The Big Day! Alexander D. Millington!!!

I love a party. I love a party!!! Even if that means an entire week of preparation of my time. I just like the anticipation and the fun that will be had by all. So, Little Lex turned 1. It was a great day for him. A Saturday and we could celebrate the entire day!!! And as you now know, I love that.

 Here we are in the early morning before it all begins. Just getting ready for breakfast. It is still hard for me to believe that my baby is 1 year old. He is still such a little one to me.  

I think Royce loves a camera the way I love a party. They are both modeling their rocket pajammies.

 

Here is Alex working the tool station. He loves this thing. Since he has become tall enough to play with it, he pulls himself up and holds down on all the tools that make noise. The drill is the easiest lever for him to hold on to, so it instantly became his favorite target. When he is bored and just roaming the room he finds it and just hangs on it, and never lets go until I put it up. I can't believe that I haven't ever changed the batteries in the drill. It is used quite a bit. 

 Good morning little Lex!!! We are not sure who is scarier, Alex or mom.

Here Royce is helping to wrap the present. Notice the ribbon all along the floor. That is just the beginning of that ribbon. It went all along the house before Royce was done. I guess he takes after me. I really like to wrap presents. The only difference is that I actually wrap the presents. Royce got a little side tracked when the ribbon came.

 

Here is the beautiful cake. I just made it that day, cause the one that I made the day before kinda fell apart and made a huge mess. So I quickly got this one together.

 Here is Dallas looking quite handsome. Royce took these pictures. I thought I should add them, since he did a fine job in actually getting the person in the picture. Yeah for Royce.

 

Sweet Royce was just trying and trying to get the camera back. I guess we are just sooo mean, that we take it away at all.

 This was a nice picture, until the sun got in the way. But I can't complain about the sun too much, because at least there was sun. The week coming up to Alex's birthday, there wasn't much sun. It was a typical Boise inversion with fog, smog and icky weather. But on my boys day, there were some clear skies and some beautiful sunshine. The only thing we are still missing is snow. And we now pray for that every single day.

 Here are some of the guests. Cora, Tomi and Grandma.

 Jackie is hard at work here.

 There is the birthday boy in his very special chair!!! He had just woken up from his long morning nap. And when I set him down, he still hadn't completely "cleared the cobwebs" as Dallas would put it.

 Still not completely with it yet.

 Now we are coming alive.

Let the festivities begin!!!!

 Here he is, just starting to eat his first cake!!!

I am sure no one else wants to see this many pictures of my little guy, but I love it....so if you get bored with this, it is ok. I understand.

So as I reflect on his first birthday, it has been really hard for me. Alexander was a planned little baby, but he came at a time that couldn't have been worse for us. As I was reading in 2 Nephi, I noticed a passage that described it completely and perfectly. Lehi is talking to his last son, Joseph and he says...."Thou wast born in the wilderness of mine afflictions; yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee." Like Joseph, Alex came at a time in our life that was just tough. It is even tough for me to write about it. Right at the time that most women start to tell their family and friends that they are expecting, we were explaining to everyone how Dallas had been laid off from his job. That was at about 3 months. That was tough for us. A lot of people didn't even know for a while that I was expecting because it just was hard for me to tell them.

The difficult part about Dallas being laid off from his job, was that they worked him to death during tax season and he also volunteered to teach early morning seminary the fall before. So I had a one year old little boy with a dad that was working 14 hours+ a day, 6 days a week and then on Sundays, his only day off he would plan 5 lessons for seminary. I did enjoy, however, helping to plan games and object lessons for the students. But it was just rough.

As fall came, we began realizing that we might lose our home. Then the financial decisions became tough. Each month and several times during the month we had to discuss whether we would keep paying our mortgage or just keep the money in savings and foreclose on our house. I am thankful for the savings that we had. We lived off of it, we never lost our house and we now are just fine. Yeah, now it is almost 2 years ago since that fateful day, but we are fine. The Lord loves us and that is why he has those commandments..

But the story of Alexander's birth has only begun. I had Alex just a few days before Christmas on December 17th. I was doing really well, he was healthy and strong, I felt good, labor had not been nearly as bad as with Royce, due to lots of drugs. And then the night came, my first night after he was born. I was still in the hospital, thankfully, and I had sent everyone home to get sleep. Lex was in the nursery. I woke to tremendous pain. I couldn't move. I was cramped all over and I just stared at the clock, thinking I might die. I then tried to turn over to get up. That was impossible. I hurt and hurt, every moving thing in my body seemed cramped. My next move was to get to the big, red, emergency button. It took several tries and I hit it. I laid there waiting, just crying. A clean up lady came to the call. She told me, before I could speak, that my nurse was with a patient and would be a moment. I only could tell her to hurry.

It felt like eternity, alone for those few seconds before the nurse came. Roma was her name. I love that woman. I have seen her since and thanked her again and again for my life. She came in, saw my face and came right up to the bed and flipped the covers off. I didn't see what she was looking at, but her next move was right back to the wall where she pushed her emergency button. In moments there were about 6 other nurses there asking what they could do. I won't go into the awful details, but they had to stop the bleeding and clean me up and make sure that I wouldn't bleed again.

The nurses spent the next 4 or 5 hours with me taking care of my every need. 2 of them wouldn't leave my side for the entire time. I called Dallas, of coarse, and he came immediately. My dad came later to give me a blessing. This was just a beginning of a very long recovery for me. I lost a lot of blood. They don't like to give new mom's blood because then you can't nurse right off. So I came home from the hospital with problems and lots of bills racked up. That didn't help our current situation. Within a week I was back in the hospital ER for pain in my chest, that was New Years  It turned out to be just muscle cramping, but it was a horrible night and morning too. I also had mastitis within 2 weeks and after a month of being home I went back to my OB to see what could be done. I was a disaster for about 2 months. The pediatrician had Alex in once a week for about a month and half so that he could monitor him. He wasn't growing much. I had to supplement with formula so that we knew he was getting enough.

I think after he was about 4 months old, I could actually manage. Before that I was a wreck just getting the daily tasks finished. So it is always hard for me to say it, but Alexander truly was born in the wilderness of our affliction. Not that we love him any less, but I think I love him more sometimes, just because I know it is all over and life is good now. He was totally worth it, but I don't know that I would want to do it again.

So on that sad note, I am happy that I get to celebrate with my baby boy a year. A pretty good year at that. I am grateful for doctors and the medical knowledge that those nurses had right off. The doctor told me the next morning the shot of Methogent into my thigh saved my life. But these last 2 years have made me learn a lot about me and about people. So here is to a great 1 year old little boy!!!