I know I keep saying it, but I really am incredulous that six months have flown by so quickly. It was six months ago yesterday that Jude Simon came into our lives 7 weeks early, totally taking us by surprise and beginning the greatest love affair that Simon and I have ever known. October 29, 2007, I was one sick cookie! I had to deliver early due to crazy gnarly pre-eclampsia, and so at 5:35pm, Jude came into the world. I remember the doctors holding Jude up, screaming, and one foot smacked into the plastic window that was between me and them (I had a c-section). I thought immediately that he had Simon’s hands and feet. He was long and lean, but oh-so-tiny. He was only 3 lbs, 13 oz!
He was in the NICU at Baptist for three weeks, and it was definitely a rollercoaster ride. Jude was such a little feisty fighter, though. I remember at one point, one of the nurses told me that Jude and I needed to have a little talk about feedings because when he could finally take a bottle for 24 hours straight, he would get to go home. Up until this point, he still had the gavage feeding tube in (see the photo above). I held Jude and teased him, telling him that we needed to get on the same page about this milk business.  Wouldn’t you know it, the next time I came into the NICU, the nurse said, “Well, your son must have listened to you, because he ripped his own tube out.”   Well, ok! When he finally got to come home, he was barely 4 pounds, and we were terrified. We were up every three hours, following the same schedule as the NICU: change diaper, take temperature, feed 1 oz. It took a good hour to get an ounce of milk down him, and we were scared to over-tire him as it would cause him to burn more calories and wear him out. I’m amazed when I think that he can now down a 6-oz bottle in 5 minutes flat. God is so good, and He was (and is) ultimately in control. Thanks to the love and care of our families, we made it through those first hard weeks. 
Every single day with Jude is such a joy, and I consider it such an honor and privilege to be his mom.  I was looking through his box of preemie things today, stuff that I’ve kept to remind me of where we’ve been and what we’ve come through. Check out the photo above — the diaper on the left was one of his preemie diapers. It was too big for him when he was first born. I can’t even imagine it now!

The first time he ever rode in his swing. (3 weeks old)

Jude today (April 30, 2008)

So today, we have a spirit of joy and thankfulness for all our God has done for us. Jude is the biggest gift we could have ever received, and I cannot imagine my life without him. I am thoroughly, 125%, madly in love, obsessed with my kid. Thank you, Jesus, for what you have done here. We will never stop praising you for Jude.