Seth is 5

WARNING: There are a lot of pictures today! Today was Seth's 5th birthday!!! I don't know if I've ever typed out Seth's story on here before, and I of course don't feel like going back through old posts to find out. So WARNING #2: There's a lot of reading today, too.

Before Seth was born, ultrasounds showed three signals that he might have Down syndrome. So we went to a perinatologist to have a second look. The specialist told us that Seth had one or possibly both club feet, but not Down syndrome. A later ultrasound showed that Seth was breech. We scheduled a C-section and looked forward to meeting our perfect little baby #4. A week or two before the scheduled C-section, Seth decided he was tired of being cramped up in my belly. At about 3 a.m., we called Jason to come home from church camp (which was 2 1/2 hours away) and then went to the hospital. My doctor ordered a medicine that stopped contractions, and we waited until he had woke up, performed another emergency C-section, and then got to us. Jason did make it in plenty of time to see Seth be born. The nurses could tell immediately that Seth did, in fact, have Down syndrome. We were glad that Seth seemed healthy, and we concentrated on the fact that we had a beautiful little boy, regardless of any surprises. For the most part, Seth was just like our other three babies . . .

. . . except that he had a pretty large hole in his heart that was using most of the calories that he took in. We had to feed him super-high-calorie formula and give him some medicines to prevent reflux and to keep his heart regular until he was seven months old and ready for heart surgery. We flew down to Portland, Oregon to have the hole in his heart repaired -- a completely horrible but necessary experience. The repair fixed his heart completely.

Throughout Seth's first five years, we have met so many doctors and therapists, I can't even remember them all. But I'm forever grateful for all they've done to help my baby Seth.

I took pictures of almost every step of today, starting with, "Good morning, Seth. Cover your eyes. The light's coming on -- one, two, three -- ON!"


Next was a birthday bath:


Later in the day, we put up the polar bear growth chart to see how many inches Seth has grown this year:


And then stepped on the scale to see how his weight has changed:


Before we went to the movie theater, we tried to take birthday pictures. With Seth, this is always a comic event:






After dinner, we sang "Happy Birthday" so that Seth could blow out the candle on his birthday brownies:


Seth had a great birthday, I believe!


Next stop: KINDERGARTEN!