thank you michelle!!!!!!

my baby center (preemie parenting) friend michelle gave me a creative blogger award!!!! you are awesome michelle, i love your writing and love hearing about liam. you are amazing! as you can tell from my very recently started blog, i did not share my struggles and stories while devin was actually in the nicu. i wish i had like you do about liam. i think it would have been somewhat healing and theraputic. i let the stress consume me and kind of suffered through that time without sharing my thoughts. anyway.. i look up to you for sharing yours with me and so many others who care. i am really happy that moms (mostly from the premie parenting site) are able to "see" into their very near futures from looking at my life with devin as it exsists today. you will all get here! it is not far off and its so fun!

anyway.. heres the cute award

and there are some rules that go along with this apparently...

The Rules:

Share 7 things that you don't already know about me.

1: im a scorpio and i totally believe in astrology.

2: fabian and i went to middle and high school together, but didnt start dating until after high school.

3: i was a veterinary technician before my pregnancy required me to go on bedrest at 13 weeks! i love animals and have 2 pitbull mixes and a very large and in charge cat.

4: my middle name is helena and i always secretly wished it was my first name so i could be called lena.

5: i have 3 tattoos. a big bouquet of flowers on my back, the letter g (you can barely tell) in a design on my ankle and devins name on my wrist. fabian also has devins name in the same spot on the same wrist. we got them done when he was 11 days old. in the picture, i still have bruises from the 3 million attempts to put an iv in the day i delivered him!

       

6: im a semi vegetarian. i eat fish but not any meat. i have'nt eaten meat for almost 4 years because it makes me too sad to think about how the animals live and die. the ridiculously overdone PETA video i watched before making my decision didnt help things either!

7: i live in georgia but my dream place to be/live is seattle. we lived there for 2 years and if we ever hit the lottery... seattle, here we come!

Name 7 other blogs to receive this award.

i actually cant do this. i only follow 7 blogs and michelle already nominated a couple of them for this award so here are my other faves:

http://armytwins.blogspot.com/    crystal and coutney are beautiful girls born at 23 weeks. they are amzing and i love reading about them.

http://mightymakenzie.blogspot.com/   makenzie is another amazing 23 weeker who is doing great.

http://anthonysawesome.blogspot.com/  anthony was born at 26 weeks and is such a happy little man. his mom is pregnant again and has made it really far which gives me so much hope for the future. i actually visited anthony's blog while i was on hospital bedrest and i wished my baby could one day be just like him!

http://multiplemiraclesfromabove.blogspot.com/  jen has two little handsome guys named declan and cade and i enjoy reading her posts alot.

http://brettandcandace.blogspot.com/  brett and candace just recently adopted an adorable little baby they named sawyer. i started reading their blog when i watched a youtube video made by lucy. lucy is a mom of two who i have been watching on youtube since i was very early in my pregnancy. she was pregnant and making pregnancy/motherhood videos weekly and shes very fun! she now has a a 6 month old and donates her extra pumped breastmilk to candace and brett for baby sawyer. i followed the link to their blog  after watching a video lucy made when she went to meet candace and sawyer.


Leave a comment on each of the blogs I nominated.

Thank the person who gave you the award.    thanks again michelle!



 

first entry!

ill give a brief history for readers who dont know us. my name is gretchen and im married to mny husband of almost a year (nov.28th) fabian. we have been together for 6 years and have a beautiful son named devin luke.

devin was born on june 23rd 2009, but wasnt expected until september 24th 2009! he came 3 months early and had a pretty rough start in life. this blog is basically for friends and family who dont get to see devin much because he needs to stay inside away from most people until the spring when flu/rsv season is over. because he was born so early he is unfortunatley at high risk for catching harmful viruses like rsv (i'll explain this more in future posts) that could basically land him back in the hospital.



while i was pregnant i had alot of complications (mailnly random bleeding for no apparant reason). when i was only 22 weeks pregnant i was admitted to the hospital because my water had broken and was told i would lose my son because i would most likely deliver within 48 hours. the drs. asked fabian and i to make a "desicion" about whether or not we would want our baby to be ressusitated or would we want to just "let him go". well we refused to make that decision and 5 weeks later i was still pregnant.

that 5 weeks gave devin his chance at life, and hes here and healthy today. he was born weighing only 2 lbs. 6oz and 13.5" long. he spent 11 weeks and 1 day in the nicu at northside hospital in atlanta. and came home 2 weeks before his due date. he has been home with us since 9/9/09 and we couldnt be happier!

devin is actually 21 weeks old today or 5 months on the 23rd! i cant believe hes been here that long! his adjusted age is almost 2 months. that means it will be 2 months from his due date on the 24th of november. so hes just like a 2 month old right now, not like a 5 month old. sometimes that concept is confusing for people but thats just the way it is. his pediatritian says hes developmentally more like a 3 month old and his size is more alng that line also so thats a VERY GOOD THING!
right now devin smiles socially only a couple times a day which is the cutest thing ever, and hes getting really good at holding his own head up. we recently got him a bumbo seat and he sits in it so well!

ill put soome pis up of his first couple weeks along with more recent ones to compare how far this little boy has come. its amazing! as of today he weighs 12lbs. 8 oz and is 23 inches long!