Can you believe 15 years ago I had a little boy that is now soon to be a freshman in High School? Jacob was due to be born on April 5th but came a couple days early. I started having labor pains on April 2nd around 9:00 p.m. Needless to say since I was inexperience and didn't ever have them with Michael, I just went to the hospital early and didn't dare wait. Everything went pretty smoothly except the fact that my epidural went out just as he was being born and can you say ouch! But that was better than having to go through pain the whole time. He was born at 4:35 in the morning and weighed 8 lbs and 3 oz and 19 inches. Now he's 150 lbs and around 6'0!
Jacob was always sick from day one. He caught whooping cough when he was only a few weeks old and the doctors treated him for RSV and also just thought he had a cold and acted like they didn't believe me when I told them he would turn blue and cough so bad. So finally they hospitalized him keeping him in an oxygen tent a nurse by his side 24hrs a day. He had to go back a second and third time because I guess whooping cough comes in three different stages. I felt so bad for him and was so distraught since there was nothing I could do - he was just brand new. I am so happy he's okay, I don't know what I would have done had he not made it. It seemed to me that all of this made him susceptible to colds and flus so often for the first few years.
He also had gastroesophageal reflux disorder (Reflux is when the muscle between your child's esophagus and stomach isn't working properly, allowing stomach contents to gurgle up into the throat.) and couldn't keep his food down. I felt so bad and was worried constantly for the first year until he grew out of it. We had to thicken his formula with rice cereal to keep it from coming up so that he would get some nourishment. He had a healthy appetite but his poor little tummy hurt all the time and he was fussy from it.
Jacob had to have the vacuum running in order to fall asleep at night, no matter what else I did to comfort him, that is what settled him down. I wasn't used to any of this behavior and worried incessantly since Michael was opposite. Even in and out of his troubles, he has always been a joy to have around and makes everyone laugh!
He's basically having the same kind of celebration Michael did, with friends and food at home, and unfortunately he won't be celebrating tonight since he wants a sleepover. It's tough for both of them, having their birthdays so close together, they get so tired of it so I always make sure to have separate parties for them. Only when they were really little did I have them share a party.
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