Happy Birthday Tanner!

Today my second born turns 8!

Happy Birthday Tanner Riley!!!

Tanner Riley was the only one born close to his due date. I was due January 10th and he was born under two hours past the 10th. (Of course, I had to be induced because I was leaking amniotic fluid.)

Things I remember from his original birthday. He took some stuff into his lungs that had to be sucked out. He did not pee in what seemed like forever but it was probably 6 hours or so. When he did go...it went through everything! The diaper and several blankets! He weighed 7lbs 13oz.

On the 12th my grandmothers and my sister and her two girls traveled to the hospital to see Tanner. They had the pleasure of holding him there and then we were released from the hospital and they went on to White City. In White City, we had more time with them and we got 4 generation photos on both sides of the family. Unbeknownst to us in White City, my parents, Theresa, Matt and the girls, and my family, not 45 minutes after my grandmothers left they were hit by a semi on the side of I-70 and killed.

When we got the phone call from my uncle several hours later...our world was shaken. My dad would be arriving home anytime by himself, who had driven by the clean up of the accident scene but didn't realize it was his mom and mother-in-law. My mom had planned on staying with us for a week to help me. Plans now were changed to she was going to be taken back home by Matt and Theresa.

So now it was down to our small family of four. Jeff took off work and stayed home to help and in those first couple of nights at home Preston learned to climb out of his crib! I called my dr. and asked if it was OK to travel so soon after his birth, and I believe on Jan. 16th we headed to my parents' where all the family was congregated. On day 6 of Tanner's life, we attended a double funeral for my grandmothers.

There were a definite mix of emotions going on in my family. The joy of a birth but such great loss of the "matriarchs" on both the paternal and maternal side. There were many people praying for me and I would have to say the prayers definitely worked. I basically was focused on my newborn and I didn't have the grieving time I would think most people would go through with this type of loss.

As Tanner grew he was such a laid back baby. He would just lay there and not make a peep. I remember having to make myself sit down just to hold him because he didn't "demand" it. He became fascinated with his hand unlike Preston who never payed a noticeable amount of attention to his hands. Tanner would lay there and just hold his arm in the air and would just stair at it and coo at it. We nicknamed his hand Wilson, because it was soon after the release of Castaway.

Around 2 1/2 months Tanner started getting a little fussy...at 3 months I had my finger in his mouth and I felt a tooth!

I sometimes feel guilty because I don't feel like I got to enjoy him as a baby. How many things did I miss out on because of "life". His first year was full of so many changes and things that are so atypical. From the death of my grandmother's and all that entails with grief and sorting through belongings, to a move from town to town when he was 6 months, to 9-11 when he was 8 months, to getting pregnant again when he was 11 months.

These are some of the few memories I have of Tanner when he was just a babe. I felt like I should share some of what surrounded his infancy. I will definitely write again to share who he is now and to share what we did for his birthday.