Stockton is 1!!!

Our baby boy is 1! I can't believe a year has come and gone since Stockton was born. Judging by the frustrated look on his face in the above picture he can't believe it either. So much has happened so far in his life and it has been a HARD year...for Stockton, for our family and our extended family and friends who have had all had to step in and help us so much. But it has also been a wonderful year!!

First thing in the morning we always have the birthday boy open presents. They weren't the funnest birthday presents ever but since we just had Christmas and he didn't know the difference anyway we got away with giving him clothes and stuff he "needed".

Birthday boy having birthday waffles

Washing the syrup off

Papa & Grandma Mills came to visit the birthday boy and brought him some cute clothes

We combined Stockton's and Tandy's birthday parties since they are only 2 days apart. Kanton and Brig looked and looked through the birthday cake books to find the perfect cake for Stockton and they couldn't agree on the same thing so we made two cakes. Kanton chose a beach cake and Brig chose a #1 cake. We tried and tried to get Stockton to tear into his 1 cake and make a mess but he just wouldn't do it. He just sat and stared at it.

Grandma finally gave him a piece of the blue cake and this is about as messy as he got. It is so unlike him to not want to tear something apart! They only do it when you don't want them too.....isn't that the way it goes??

The birthday girl ( she is no longer a teenager, yikes!!)

Stockton is such a fun little boy to have around and he has such a cute personality which is great especially considering the tough start he has had in his life. He was born on January 9, 2009 without any complications but on February 2 at 3 weeks old he hospitalized with RSV. He was flown to Phoenix Children's Hospital the next day where he stayed for 5 more days and all but one of those days in the ICU. It was the scariest thing I have ever been through and the helpless feeling I felt was so awful. There was nothing I could do to help him feel better, it just took time.

When he was released from the hospital they told us he wouldn't need oxygen but as soon as we got into the higher elevation we could tell he was struggling for air. We took him into the doctor and they put him on oxygen and told us he probably would only need it for a couple of days until his lungs were used to the altitude. I took him to the doctor every other day to check his oxygen level and he wasn't able to come off of it until about 3 weeks later. I told the doctor I wanted to bring him back to make sure he was okay in a couple of days and when I did they put him right back on it. Dr. Nichols said he hadn't ever seen a case of RSV quite like this where they baby required oxygen for so long. He then referred us to a pulmonologist at Phoenix Children's Hospital where we spent lots of time and had lots of tests done trying to figure out what might be causing his low oxygen saturation.

After dealing with a horrible doctor there we finally switched and got a good one. Dr. Radford read his records and knew immediately what he might have. So she set up a bronchoscopy and she was right....he had tracheomalacia. It is where the airway is floppy and collapses because the cartilage surrounding it is not rigid enough to hold it open. She told us he would eventually grow out of it by the age of two, hopefully. He also had asthma that was most likely caused from the RSV and she hoped he would grow out of that too.

Stockton was on oxygen while sleeping until he was 11 months old. The poor baby had to be strapped down at night in a swing so he couldn't turn over and tangle in his tubes. He woke up several times a night and his oxymeter would go off several times a night too because he would constantly pull the oxygen tube out of his nose. He always had sores on his face from all of the tape we had to use to try to keep the tubes on him. It was rough and I always felt so bad for him. I have to admit I felt bad for myself too.....it was hard to deal with and get hardly any sleep!

When he was finally able to stay off of the oxygen he was staying at my mom and dad's house while Ray and I went out of town for a few days. When my mom told me I could hardly believe it. He only had to have oxygen one more night after that when he had a cold. I was so happy for the sweet little guy that he could just be put in his bed like a normal baby to roll over and move around like a normal baby. Life has been so much less stressful since then!!!! Definitely more restful too!

At one year old Stockton is:

~Still not walking...he has taken steps and walks around furniture but hasn't gotten brave enough to take off yet.
~Crawls a million miles per hour!
~Has 6 teeth
~Says bye bye & waves, says hot, mama, dada and wassat (what's that) while he points at something
~Climbs the stairs....most of the time he will decide he shouldn't have and will stop in the middle and scream until someone gets him down
~Loves his daddy....wants to go with him all of the time.
~Loves when his brothers play with him
~Doesn't want to eat anything...just like his brothers! He only wants to drink bottles
~Is great a making a mess
~Wants to be held CONSTANTLY!
~Sleeps through the night again FINALLY!
~Has been to the doctor more than the rest of our family all put together (I bet!)
~NOT ON OXYGEN ANYMORE!!! WOOHOO!!!

We all love this little boy to pieces!! He is so sweet and I can't imagine life without him!!! Happy Birthday my sweet Stockton boy!