Bean

This coming week we will be celebrating Lauren’s first birthday. It is hard to believe that it has been a year since she was born. It is even more amazing to think about how rough she had it when she was born, and how far she’s come. I have heard that babies that are premature and have complications often times see the effects of those complications for many years. But in Bean’s case you would never know by looking at her that she had any struggles.
When she was born she was just a tiny little thing, and it makes me laugh every time I see the fat rolls on her thighs. It is a sobering thought to think that we were very close to losing her, and that if Kate hadn’t been a nurse and recognized the signs of distress things would have gone bad for Bean.

(Here is a picture of Lauren in comparison to her cousin Maren, who is less than a month older.)

When Lauren was born her hands and feet were purple, and it was feared that she wasn’t pushing blood all the way to her extremities. She had to spend time in the newborn ICU, and the hospital staff only let us take her home because Kate was a staff member. When she was only a week old Lauren had to have surgery on a closed tear duct, but in the process of that it was discovered that she had a cyst in her nose and wasn’t able to breathe when eating. So the cyst was excised at the same time.

Again we thought we were in the clear, but then she stopped eating altogether, and before we knew it she was back in the hospital with a feeding tube. But Bean is a determined girl, just like her mother, and finally decided that she liked eating on her own. Now getting her to eat is no problem. She’s eating us out of house and home, and that is just fine with us.
I am so grateful that Kate had the skills that she does, and was observant. Take a look at the before and after pictures of Bean with the teddy bear. Quite a stark contrast.

P.S. if you’re wondering where the name ‘Bean’ came from, here’s the story. When Lauren was in the hospital with her feeding tube, I was talking to her and said, “You look like a little baby bean.” Because she looked like a little kidney bean with arms and legs. Whitney overheard me, and the nickname Bean stuck. So when Kate sent out birthday party announcements she used the tag line, “Can you believe it’s ‘Bean’ a year?” All four of our kids have their own nickname. But don’t ask where Patrick’s (Mr. P) came from…