My Christmas Baby is NINE

Collin is nine! How is my first baby already NINE?!

FLASHBACK

I will never forget that Christmas. Collin was due on the 18th, and I started dreading in March having a Christmas baby when my doctor calculated my due date. They refused to induce on first pregnancies at this office, so I finally went into labor about 2am on Sunday, December 21st. We had a horrible ice storm the day before, and Church had been canceled the night before. It was a slow, cautious drive to the hospital downtown.

His actual delivery was pretty textbook - epidural and 10 hours of labor. He ended up being my only textbook labor, but those are stories for another day. We were discharged Christmas Eve.

At this time, my youngest brother was on his mission in Italy. While we Skyped with him Christmas morning, our horrible doctor called (Collin was 4 days old) and told us we needed to return to the hospital so Collin could lay under the lights for four hours. When we arrived at the hospital, no one was expecting us, and we wandered around the huge downtown hospital for hours trying to figure out where we were supposed to me.

When we finally got our doctor back on the phone, she admitted forgetting to tell admin we were coming. It was late afternoon before Collin was placed in the incubator under the blue lights. I was a frantic wreck, expecting each breathe to be his last. I watched him and fed him bottles of formula (my worst nightmare) through the incubator holes because we weren't allowed to take him out. My parents and other brother came and sat with him through the night, since I was being so psycho.

By morning, when we thought we should be done, the doctors admitted he was only laying under half as much light as he needed, but no one knew where the light bulbs were. When they finally located the bulbs, no one knew (I kid you not) how to change the bulb. My engineer husband almost killed someone!

In the end, we were in the pediatric wing for 24 hours - through Christmas Day. It was the worst Christmas of my life. I remember the nurses bringing us the pity-the-kids-in-the-hospital-on-Christmas toys. We still have the squeaky yellow duck we were given. The doctors were all awful and mean. It was a horrible experience, and we never used that hospital again.

Anyway, Collin was my colic baby too, so it isn't like life was rosy the next six months. I remember sitting on the back patio sobbing because he'd be screaming for hours, and it was the only place I couldn't hear him. I remember never understanding how shaken baby death could ever happen, until my own colicky, maniac baby. It was not a good point in my life.

I didn't really understand nursing with Collin - learning curve! - so I would nurse him for 45 minutes per side. I now realize he was napping on me. I was literally nursing for 90 minutes straight, so I would only have a 30-minute break before the two-hour window expired and I started again. I "lived" like this for months. (Psst, it wasn't really living!)

I was also teaching early-morning seminary. After six weeks home with my little guy, I returned to teaching a Bible-study class 5-days every other week from 6-7am at our local church. Collin miraculously starting sleeping through the night then, but I'd wake at 3:30am every day to pump so Ryan could give him a bottle when he woke up and I was still gone. Collin was my only bottle-drinker, and my only baby to sleep through the night so young, and I attribute that as a blessing for my service to God.

Despite these first rough months, Collin was also our much dreamt for little man. We always wanted to have a boy first. We had been married for five years by the time he was born. Though some of that wait was planned so Ryan could get his schooling done and I would be able to stay home, we also struggled to conceive for about a year. Our dear Collin was much prayed for.

Anyway, somehow this was all nine years ago, though I can remember the anxiety like it was yesterday. My little orange baby sick in the blue incubator was NINE years ago. So much screaming was NINE years ago. Nursing all day and all night was NINE years ago. I had THREE more babies in those NINE years. I quit teaching Bible-study when we learned we were pregnant with Brennan, EIGHT years ago, but it is definitely still a part of my story.

...nine years ago...

TODAY

It snowed on his birthday! I let them play before school this morning.

Now, he's a big, bad 3rd grader, already more than halfway done with elementary school. He's in the gifted and talented program for math, and he's in the highest reading group. Just recently, on his own, he's read Harry Potter #1-3, four of Grisham's Theodore Boone series, and he started Eragon this week. I love that he loves to read. He has been doing Taekwondo for a year and a half now, and he really loves it. He goes to class three days per week. It has really built his confidence, so I suppose that makes the expense worth it. He has been playing piano for 3 years now, and he loves going to Cub Scouts on Wednesdays, where his dad is his Den Leader. He participated in Jingle Choir at school too, where they did several concerts including the town lighting. I love his teacher at school this year, and he's got a great group of boys in his class. Girls are still utterly disgusting though.

Bethke Jingle Choir at the Town of Timnath Lighting Festival

He loves ninjas, Legos, piano, Cubs, Pokemon and Minecraft (not necessarily in that order though).

Happy birthday, Collin!

To celebrate his bday, we let him pick one friend to do something with. He picked going swimming at the rec center with his long-time buddy Mason. So last Saturday, Ryan took him and Mason to lunch at Sonic, then indoor swimming and then they got donuts afterwards. Mason got him a good-sized pack of Pokemon cards. They had a good time.

Dad & Collin headed to the pool

Collin & Mason after swimming

His actual birthday was also the final day of school before Christmas Break. His class holiday party was in the morning, and in the afternoon, he picked extra laptop time as his birthday activity. For dinner, he requested beef stew and homemade rolls. He also really wanted a chocolate ice cream cake, which is hard to find (they are almost all vanilla!), but mom pulled it off.

A pocketknife! 

Sparring gear (soooo expensive!)

Cake that he didn't have time to eat bc he had to get to the belt ceremony

After opening his presents (new karate sparring gear, new Bear book & neckerchief, and a pocketknife), we headed to the karate studio where he received his camo belt. He has now moved up to the Level 2 classes.

Belt Ceremony (camo)

Look at that kick! 

Mr Overby, world's best teacher

Finally, cake after karate

 

The End

Collin has always been my little buddy. He has always been able to read my moods, and he is the best little pleaser there ever was. He definitely knows how to pester his siblings, and he really likes to get his own way, but all in all, he is the best helper in our home. I don't know where I'd be without him. We love our Collin! I just wish he'd stop growing up.

Happy 9th, Coll-a-roo!