A year ago, today, my little sister gave birth to a 9lb 7 oz baby boy and might I had she did it with no drugs! I remember being at work and waiting on an email saying he was here. I finally got that email right before I left work and I was so excited. It was a lot of fun for my sister and I to be prego at the same time and now we both have little boys. When I got home from work, Ben said you need to call your mom, A.J. is on a ventilator. I was shocked. 20 minutes earlier I thought everything was okay. Well turns out that A.J. was born with heart problems, they didn't know exactly what was wrong with him but he was being air lifted to a bigger hospital so he could be taken care of. What to do, what to do...I knew living in Spain it would take me at least a day to get home if I needed to go. I also knew a commercial flight at the spur of the moment would be around $3000. I worried about my family the whole night. The next day, which was a Friday, I called to the air terminal here on base and there was a flight leaving Friday night. I went to work on Friday and told them what was going on. To the military, in order to be considered emergency leave it has to be your immediate family members. A.J., to the military, isn't considered my immediate family. At Navy Federal, they told me that it probably wouldn't be approved for me to leave. I told them that it would be approved or that would be my last day. Miraculously, it was approved about 30 minutes later. So, I worked on Friday, went home and got Harrison and me ready to go. (Oh and we had only had Harrison's passport for about 2 weeks because it takes so long to get them here!) That night we get to the air terminal and the girl that checks you in asks me if I minded dogs. Well at the time, we had 2 dogs and I knew they didn't bother Harrison so I told her no. She asked me if 28 was too many. After all was said and done, Harrison and I were flying on a plane to North Carolina with 28 military working dogs and what seemed to be 100 marines. I felt safe, though, right? It all ended up being just fine. I got to Birmingham Saturday and momma and daddy and the kids picked us up from the airport. We went straight to UAB to see A.J. in the NICU. Katie, my sister, didn't know we were coming. I walked in, she looked at me, and it took her a minute to say What are you doing here...She was exhausted, sore from having a baby, trying to pump every 2-3 hours, and worried about her sweet sweet little man. He honestly looked like a toddler in the NICU with all the tiny tiny premature babies. Here are some pictures.
It was determined that A.J. would need surgery to repair his heart. He had open heart surgery when he was just 6 days old. He did great though! That trip I didn't get to hold the little booger. He was moved into his own room the day I had to leave. Here is a pic after surgery.
To look back on it now, I just remember praying and not knowing what would happen. A.J. and the Buie family had so many people praying for them. You can tell their little family is loved by just the amount of people in the waiting room during the surgery and the days following.
So enough about all the drama! He is 1 today! It's crazy how very vivid that day a whole year ago is in my mind. He is a funny little guy, from what I've heard. I can't wait to see him 3 weeks from today when Harrison and I leave Spain. I can't wait to see him and Harrison interact and I hope they are close. We love you so much A.J.! You had a rough little start in life and you have been such a trooper! You did give your mom a hard time with sleeping at first and I'm sure that you will keep her running once you start walking, but you are such a blessing to our family. We loved you before you were born, we love you now, and we will love you...always and forever! Here are some pics of the little guy, well he's bigger than Harrison, but age wise he is a little guy still!
I can't wait to spoil him rotten! Oh how I love being an aunt!
