"There's a cord defect"

For some reason, when I heard those words from the Doctor, I thought they were talking about the umbilical cord. I thought, "So what, you are just cutting it off anyway." I had no idea that those words would change our entire life. I couldn't see that there was something wrong with our baby boys feet. I couldn't see that there was a large spot on our sons back that just did not look right. I couldn't see what Jason, my mom, the doctors and the nurses could see.  

We were pretty young when Devyn was born. I was 20 and Jason was 22. Not ready to be parents, but prepared to love our little babe with our whole hearts. We spent 8 months convincing ourselves that this was really happening and that we could handle it. On our first weekly visit we were told that my blood pressure was way too high and that we were having a baby. Today. 3 1/2 weeks early. Oh my. After 12 hours of induced labor our little guy was born on August 17th at 12:36am. Our very little guy. Devyn Jacob was 4lbs 1oz and 18 inches long.


The nurses cleaned him up as quickly as possible and started taking  him out of the room. My mom stopped them and ask if I could see him first. That's right. I had not seen or held my brand new baby boy yet. (What would we do without our Mama's! Seriously, she is amazing) They brought him back to me for a minute and said that holding him was not possible right now. I looked over and saw the biggest dark eyes I have ever seen on a newborn. Lashes for days! He stared right into my eyes. Like he knew exactly who I was. I've still never seen such a wide eyed newborn. A head full of dark black hair and the sweetest little nose. He was simply beautiful.

A little pertinent information:
{Dev was born with a birth defect called Spina Bifida, or more specifically Myelomeningocele. The Spina Bifida caused him to have severe clubbed feet and to also develop Hydrocephalus before he was a week old. (literally meaning water on the brain). Spina Bifida is a birth defect of the spinal cord. It actually happens about the first 18 days of gestation. Basically, before you even know you are pregnant the spinal cord and all of the nerves have already formed. A very brief description would be that the spinal cord was not completely developed when Dev was growing in utero and he had an opening in his lower back, just above his adorable little bum. A sack called a cyst had formed over the opening. I'll leave it to you to google for a picture of this. Lets just say it was terrifying to see something like this on your newborn baby. This means that not only is surgery needed to close his back, but that there is nerve damage that will affect Dev for the rest of his life.}

The month of October is Spina Bifida Awareness month. I am going to take the next few weeks to share a little bit of our story. Or more specifically Devyn's story. He is 14 years old now, and has just started high school. Even though there is still so much to come in his life, we celebrate how much he has already accomplished. I hope you are encouraged and inspired by our boys journey.