Samuel Warshaw Moss 11.11.11

He is here!  Our sweet adorable bundle of joy made it!  It is amazing how quickly you love this new child that comes into your family.  He is such a great addition and it just amazes me how well the kids have adjusted to their new brother.  They LOVE him and are always there to give him his pacifier or bottle when he cries or to pat his head when he is sad.

Just to quickly give you an update on his birth, it was a very different hospital experience this time around.  Sam was due on November 8 and never came so we were scheduled to be induced on November 10 and went into the hospital that evening since my doctor would be on graveyard shift.  Everything happened so much faster than with our others kids.  From start to finish I was only in labor for 4 hours and 20 minutes and I only had to push a few times and he was here.  It is such an amazing experience as a couple to see this new spirit for the first time.  I wish the time would have lasted longer but he was having a difficult time breathing so they sent him up to the NICU.  To make a long story short they thought he had phenomena so they expected him to be in the hospital for a week.  It broke my heart to not have him there with me and to see him connected to a breathing machine and have so many tubes and needles connected to him.  In the end he was born with inflammation in his lungs so it was not as serious.  It just took along time for him to recover.  In the end he was in the NICU for 11 days.

Th hardest part for me was going back and forth from the hospital through that time.  I don't know how people who have sick family members do it...how they balance their life at home plus take care of that sick person.  My mom was a saint and stayed with my kids for a week so I could be with Sam and be there to feed him.  I remember coming home on day 7 and just crying to my parents because I was feeling like I was only able to do everything halfway.  I wanted so badly to be in two places at the same time.  I wanted to be home with my kids since I felt they needed me the most and noticed when I was away but I needed to be there to feed Sam.  I had also felt like I was missing out on his sweet newborn stage since he was not home with me.  We were just very grateful in the end that his stay at the hospital was not from anything serious or life threatening.  I gained a greater appreciation for healthy children.

Another struggle was loosing my milk due to having him away for so long.  I struggled with feelings of guilt and remorse and thinking I was a horrible mom because I could not nurse my child.  The thought of having to formula feed him really played a toll on me.  It took me 6 weeks to finally realize it is okay and I did the best I could.  I think as moms we are really hard on ourselves and we want everything to turn out perfect but sometimes things don't always go as planned.  I guess I am slowly learning to take life as it is and try to make lemonade from lemons.

I am so grateful for this sweet boy.  He has been our easiest baby by far.  I have never had a baby that sleeps so much or so well or one who rarely cries.  Since he was born he has already been to Seattle and San Francisco and we can attest he is an amazing traveler.  We feel very blessed to have you in our family Sam.

Seeing and holding him for the first time!

Both of our moms were very eager to come and see Sam even if it was in the middle of the night!

Abigails meeting Sam for the first time.  She was only able to see him for 5 minutes but it was priceless to see her face light up when she held him and met him.

Seeing him without any tubes for the first time and getting an idea of what he looked like! 

I love this picture because I was at the hospital at the time and Brad had the kids all ready to come and pick us up so we could bring Sam home.  Look how excited they are and  how they are still in their pjs:).

Sam all dressed and ready to leave the hospital!

Abigail and Will loving their new brother!