. I look forward to continuing on this journey of growth and discovery with my little family.

Happy half birthday, Samantha!