"Out of the Woods"

Britton is quickly becoming a sturdy sitter. I am amazed at how fast he (and babies in general) are able to master skills. It seems like we just started trying to get him to sit up and figure out his balance, and now he can sit and play on his own.

We had a great visit with Britton's therapist yesterday and he showed her what a good sitter he is. He also showed off his pivoting skills (I didn't even know he could do that!), and his push-up, grasping, and object transference skills. She praised his social and cognitive skills, and told us that rocking and crawling were the next big skills. Scary thought as Danny & I have a lot to do in our house to accommodate a mobile Britton.

Anyway, the best part ... when speaking of Britton, she used words like "out of the woods" and "normal development". I can't tell you how good it was to hear that! It was the first time for us to hear the words "out of the woods" in a positive sense. We heard it a lot in the hospital, but in the context of "he's not out of the woods yet." And then, when we took him home we heard, "he's still not out of the woods ... we'll just have to wait and see how he develops."

We realized a while back that Britton's birth was so traumatic and his recovery so remarkable (and unpredicted) that no one could really say what his future held, and therefore no one did. So, we stopped asking what people thought. But, yesterday was a big day. Finally, someone who knows what they're talking about has said he's OUT OF THE WOODS! Yes, we may encounter small things down the road, but he is displaying normal development ... and that's a huge deal!

She told us that she and her colleagues were recently discussing Britton's case and she said they have never seen a baby with such a low Apgar who wasn't "devastated." Wow. It is so frightening on one hand to think that we might not ever have known the smiling, engaging, happy, bright child that Britton is. But on the other hand, his recovery is such evidence of the big miracles God has performed in his young life. We hope to be good stewards of the great miracles God has given us in our sweet son.



Here is Britton at play ... which really looks like a lot of work. He is concentrating hard on picking up his toys: