Colton's Big Entrance

Daddy's little buddy.

 

When we had Colton........ well, I should have known from the very beginning what a ride it was going to be. 

On the morning of June 6 I was helping David move trucks.  I was so pregnant that the steering wheel of the dump truck was under my stomach.  We hurried home after we finished since I had a normal check-up that afternoon.  No big deal.  We left the older kids at home and told them that we were just going to the doctor and would be right back home.  HA!  Luckily, they called my mom to come get them so they could go swimming at my parents house.  At the check-up we were told that I was being sent straight to the hospital and we were having a baby in a few hours!  WHAT!  I was in a panic.  We're dialing phones as we were walking out of the doctors office and people in the waiting area were congratulating us.  We hadn't brought anything with us, didn't have a bag packed at home and were just in general, not prepared.  I had to argue with a nurse who was trying to tell me that we were having the baby earlier than we were supposed to and David wouldn't have made it back in time.  He made the trip home, packed a couple bags and made it back right about the time I was headed out the door of my room to have this baby.   

3 hours after having Colton he was taken to the NICU in Joplin, I was in Pittsburg.  I hadn't got the chance to hold him, touch him or hardly even look at him before he left in an incubator with complete strangers staring at me with a grim look on their faces.  I had a C-section and was still a little out of it from all the meds.  It really didn't hit me for a few more hours what was really going on.  He was having trouble breathing.  We didn't know if he was going to make it or not. 

We were in the NICU for a week.  When we finally made it home, I held him pretty much for the first 3 months of his life.  David had to ask if he could ever hold him.  I was pretty generous - he got him for about an hour during the evening each night.  No, I wasn't that bad.  I did share Colton more than that (once in a while).  Hmmm...maybe this is why he has sharing issues now?  Yes, he was spoiled then and still is, just ask anyone that knows him and I won't deny it. 

When Colton was about 6 months old we found out he was going to be a big brother.  Biggest, and turned out to be, best surprise ever. 

Little did we know that a stay in the NICU was going to seem like no big deal 13 months later.

Into the Unknown We Go..................

Hello!  Let me give you some background about where Cade's Cause came from. 

I am a 40 year old mother of 5 ages 16, 11, 8, 3 and 2.  I taught 7th grade science for 15 years, so I have thousands of "kids."  I am now a stay at home mom to my two youngest - Colton just turned 3 and Cade will be 2 shortly.  Some days I think teaching 7th graders was easier than a 3 and 2 year old LOL!

When Cade was 25 days old we were given some devastating news.  We were told Cade has Cystic Fibrosis.  I wish I could say he "had" Cystic Fibrosis, like he had gotten over it, like a cold, but he still has CF and always will.  I will get into that day at a later time.

Cade's Cause was started when my son was 2 1/2 months old.  We had just lost our home in a storm and had a baby with a disease we really knew nothing about except life expectancy wasn't the greatest.  A friend, actually one of my kids from my babysitting days, was kind enough to start a fundraiser for Cade as we were overwhelmed with the cost of taking care of a baby with CF and not having a home.  Friends and family rallied around us and away we went. 

This past April when the "cold water challenge" was the rage (jumping into cold water to raise awareness and money for different groups, foundations or causes), unknowing to us, we had people jumping for Cade's Cause and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation!  Cade's Cause, yet once again, raised awareness to more people about CF.

In May, I tried to do the 31 days of May with a daily fact or story about CF for Cystic Fibrosis Awareness month and made about 20 of the 31 days.

So............... this is where Cade's Cause has lead me to - a blog.  I'm still not too sure what a blog is, so into the unknown we go.