Motherhood is a journey.
One that some get to take smoothly, and others hit bumps along the way.
"I can't wait," Jamie Declet Istre said as she described her first Mother's Day. "I told Jordan (husband) that I want to just celebrate making it. We made it, the end. Period."
Istre held her son Wesley as we talked about her journey into motherhood.
She said it was not that long ago that the day seemed out of reach.
"We started trying in 2018 and got our toes wet in 2019 and it didn't work out," Istre said. "That was really hard--we took a year off and were trying to figure out our place and what motherhood was going to mean for me and what fatherhood was going to mean to him. We got the nerve to try again and had a chemical pregnancy and before we could think about it we got pregnant with Oaklee."
Oaklee was stillborn on October 18, 2021.
Jamie said it was from complications following a car crash coupled with exacerbated issues from having Down Syndrome.
The loss was a heartbreaking one.
When Istre got pregnant shortly after with her son Wesley, fear started to take over.
"I was just so nervous that there was that sliver that it may happen to us," Istre said. "Getting to the C-Section was the Super Bowl of finally getting there. It was this huge full circle moment that I can't put into words. It was amazing, scary, but it as the most peaceful that I've ever felt in my life."
Jamie said everything she could have wanted; everyone she could have wanted by her side was granted to her during delivery.
"We had our videography team, we had Catherine Walker with the maternity team, I got to pick my CRNA who gave me my spinal for Oaklee. I had my OB and Kathleen Melancon the head of Labor and Delivery in there....I had everyone taking care of me and Wesley. It was such a team effort; you could feel how amazing and invested everyone was."
Little Wesley was born on January 27, 2023.
"That bible verse, Samuel 27, for this child I have prayed-- I just felt so much peace and that everything would be okay, everything was going to be fine."
For Jamie, this Mother's Day is not about flowers, cards, and gifts....
She already has the best gift she could have ever gotten and wants this for other mothers, "I just want to say Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms who get to hold their babies in their arms this year and for all of those who have to hold them in their hearts."
