welcome to the adventure otto

can we just talk about yesterday?!?! the most surreal crazy wonderful day of our entire lives. honestly let me start off by saying thank you so so so so so much for the continuous prayers and encouragement throughout the day. there is no way yesterday would have went as good as it did without the power of prayer.

the night before i don’t think either one of us really slept. we just laid there with our eyes closed. i swear otto knew what was to come because he was running around literally in my stomach. we woke up around 7am and just laid there kind of taking in the morning before joe went on a bike right and i packed things up for otto. (so crazy that he has a name). we prayed several times for clam, strength, peace and miracles and then would get back to work feeding the animals, picking up the house and getting everything in order. we decided that we could not sit in the house anymore. prayed one more time in the nursery, checked the animals and went to target to get some snacks for the hospital room.

we pulled in to the hospital around 1130am and were greeting by my nurse for the morning. she was incredible. assertive, confident and kind. we were brought to a room for testing, iv’s and met the entire team that would be assisting us that day. around 12:45 we were moved into the operating room. we had a last minute change in floors so my parents, joe’s parents and joe and i walked up together. that was a crazy moment. parents went to the waiting room, joe went to scrub in and i walked towards the or. those double doors opened and i’m not sure how i even made it to the table but there was a huge crew in there working like busy bees. it was insane. they all had a job. the nurses and doctors (all a kick ass female team) were just… indescribably amazing. i was dreading the spinal and the anesthesiologist just walked me through each step. and it was over before i even know it started. i mean don’t get me wrong it wasn’t fun but it just went so quick. they laid me down and put the curtain up and in walked joe. five minutes later i could hear my little otto cry from behind the curtain. i got to watch them clean him, test him, clear him and he got to sit by me for about a minute before him and papa joe went to the nicu and i met my mom in recovery.

i can’t describe to you the emotion that poured out of me during that time. i just laid there making eye contact with joe just waiting and waiting for what felt like eternity at the moment for that baby to cry. when they pulled him around and yelled BOY! i felt my entire body just surge with adrenaline and it started to sink in that i have a son. joe has a son that looks just like him. we have this little squishy SON! it’s like every good and amazing emotion just balled up together and i was just so so thankful to hear him cry and move and wiggle. it was just the most beautiful thing.

after about an hour in recovery they took me up to the nicu to see otto and we got to spend about 10 minutes together before we quick had our family come see.

otto had an amazing night in the nicu and we are just waiting on him to receive an echostat to double check the heart one more time and make sure that conditions haven’t changed. so far the reports have been so so good. GOD answers prayers friends. he is so big and strong and beautiful. I can’t wait to share more of him with you.

praying our little man comes to hang out with us this afternoon otherwise we’ll keep making the trek out to see him!

we will keep you updated. he is just… everything.

photos: leah mullett