My Life as a COMMA!

Bryce on the left…and his other “too cool for school” friends ready for camp!!

This is him now……  but I remember him when he was just a tiny smiling little boy!

Of course, as with all my kids, the day he was born, and leading up to his birth, are VERY memorable!!

 

About two weeks before he was due, my sweet boy decided to do a somersault and he got stuck half way through it!  Literally! At my doctor appointment I was informed that he had turned breech.  I’ll be honest……..it totally freaked me out!  I remember driving from the office…where I had heard the words “caesarean section”….. and having to pull over about 2 blocks from the office because I was crying so hard I could hardly breathe.  I remember being scared because I had NEVER had any kind of surgery!  I remember thinking I had experienced natural child-birth 3 times already and I felt like I would be robbing Bryan of this experience with his first child.  I remember being scared and just sitting in the car thinking how bad I just wanted my mom.  I missed her and my boys and this was just another way I was reminded how badly I needed her!

But a great friend talked me through my fear and I was able to drive home safely! 

 

For the next two weeks I did EVERYTHING possible to try to get my bundle of joy to move!  and I mean EVERYthing!!  But….going to the doctor on the day before his birth…I realized he had not moved.  Only one last thing to try……a version.  I had no clue really…what this was.  But I agreed.

 

I met the doctor at the hospital early.  If the version didn’t work….then I would go into have my c-section immediately since the baby would possibly be so stressed from the version.  So all of my family assembled at the hospital and we went into a pre-surgery room to try the version.

 

For those of you who don’t know what this procedure is….let me just tell you!  This is where they take all of the ultrasound goop they possibly can….and pour it ALL OVER your belly.  Then the doctor takes his forefinger and thumbs and puts them on the baby’s head and buttocks….and tries to manually manipulate him to move from the outside by pushing with his thumbs from the outside!!  Now….sounds innocent enough….but after 3 natural births with no drugs…this was the most painful thing EVER!!  My sweet husband was so worried because I was crying from the pain.  The doctor would have to stop and take breaks so I could regain composure. I am not sure how long we tried…but it seemed like forever!  My little man’s rear end would move…but his head seemed to be stuck in my rib cage.  Should’ve realized then just how head strong this boy would be!!

 

Needless to say….it didn’t work.  So I was very quickly prepped for surgery.  Again, I lost it.  Fear and failure crept into my world.  My husband reassured me that as long as our baby and I were okay….that is all that mattered.  But it is the words of my sweet sister that still ring true today…..

 

She told me to basically buck up!~  This way of bringing him into the world was a blessing….because this child…this son would have his own story.  God was allowing him to enter into this world in a totally different way from his brothers.  This would make him different from the beginning.   This would allow me and others to never compare him to his brothers.  Just another blessing to this birth.  Don’t feel like this is something wrong…this was ordained by God to give me a new beginning…a new experience with this child like I had never had before.

 

So at 9:02 am….my sweet Bryce Carlton was born.  He weighed 8 pounds 1 ounce and was 18 3/4 inches long.  He was perfect.  He was ….. and is….. my rainbow promise from God.  I love him more than words can say!  I am so proud to be his mom!

 

So today….I am going to cling to my sister’s words yet again.  You see…today is another milestone in my son’s and my life that I have never seen before.  He is the first …. of any of my children …. to turn 12.  It is so hard to describe the joy and the pain of today.  To tell you how happy I am …yet at the same time…how bad it hurts…..honestly… I just can’t put into words! I love it and hate it all at the same time….

 

But today is another gift…another rainbow day for me.  This is the first of many new days!  This day sets my son apart from his brothers in so many ways.  He is so much like them…and yet so different all at the same time! 

 

Today…I celebrate my wonderful son Bryce!  I thank God for the opportunity to be your mom.  I thank God for the opportunity to be a mom again. I thank God for the literal, stubborn, loving and amazing child He chose to bless me with.

 

I look forward to so many new days with him.  So many new adventures!  Girls, junior high and teenage years!  Here we come!!!!

 

Much love to you my sweet son! 

I love you to eternity!

~mom