Our Story

Cody and I met in college in 2005.  Oddly enough, in Chemistry class.  We decided to be study buddies- I wanted to ace the class, but I think Cody had a different motivation.  Over the next month became good friends.  We found out that we only grew up 20 minutes from each other and even knew some of the same people.  We never officially started dating, but we hit it off so well that 8 months later we decided to move in together.   

A year and a half later we were engaged.  We decided to finish school and get settled into our jobs before actually getting married, so it was June 19, 2009 before we were married. 

We lived together almost four years before getting married, so we knew we wanted to start our family right away.  It didn't take long and we found our we were expecting over Labor Day weekend. 

Many people seem to enjoy being pregnant, I was not one of those people.  I was sick until I was 20 weeks along and was covered in breakouts.  To make matters worse, I hardly ever felt my baby move.  This was discussed with my doctor on numerous occasions, but evey ultrasound we completed looked great.  We were told that some moms just don't feel as much movement as others.

I woke up at 3:30 a.m. on May 4th (we were due on the 12th) with labor pains.  I tried and tried to go back to sleep, but nothing worked.  A few hours later, I woke Cody up and told him I thought I was having the baby.  We arrived at the hospital around 9:30, were told that I was in false labor and were sent home.  I spent the rest of the day walking and trying to sleep.  The contractions continued to get worse and we headed back to the hospital around 9:30 p.m.  This time we were allowed to stay and our baby boy arrived on May 5, 2010 at 5:36 a.m.  

Brett was unable to keep his temperature up and was taken to the NICU where he was placed under a heater and checked out by the pediatrician.  A few hours after delivery, the pediatrician told us she suspected Brett has Down syndrome.  A few hours later, we found out that he would need open heart surgery around 6 months or so.  Wow, not what we expected to hear.  With Brett being our first child, Cody and I didn't know the first thing about parenting...let alone caring for a child that would need additional support.  We had heard the term Down syndrome, but were unsure what it truly was or how it would impact our brand new baby.

Brett was jaundice and spent five days in the NICU.  We were finally able to take him home on Mother's Day.  

As we start this blog, Brett is a week shy of 5 months old.  We've spent the last few months visiting pediatricians, ENTs, ophthalmologists, cardiologists, speech, occupational, and physical therapists (the list goes on).  There have been many tears, anger, chaos, joy, laughter and lots of love.