Six years ago I was pot bellied, 35 pounds heavier, and ready to be a mommy. Of course I'm talking about being pregnant for Colton. His birthday is on Sunday and my baby will be turning 6 years old :( I give a sad face because the fact is he is not a baby and is growing up to be a boy. His journey was a long one and a fast one all at the same time. As I posted in my blog about my husband and I's story we had a whirl wind love and fast pregnancy. I thought I could not have kids because of my CF and the fact that I had been with someone for years before my husband and never got pregnant with no protection. So right from the beginning he was a miracle to me, little did I know at the time what a miracle he would be. My pregnancy was great as far as CF pregnancy's go, I only needed IV's once which was normal for me anyways. We did not know if my husband was a carrier of the CF gene and we choose to wait to test on him and the baby (we didn't find out what we were having) until he was born, I just felt it didn't matter I didn't need to stress more then I already was. My due date was April 15th, I had gone into labor twice two weeks before I had Colton and thankfully it stopped because it was too early, his lungs were not developed yet. When I went into labor for the last time on March 27th it was safe to deliver he was just over two weeks early, one week from being considered full term. I went into the hospital at about 5:30pm Saturday March 27th, and gave birth to Colton Thomas Purchase on Sunday March 28th at 11:58am. I did very well through the whole birthing process and although exhausted was fine after ward's, but Colton was not. Right after I delivered him they handed him to me and I held him for less than a minute before they took him to the baby bed and started trying to get him to breath better, he was breathing but barely. They took him out and Brad followed them not knowing what was going on. I did not hear or see of Brad until 2 hours later and had no idea what was going on. My first thought was CF, I was scared to death and balled my eye's out, my parents stayed with me until Brad came back. Brad came back and told us they had got him stabilized and on a ventilator but they were unsure of what exactly was wrong with him or if he would come through it. I balled for hours and was finally able to go see him in the NICU about 4 hours after having him. He was on the ventilator, IV's, and many other things in an incubator. After many tests and trying to get gas tubes that tested his oxygen in his belly button, the diagnosis was pneumonia and jondus. He was on the vent for the first 2 days, then they put him on c-pap which is another form of breathing assistance, a feeding tube and IV antibiotics. They had told us at the beginning that he would be there probably a week and then go home on IV's. Thankfully by god's grace he recovered faster then they thought he would and came home 6 days later on April 3rd with no antibiotics and he was eating on his own little by little. Those were the scariest 6 days of my life, and the next 2 months were torture as well. They took cord blood and tested it for CF which took 2 months to get results, I was looking for every single symptom of CF, he never had any. And I got a phone call after his 2 month check up sitting in Wendy's with Brad that the test results were back and after review it showed he was only a carrier from me. Relief is not the word to describe the feeling but it was beyond words how I felt. At this time we still did not know if Brad was a carrier because he still could have been and Colton would have had a 50% chance of getting CF. We waited and didn't have Brad tested until Colton was about 15 months old when we started talking about having another baby. We had Brad tested and sure enough he is a carrier, and that is why we decided not to have anymore children. And that is also why Colton is my miracle in more then one way, he beat the odds not once, not twice, but three times.
