1 year ago today....

...I saw Jackson for the first time. I had my first OB appointment to confirm my pregnancy and have an ultrasound done. I had to go by myself since Jerry was working. I was nervous, excited, scared, happy...you name it, I felt it! I remember that my appointment was for 9:30 in the morning but the doctor's office called me around 7:30 and asked to reschedule to noon. That just made me even more nervous!

So I go in at noon and there is absolutely no one there! I'm the only patient in the waiting room. It was lunch time for the office but since my doctor, Dr. Schneider, had had an emergency come up in the morning she decided to see me during her lunch time. They called me back and did the usual checkup stuff, asked me my symptoms, and confirmed that I was indeed pregnant. The four at-home pregnancy tests several weeks prior still hadn't completely convinced me! It wasn't until actually hearing it from my doctor that I thought 'OH! MY! GOD! I'm having a baby!!!"

Dr. Schneider then took me to another room to perform the ultrasound. I was so nervous but then there he was...a tiny little bean with a beating heart. His little arm buds and legs were flailing like crazy! She measured him and said he was right on target and that everything looked great. He measured exactly 9 weeks, 4 days (which is right where I should have been) and his heart rate was beating at 160 BPM.

It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I was so sad that Jerry wasn't there to share in the moment with me but at the same time it was cool for me to have that moment to myself. I saw my baby for the first time. This was a huge life changing event for me and at that moment it was just me & my baby.

I did a scrapbook page based on this experience and included a quote on the page that I feel summed up how that moment felt to me. It says "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." I couldn't have expressed it any better.

I remember wondering last year what life would be like in a year. We'd have a 5 month old and I just couldn't even wrap my brain around that! :) Well a year has passed and we now have a 5 1/2 month old who is the best thing in this entire world! He's so much fun and every day is new day with him. I honestly can't even remember what life was like before him but maybe that's because it's all a blur! At any rate, we're having the best time with the little dude and we couldn't be happier!!!

-Erica

A few pix of Little Bean Jackson! Actually, we didn't know Jackson was Jackson then, so he was affectionately called Baby Blob or Baby Cohen.