The James Family: January 2009

Miracles come in all shapes and sizes and ours happened to weigh in at 4 lbs 2 oz (and 17 inches long). We were blessed with a beautiful baby boy- William Roland James - born on November 11, 2008. William was delivered after I developed toxemia and the doctor felt it was in the best interest of both of us to go ahead and perform a C-section. William spent 11 days in the NICU because he was premature and very small. We had known beforehand that he would be in the NICU, but I don't think, no matter how prepared we thought we were, that we were ready to see our little baby hooked up to monitors and machines. We were so blessed, however, to have good nurses taking care of our baby and explaining to us what every thing was for and what it all meant. While in the NICU, William was in an isolette to keep him warm enough, he had to be under phototherapy lights for jaundice, he had an IV in his head (this was probably my least favorite thing), and a feeding tube going down his nose into his stomach. He was hooked up to lots of monitors to measure just about everything it seemed like! We were able to hold him 2 times a day for thirty minutes at a time. The rest of the time he had to be in the isolette in order to keep him warm enough. It was hard not to be able to hold him longer and be with him, but we are grateful for modern medicine that made it possible for him to be okay.

We saw blessing after blessing while William was there and after a mere 11 days (we thought it would be much longer) he got to come home. There is a certain moment when you are overcome with complete panic when the doctor tells you that you get to take home your 4 lb. 9 oz baby. I remember thinking "NO WAY. . .you can't send me home with such a tiny baby. . .I think he needs to stay here until he is a LEAST 7 lbs!" But really, it was wonderful to bring him home so soon and it only took me about 2-3 weeks before I could actually sleep without waking up every 5 minutes to see if he was okay!

William is now between 8-9 lbs (we find out tomorrow how much he weighs, so that is just our guess) and doing great! He eats well and is healthy and strong and is such a wonderful little baby! One of the most interesting things about William is that he has red hair. . .now, that may not seem all too weird to most of you, but when you take into account that Roland is half Japanese and I don't have red hair, then you might start to wonder. The first time the nurse pointed out his red hair I admit I thought to myself "Well, they have made a mistake, this can't possibly be our baby because our baby can't possibly have red hair!" But, Roland and I are finally getting used to our little Red Headed Asian Baby!!!

We are just so grateful to have William here with us. There were so many complications surrounding this pregnancy and yet each time after the doctors found something else that could possibly go wrong or had gone wrong, we immediately saw blessings and felt at peace knowing that everything would turn out the way it was supposed to. We are also grateful for all the wonderful family and friends who visited while I was on bedrest and who constantly prayed for our little baby. . .he is definitely the product of alot of people's prayers and love! We love being parents and are excited for the years to come, although we already think he is growing up too fast! Here are some fun pics of William's first weeks of life!