Hi everyone! I'm Janice, proud mother of 3 lovely boys, my hubby and I plan on having one more child, we're hoping to concieve sometime in 2008. Congratulations to all you mom's & mom to be's... and to all those trying to concieve I wish you the best...

Birth Story for Heath..

On October 16th/ 07 I went into the hospital to have a foley put in, (I was 10 days overdue). I was supposed to go in the following morning to be fully induced but my little man had other plans! :) We live about 45 minutes from the hospital so Gary and I stayed at a hotel 5 minutes up the road just to be safe and thank God we did.

At around 12:30 that night I started feeling uncomfortable, kinda like I neeed to go to the bathroom (ahem #2), I kept getting up every few minutes and would try to go, but couldn't, at around 1 am I started getting pains every 5 minutes, funny enough, being my 3rd child I didnt know if it was contractions...you see, with my first 2 my contractions felt like extreme menstral cramps in my lower tummy, but these were all in my bum!! By 1:30 I was in sheer pain, contracting every 2 minutes....I realised then that this was it!! Gary and I arrived at the hospital at about 1:40, by this time I was in so much pain I couldn't even speak, my contractions were between 1 and 2 minutes apart....I had never felt pain like this before, it was awful, it literally felt like my tail bone was gonna snap with every contraction.

I was immediately rushed up to triage where I was checked and learned that I was already 7 cm....yikes, I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to get an epidural because I was dialating so quickly.....I was moved into a birthing room shortly therafter, I remember having a few more really intense, really painful contractions, so bad that I could feel my entire body shaking with each one, at one point I completely lost control and started crying, I couldn't believe how much pain I was in, it was a million times worse than with my other 2 boys.

As I layed there crying, and crushing my hubby's hand :)... in walks the medicine man......and it's all butterflies and rainbows after that :D

Heath Lennon Shepherd was born at 4:01 am weighing 9 lbs and measuring 22 inches, I cried and cried, it was so amazing to finally hold and kiss him :)

Scary news...

A few hours after birth a pediatricain came in to do a routine check up on Heath, as she checked him over I noticed that when she was listening to his heartbeat she had a look of concern on her face, she kept listening and listening, and after what seemed like an eternity she turned to Gary and I and told us that our son had been born with a heart murmur.....my whole world stopped, I was horrified. She told us that his heart murmur was caused by small holes in his heart....she went on and on about how in these cases most of the time the tiny holes close up on their own.....but of course this was of no comfort to me, what if this wasn't the case, what if something was seriously wrong with my little boy?

After the Dr. left the room I broke down, I'd never been so afraid in my life. Heath had an EKG and an ECHO done later on that day, an ECHO is where they do an ultra sound on the heart, it was about 45 minutes long , I just stared at him the whole time trying not to cry, I watched him sleep and just kept praying that he would be okay.

A week later his results came back, his pediatrician told us exactly what we were told in the hospital, that he had small holes in his heart and that thay would probably close up on there own over time. We knew at this point that this condition was'nt life threatening, but I was still really frightened....Heath has to go back for a repeat ECHO between 3-4 mos old, I hope and pray that his little heart has healed by then.

February 5th~2008

Well, today didn't go so well, Heath had his second EKG, and what was supposed to be his repeat ECHO. For the technician to do the ECHO, Heath would have to lay still without crying for 45 minutes, how the heck do I get my 4 month old to do that!?

Heath never cries but being in a strange place, surrounded by strange people, with no clothes on, isn't exactly comforting for him. I tried to lay beside him and talk /sing to him but there was no way he would calm down unless I held him, everytime the tech came near him he would scream..he's such a little stinker :) Anyways, we have to go back in a couple of weeks to try again, if they can't do the ECHO, he'll have to be sent to London, Ontario (2 hrs away) to be sedated :( Fingers crossed that he's sleeping next time!!

May 1st~2008

Heath's echo results came back and everything is normal!! YAAAAAAAY!! We're so relieved, THANK GOD :)