Matthew's Birth Story

I call Matthew a lot of things (Man Cub, buddy, little man, sweet boy), but I refer to him as "our bonus baby."  I thought after I had Bella, our family was complete.  I had wanted and prayed for one more baby.  But every avenue that we tried (foster, adoption) just didn't seem to fit right.  I had nearly settled on the fact that we were happy to just be a family of 5, when two lines appeared on the test.  I could hardly believe it.  Here I was...newly 36 years old (gasp...advanced maternal age) pregnant.

I told Mark we were pregnant in our favorite Thai food restaurant.  He was a little less than thrilled.  My history with pregnancy didn't really put the odds in our favor for a healthy baby.  So we kept the "news" quiet until I was nearly 10 weeks along and had seen a heartbeat and several ultrasounds of growing baby.

Shortly after I became pregnant with Matthew, I had a dream that I was holding a beautiful newborn baby with dark hair.  Later, I would realize the baby in my dream would look exactly like my new son.

My age didn't make pregnancy very easy.  I feel like I made it through by the skin-of-my-teeth.  I had a couple close calls with genetic testing, too much amniotic fluid and gestational diabetes.  Regardless, the morning of Wednesday, February 17, 2016 @ 7:57am, I gave birth to the biggest most beautiful baby boy.  Matthew weighed in at 9 pounds and 9 ounces.  His transition into the world was a little rough.  He wouldn't cry and I waited for what seemed like an eternity to hear his little precious squeal.  Matthew's Apgar's were a low; 4 and then 8.  He had trouble maintaining his blood sugar the first 24 hours.  Later I would find out the pediatrician's office at the Vancouver Clinic worked very hard with Legacy Salmon Creek to keep him out of the NICU.  I guess I really didn't realize until later how close Matthew came to being admitted.  

Matthew was an unexpected and much wanted gift.  I treasure him.  He is everything I didn't know that I wanted.  Mark now can't imagine his life without his buddy.  They have an incredible bond.  I am so thankful for the gift of Matthew to our family and cannot even imagine our life without him.