I have no idea where to begin this blog, but I guess I will
start with the brief (but probably not really) summary of my life and how I got
to my current position in life. I was born
to my mom and dad in November of 1983, which I have no memory of at all, but I
am sure it was great. Ha. My parents got divorced when I was still a
baby and I have been with my daddy ever since.
Long story and not public blog appropriate. It was only my dad and I, living very humbly
in a trailer on my grandparents’ farm.
It was this way until I was two weeks shy of the ripe old age of 7, when
Dad married my stepmom, Judy. I gained 2
stepsisters, Amie and Misty, who were already grown (well, Amie was a senior in
high school, so we lived together for a year.)
I’m going to go ahead and skip to college, where I attended and
graduated from Jacksonville State University in Alabama with a degree in
Communication/Public Relations. For a
year and a half in there, I got a little lost, moved home, hated it, and
promptly moved back to Alabama where I belonged. It took me six years to graduate, but hey, I
got there.
I met my husband, Ryan, in my church youth group while I was
in high school. I am three years older
than he is, that doesn’t make me a cougar, right? ;) Ryan
went to Georgia Southern University to college and we were 5+ hours apart. That made for an interesting relationship/engagement. After getting engaged in July of 2007, we
FINALLY got married in October of 2009 on my grandparents’ farm and it was the
most beautiful, wedding I could have imagined for us.
Our wedding day
Then, only 5 months later, we found out we were expecting a
baby! When we found out, I cried. Funny,
I will NEVER forget that feeling of sheer terror! I was supposed to be responsible for someone
else? I couldn’t even take care of
me! Scary!!! While I cried, Ryan ran around our apartment,
jumping on the furniture and screaming so loud that our neighbors heard and
knew before anyone else. After a long and very fat pregnancy, by
emergency C-section one cool October day, our precious, magical little boy,
Colt Thomas was born at 37 weeks, weighing 8 pounds and 6 ounces. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever
seen and still is to this day. I am so
stupidly smitten and head-over-heels in love with this child. Yes, I am That Mom. My kid does no wrong. Just kidding… sort of. ;)
Newborn Colt. Look at those cheeks!
Colt has had his share of obstacles, but nothing too scary
and for that I am eternally grateful. At
around 4 or 5 months old, we noticed his eyes were shaking side-to-side, really
quickly. A lady we knew said “My
grandson’s eyes do that. It is called
Nystagmus. You need to call his doctor
right now.” That scared me, so I immediately
went home, called the pediatrician, made an appointment for the very next
morning, and googled “nystagmus.” Don’t
ever do that. It will terrify you. Anyway, I will try to make this short, but we
got him in, found out the diagnosis was correct and were sent to a pediatric ophthalmologist
a few weeks later. A lot of people are
born with nystagmus, but sometimes when people acquire it later, it usually has
a cause, such as a brain injury or a brain tumor. We knew he hadn’t had a brain injury, so that
left the other. We got an MRI scheduled
at Vanderbilt University within a week to find out what was going on. That was really hard on us because they had
to put him to sleep for over an hour to do the test. Having to pass my precious 5 month old over
to people I didn’t know but knowing they were going to stick him with needles,
stick tubes down his throat, and run hour long tests on him was probably the
hardest thing I have ever had to do. BUT
his brain was perfectly normal! Praise
God. J They still don’t know what caused his
nystagmus, but we’re dealing with it. He
didn’t walk until 18 months and now at almost 21 months still isn’t
talking. Colt also has strabismus, where
his eyes do not line up. They used to
cross in, but we have had two surgeries and now they go out too far. It is terribly frustrating and I am currently
trying to get him in to a doctor in Akron, Ohio, who is supposed to be the best
nystagmus/strabismus doctor in the country.
At around nine months, he even wore glasses for about five months to try
to straighten his eyes and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen! They did not work, nor did the patching of
his eyes, so now we’re waiting, trying to figure out what to do next. We obviously have a few more surgeries to go,
but hopefully this doctor can minimize those.
Colt's glasses. ;)
Hanging out on the porch
Now my husband, Ryan, and I work together (yikes!) at my
family’s ice company. I only work 2 ½ days
a week and the other days get to stay home with my boy. I like to cook, read, go to concerts, watch
baseball (Go Braves!) and college football(Go Dawgs!), shop, and recently, do
crafty stuff. Thanks to my obsession
with Pinterest for that one.
I will keep you guys updated on how Colt’s eye stuff goes
and our journey through life with this blog and I SWEAR, I will not post
another blog this long. I was right, not so brief. If you made it
to the end, congratulations. If you didn’t,
well….thanks for giving it a shot. ;)
Jessica
good blog....i still think you should have named him webb
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I need to create a blog and actually use it for "family"... but I'm always wondering who would keep up with it... :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Webb! Maybe with baby #2 you'll get lucky. ;)
ReplyDeleteJenny, I don't know if anyone will actually read mine either, but I would love to have a place to have our memories and stories and funny things in one place for the future, you know? If anything, it is worth it for that!
Excellent! I do love seeing all the pictures of your sweet boy, and I look forward to reading more!
ReplyDeleteJess, Loved reading your blog. I am looking forward to the next blog post already. Give Colt a big hug from me.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog already! So exciting! I love havin mine as an outlet!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement, you guys! It really means a lot and I am excited to start this!
ReplyDeleteShalon, can I follow you, or however this works?