Celebrating 2 years of Rohne

November 6, 2005. Still a day I remember fresh in my mind. After 16 hours of labor, and one darn good epidural, our little baby boy was delivered. (With a little help from the doctor and very scarey looking forceps that is). He came out screaming, and seemed to never stop until he was about 3 months old. After already dealing with one colicky baby, I did not want to go through that again. In fact, through the haze of my postpartum mind, I tried to give him to my mom multiple times. Thank heavens she was smart enough to know I would regret that decision, and refused. Although, I know how much she misses him.

He was a huge eater, as you can tell. And after 2 breast infections, kidney stones, infection of my episitiomy, and his hospitalization for RSV, I gave up trying to breastfeed, and just fed him the bottle. I had pumped for 6 months with Taylee, and knew I didn't have the time or energy to do it again. This decision would come back to haunt me later when we found out that he had a terrible immune system.

Around 5 months, we had only really dealt with one major sickness, the RSV. But, then, he started getting sick more and more, with very high fevers. I am a paranoid mom who had a very understanding doctor. He trusted mother's intuition, so we spent a lot of time at his office. He did multiple blood tests, and found out that he always had a low white blood count. But, it could be a number of things, and told us not to worry about it too much.

However, by this age, he had been in and out of the hospital many times with infections. The doctors always reminded us that it could be cancer. Around this time, we went to Primary Childrens in Salt Lake and ruled that out. He has what they call "Chronic Benign Neutropenia," and they think he will grow out of it soon.

Halloween, 2006, Rohne was in isolation because it was too risky for him to catch something. We had a great time celebrating inside. And, he didn't know the difference. We still prayed for a miracle though, because it was getting to be very hard on all of us.

We decided to move back to Washington, and it was a prayer answered. They found out that his illness was treatable, and we started giving him shots to boost his immune system. Come to find out, he never would have grown out of it on his own. He will probably be on these shots for a very long time. And, it had nothing to do with genetics or breastfeeding. We found a wonderful specialist who posed the question: "Could he really be a normal boy?"

Yes. . . swings would never have been possible before. Way too many germs. But, he loves them, and we spend most of our days outside now when the weather is nice. It is me who needs the little push now and then to let him do it though.

He is definitely a 2 year old now. We have our fair share of tantrums, fighting, messes, and fits, but I would not trade a day. Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he entrusted Rohne's little spirit in my hands. I have grown so much as a person, and as a mother, just by raising him. It has been a trial, and sometimes I wondered how we would ever get through, but we have. And, there are so many more adventures yet to come. Thanks to all my family and friends who have helped me, and especially been there for my son during his Blessed 2 years.