Happy Birthday, Jason!

Our oldest, Jason, is 26 years old today. Where does the time go? I was 23 when he was born. I spent a good portion of my afternoon today trying to locate a particular picture of him as a toddler walking around in his daddy's golf shoes. But, I cannot find it. He is currently living in Texas pursuing his dream playing professional golf. We are so proud of him.

I'll never forget the time when Jason was about two weeks old and I couldn't hear him crying. Steve was in the Navy at the time and had left for a three month tour on the submarine he was stationed on. My mother was flying out to Connecticut (where we lived at the time) a few days later to bond with her first grandson and help me take care of him. I was very alone with a brand new baby that would not stop crying. I fed him, bathed him, changed him, rocked him, and did everything I could but nothing seemed to calm him down. I was also very exhausted and tired and it was 1 a.m. in the morning. I laid him in his bassinette right next to me and told myself I would just let him cry for ten minutes and then I would pick him up again and nurse him. I turned my hearing aids off with the intention of just closing my eyes for a few minutes. I panicked when I woke up three hours later and found a very red faced and upset baby in his bassinette! I felt like a terrible mother because I did not hear him crying! And he was right next to me! I never fell asleep again with my hearing aids off unless someone else was in the house with me. Later we got one of those baby monitors and kept the volume turned all the way up. I always had the hand held remote with me.

It wasn't easy having our babies and not being able to hear them or understand their cute little conversations with each other. My mother always told me that I had "mother's ears" because I always seemed to know when they were waking up or needed me. Steve was a great daddy for our babies and was also my "ears" for me. When he was home, he would get up with them in the middle of the night and called that "his time" with them. Our kids probably also figured out that if they cried loud enough, Mom would come.