WOW-really super, duper long

edited I added a bit here and there.

2 years old. on the 15th of March we celebrated Gage's 2nd birthday. Wow. I can't believe 2 years has gone by so quickly. Since I started the blog, I have wanted to write his story, to save for us and to share with you.
Spring Break '06 we went home to Oxnard to spend the week at Mom's house. We went to the beach, and In & Out. (to tell you the truth I can't remember what else we did, I only remember those two things because that is what we did the day before Gage was born). I was 30 weeks pregnant. I had been told that I had placenta previa, and I needed to be careful. I was careful, but not nearly careful enough. How can you not do things when you have 6 kids. If I knew the severity of the condition I would have found a way to be careful.
3-14-06 Tuesday, Right after going to bed for the night I felt like I peed the bed. I hadn't fallen asleep, so I knew that couldn't have been it. But I felt a huge gush, so I got up and went to the bathroom. There was a ton of blood. I couldn't figure out how to stop it, so after a few minutes I called Jared. We decided the best thing to do was get mom and call for an ambulance. We did. We also asked Dad to give me a blessing. I don't remember what was said, but I know because of the blessing I had a calm feeling, and knew whatever happened it was going to be alright. I didn't worry about me or the baby. Silly me, I worried about the other kids. Right before the blessing, mom stood behind me, at this point I was sitting on a rolly chair in the bathroom, she put her hands on my shoulders, and kissed my head. What a sweet thing. It wasn't a big thing, but it sure helped me.
The ambulance arrived. They put me on this funny chair and took me down the stairs. The kids slept through all of it. (which was such a relief) I was taken to Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura. I had delivered babies there before, so it wasn't a scary place for me. The ride in the ambulance was fine. Lots of questions, a little oxygen, vitals and such. My most expensive bus ride ever.
I think by the time I got to the hospital the bleeding had stopped. They told me, if everything continued to look good, I could stay there for at least 6 weeks until the baby was bigger. A couple hours later contrations started, with pain. They gave me meds to stop the contrations, but the pain stayed. I didn't sleep much. I was worried about my kids being with whoever for 6 weeks. I cried, I was hurting.
3-15-06 Wednesday-Jared left at about 6 am to be with the kids. He made lots of calls. at about 10 I got a visitor. How awesome it was to see a friendly face. Lisa Cannon showed up. I could not control my tears. I was hurting in more ways than one. Lucky for me Lisa is an awesome friend and understood. She also had Ann and Cam with her, but they were waiting in the waiting room. Lisa and Ann switched places. Ann came to see me. Still to this day i am in awe of her sacrifice. She is an amazing woman. They both are great friends. :)
I had an ultrasound done. They said they couldn't see anything wrong. Yet I was still in a lot of pain. I was not a good patient, I cried all day. The nurse was great. She was very nice and loving. The dr. came in and introduced himself. Dr. Torres. The funny thing was he had came in and saved the day when Tanner was born, and my dr. was unreachable. He thought that was pretty funny. He was very nice, and thorough. He said he wasn't sure what to do because the baby was so little, but we couldn't find a reason for my pain. He went to the NICU, the nurse gave me some tylenol. I said, do you really think this is going to help. She said no, but that they couldn't give me anything else because if i relaxed then the baby would come.
The dr. came back, said that the NICU dr. said that the baby could do well at 10 weeks premature. So they decided to do the c-section. I called Jared. He was at home trying to find someone to watch the kids. We were so blessed to be home when this happened. We have so many dear friends, old and new that stepped up and took care of the boys, and other things that we needed. Plus a wonderful mom who was absolutely amazing through the entire time we were there.
I told Jared they were going to take the baby, he raced over. He made it in time. The worst part of surgery for me ( i had 3 other c-sections before this one) is the spinal injection of meds. It has never gone well, and it scares me. The anesthesiologist was awesome. She got the needle right in, and meds started quick. I told her I loved her. The only problem was that it wasn't enough. i could feel a ton of tugging. There was a lot of scar tissue, and they had to cut it out, the pain got worse and worse. I was squeezing Jared's hand so hard. She gave me more meds. I don't know anything else that happened until I started waking up in recovery. It was the most pain I have ever had. I felt like they were still doing the surgery. The same pain I fell alseep with, is what I woke up with. there was some print on the wall, but I couldn't figure out what it was, or where I was. I kept asking where Jared was, I had to tell myself that I had just had a baby, and I knew that in my mind, but my mind and mouth were not speaking to each other. It was hard to wake up and come out of the sleep. I had a baby boy. He was tiny.
Gage's first day 3 lbs 5 oz

Our blue Light Special

Little Dude with an Attitude. He sure did have an attitude. One that kept him going strong for 5 weeks to be able to go home to his daddy.

this was his first shirt. I love it. It really fit him like a dress. I really wanted to buy one of those shirts, but I never did.
He was no wimpy white boy. He only stayed on the vent for less than two days. by the time I got to see him he was off of it. The drs. said that usually white babies were wimpier than other babies and had to stay on the ventilator longer. But not Gage.
I came home from the hospital on Saturday. I begged the dr. to let me go home one day early, that way I could see my girls before they had to go home to St. George. Sunday morning they got up early and left, at about 4 or so. Jared took the 3 girls with him and I stayed in CA with the 3 boys, and Gage in the NICU. It was very hard to send them home. We all survived. The worst day of the whole 6 weeks we were there was the Tuesday after they left. I had been up since 4 am. I felt tears welling all day. I kept them in me until about 5 pm. My dad was coming to take me to see Gage and the boys were going to stay with Grandma. Something happened and I lost control. We ended up taking the two older boys with us, Austin was asleep. They fell asleep, and i went in to the hospital alone. Dad stayed in the car with them. About 10 pm I felt better. I decided though that from then on I would go to bed pretty close to the time the boys went to bed, and sleep until 6 or so. I needed my sleep to stay in control of my emotions. There were a few times I cried about this or that, but I managed to get a pretty good schedule and we handled things. not great, but we managed.
Every other day we had friends watch the boys and mom would drive me to the hospital. The other days she would take the boys for a drive, to the park, or keep them at home while I visited Gage. It was hard on them to go to different homes. And it was hard on me to leave them there crying. This arrangement seemed to work out okay.
5 weeks passed quickly. I can't remember all that happened after the first few days. But there was a couple of things that happened that were pretty funny. One night we went to the hospital after the boys were asleep. After we saw Gage and walked out of the NICU the fire alarm went off. We waited, saw men running through the halls. I wasn't sure I wanted to leave my baby there if there was a fire. The alarm shut off. We continued to make our way down stairs. About half way from the elevator to the ER door the alarm went off again, more running, and a little craziness. Still wasn't sure whether to leave or not. I didn't want to be paranoid, but fire is a bit scary. We decided to leave. When we got home, I called the NICU to make sure everything was fine. It was. :)
We had amazing nurses, social workers, drs. all that helped Gage get strong. i held him every day. I got to feed him a bottle one day towards the end of the time in the NICU. That didn't go to well, he was so fragilie, so by the time he needed to burp I couldn't burp him hard enough. He ended up throwing up everything. yuck.
The day before we were to take Gage home, I went in the NICU to drop off his carseat (he had to pass the carseat test, sit in it for 1 hour without any breathing problems) and some milk. When I walked in there was a huge crib in the spot where his bed usually was. I felt my heart racing. I asked what had happened, they said nothing we just moved him, we needed the spot. What a relief.
Gage came home on April 21, 2006. What a blessing to have him come home in half the time he should have been there. I know that Heavenly Father had a hand in everything that went on in those 5 weeks. I witnessed miracles. I know he loves us. I know things happened for a reason. We are blessed. Gage is a healthy 2 year old today. He talks, crawls, makes messes, feeds himself and throws tantrums just like any other two year old. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy in October of '07. He doesn't walk, or sit up to well yet. But he's working on it. He is such a sweet boy. Wow. Look how far he's come. I feel blessed beyond comprehension that I am a mother to these 7 kids. They are all given to me, to be responsible for, and to teach, to love, and care for. I know my Heavenly Father must really love me to give me these special gifts. I feel honored to be a mom. and a wife. I have the priveledge to be married to an awesome man. He gives, gives and gives to us, everyday. I love that he makes me laugh, every day. That he works so hard to take care of us. I feel amazingly blessed in the knowledge that I will be his wife for eternity. How wonderful that is going to be. My husband, my sweet kids, my family forever!!