happy 1st birthday our little miracle

it has been a year... one year ago, on the same date, we were expecting the arrival of our 3rd bundle of joy...carrying him for the past 9 months was a bliss, it was a miracle...the normal pregnancy symptoms and such, not much different from my previous 2.. everything was uneventful, up until 34 weeks when the ultrasound showed the femur and humerus did not grow as the rest of the parameters...but that did not ring a bell as it could be due to normal variant...

so the labour progressed so fast with some hype drama (here's the labor story http://myfeotus2.blogspot.com/2012/08/38-weeks-5-days-labor-day.html)  and we were blessed with our little miracle, ahmad iyad ghazi on 29th august 2012, when the fajr azan was heard... 

the rest was a history...i wouldn't want to re-write or re-read my previous entries on the blog from the moment of suspicion to the moment of truth...every time i read the story, i could not stop myself from shedding a few tears...it's very difficult for me to tell you what or how i felt...did it hurt me? yes and no, but alhamdulillah, i'm accepting it now and embracing the truth with my open heart... baby iyad is a gift that Allah has rewarded us and it has been a wonderful year for all of us..

baby iyad has grown from a tiny squish to a chubby toddler....although developmentally he was slightly delayed as compared to his peers, that does not mean he is different from them who attained their developmental milestones accordingly as mentioned in most baby books...baby iyad is fun to be with, cute, adorable and will definitely melt everyone's heart with his charming smile...

it's amazing to learn every single bit about his development and his achievement...no question about our love towards him as compared to our normally developed children..we love them all equally... and his siblings love him so much and they are baby iyad's great defenders and guardians...

so today, there's nothing can describe our feeling, how all of us survived the year with his presence...while we are supposed to teach and guide him to be independent and attain his maximum potential, baby iyad himself is a great teacher who teaches us to acquire the skills that we never had before...we learn from each other, and that made us perfect puzzle pieces that matched each other and it completed a beautiful picture...everything happened to our family was a blessing, alhamdulillah...

at 1 year old, baby iyad is able to sit unsupported, babbling (and trying to talk to us), pivoting 360 degrees and rolling over, enjoying food of different tastes and textures and he is still fully breastfeeding...

happy birthday baby iyad...thank you for an amazing journey full of obstacles, but we made it together...

O Allah, keep us strong, keep us together no matter what comes...protect our children from any harms... and guide us to your path of Jannah...