My baby is one year old today!

Exactly one year ago today, I was in labor with Aidan. At this very hour (5am-ish), I was filled with anxiety about whether or not he would be healthy and fine, eagerness to deliver and finally meet this baby boy, and of course pain - thank you, non-functioning epidural! Over the next few hours of that day that became our little boy's birthday, I had no idea that it would be such a whirlwind of a labor and delivery story!!

The 4 hours I waited, from my recovery from general anesthesia and surgery, until I was able to see you after your time in the NICU seemed like forever, but this first year of life seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye.

It was never completely smooth-sailing, even from our first few days in the hospital. Daily bloodwork, and twice-daily forehead screens for bilirubin levels, due to quite a bit of jaundice, kept things interesting. By the end of day 2, Aidan was put on a bili blanket (the blue lights you see underneath his blankets in the picture above) to attempt to bring his bilirubin levels down.



Finally, we were able to go home! And the next week was rough, as any family with a newborn knows. We were sent home with our own rented bili blanket machine to use, and were told to have him on it as close to 24 hours a day as possible. Luckily, Aidan was a laid-back, happy baby, who didn't seem to mind it at all.

I was totally in denial how yellow he really was, until a few months later I looked back at pictures of him during his first week! And this is where he spent that first couple weeks - in his Moses basket, hooked up to the bili blanket, sitting on the coffee table in the family room!

The week was filled with dr visits, more bloodwork, more bilirubin testing. Supplementing with formula, anxiety that he is not eating enough, pumping, and more dr visits. But luckily after a week of this, he was much improved. His color was so much better, he was eating again like a champ, and was given a clean bill of health. And our bumpy road smoothed out again, just like that.

Such a sweet baby, who could sleep anywhere, and

loved to be held!



And a year later... here you are, my sweet boy. Full of laughter, personality, smiles, babbles, new teeth, new tricks, and so much happiness. You have made our family complete. I can hardly believe you are a year old already, and that you are leaving your baby days behind you. Happy birthday Aidan!