Tuesday, November 5, 2013

I'm Thankful for..Day 5

Today is my precious son's 13th birthday.  I can't hardly believe it--I have a teenager!  Generally, he is a very good boy.  He's got a sweet disposition (and a temper-hmm wonder where that comes from? grin).  He's always had the most empathetic heart. 

There are times, that I lament about the life he has because of having a sick mom for much of his life.  I can remember when waiting for my first spinal surgery, him coming up to care for me.  I missed his whole 7th summer-riding a two wheeler, first sleep over, and who knows what else. But I also believe that God does not make mistakes, and the compassion and caring heart that he has was given to him just for that circumstance.

He's definitely Dad's Boy and they are such great friends.  I pray that it will always be so.  Yesterday morning they even sang a song they had "modified" while working in the woodshop.  They are so fun.  Right now, they are on a Father/Son Adventure Trip...so I am missing both my guys!

 
I love this Boy and am so blessed to be his Mom! 
(Extra special thanks to my friend at KAPhotography :) for these gorgeous pictures!)
 
So since I am home alone, and you are kind of stuck with my "remembering"....I can remember the day he was born....let me throw another log on the fire and tell you all about it....
 
We lived in Phoenix, Arizona at the time.  I had a difficult pregnancy with our little guy with Gestational Diabetes and morning sickness that lasted 9 months and all day.  (When I gave birth, I was a pound lighter than when I got pregnant.)  I had been on bed rest for about 9 weeks when I went to my doctor's appointment on November 3rd, 2000.  The baby's due date wasn't until Thanksgiving (November 23rd), but he was already big.  It was supposed to be a routine check, so I went to the doctor alone. Our doctor gave me the news, he needed to come out, soon!  Otherwise, they were going to schedule induction/ c-section the following week.  My bed rest was lifted and she told me to go home and get out walking to see if we couldn't entice him into coming out on his own.
 
I called my sweet husband at work, and he immediately spoke with his manager and was home within an hour. (I guess a somewhat weepy wife will do that-ha 'somewhat!'.) He took me out and we did what we loved to do but hadn't done in months...spending the evening and all day Saturday shopping at the thrift stores.  I remember I was buying copies of Babysitter's Club and Sweet Valley High books to make sets to sell on eBay.  I spent the evening of the 4th listing the lots of books on eBay and complaining that all the walking had made my back hurt....(...um, no...actually in labor)
 
About 5 am on Sunday, I got up to take care of the call of nature....only to have my water break!  Still being somewhat clueless, I just thought I didn't make it in time to the bathroom. I laid back down for another hour.  When I got up again, I realized, that my water had actually broken, so I woke my dear guy up and told him it was time to head for the hospital.
Desert Samaritan Hospital, Phoenix
We were checked and admitted.  In between labor pains, we spent the day reading the Sunday paper.  Despite the labor, I was not progressing.  The baby still had not moved down into birth position as was still really high.  I also wasn't dilating.  So mid-afternoon, I was given Pitocin to further induce the labor.
 
...waiting....waiting....
10 hours later....it was getting concerning as I still was not dilated (only to 4 for you mom's out there) and he still had not dropped down.  My doctor was amazing.  She let me continue to labor because I was determined to have this baby the old fashioned way.  But we had to start discussing options.  I had planned to go without an epidural as I had a phobia of anyone messing with my back, as when I was small I had a spinal tap and still had that fear. (little did I know years down the road...) In discussions though, we discovered if I ended up needing a C-section, Man couldn't come in if they had to put me under.  If I was numbed with the epidural then I would be awake and he could be there.  4 nurses and my husband holding me down, they got the epidural in.
 
Now I had been in labor about 12 hours going on 13.  More and more people in masks kept coming in and out of the room.  Still the baby was high and not much progress. We soldiered on....until the baby's heartbeat became slower and irregular.  From the moment it was decided that an emergency C-section was in order until I was in surgery was a head-spinning 10 minutes.
 

My Man stood behind my head during surgery.  There were 4 doctors, one of which stood next to DH and I heard him telling him all that was going on.  There were also about 5 nurses.  I wonder who was taking care of everyone else?  It was only minutes until I heard a baby cry, and actually at that moment, thought it must be in the next room because they couldn't have possibly made the incision that quick.  But, No, I heard my Love tell me that he (the baby) was beautiful.

They brought the baby up for me to see, but I couldn't see him very well, and it was a quick peek.  I cannot handle anesthesia (who knew, I didn't at the time) so I started to get sick.  The baby needed immediate attention too.  So I asked my Honey to stay with the baby.  Bless his heart.  He had to walk out still seeing me not quite "put back together" yet.
8 pounds 10 ounces
21 inches
 
(Can you imagine if he had gone until his due date?  He would have been bigger than our Thanksgiving turkey!)
 
All the pictures I have from the recovery room has our Baby squalling!  Apparently, he had a good set of lungs and was pretty upset about being poked.  But when his Daddy touched him he settled right down.
 
Meanwhile, I was in my own recovery area.  The epidural was still working well, so well that I couldn't feel anything below my shoulders. I couldn't feel my hands at all.  The nurse brought me some ice chips to munch on.  She left to take care of someone else (I assume) and I decided that even though I couldn't feel my hands, I could pick up the cup of ice and get a drink....and dumped the contents of ice on my chest.  I just lay there with ice all over my chest until she returned (because I couldn't get my hands to work to pick them up and put them back into the cup and I didn't want to dump them on the floor and make more work for someone.) She came in and laughed and laughed.  She asked why I hadn't called, I told her it was no big deal, I couldn't feel the cold :)

Because I had gestational diabetes, the baby was born with low blood sugar and they needed to get some calories in him right away. 
About 11:30 pm, I finally got to meet my son, properly.  Many babies had been born at Desert Samaritan on November 5, 2000, so they didn't have anywhere to put me after recovery.  My son and I spent our first time together in a  closed off nursery.  We tried to get him the latch on, but he wasn't able to.

 
After I got into a room, they still kept him in the nursery to monitor him due to the low blood sugar.  I was a bit of a hormonal mama bear after going for hours without seeing him and pitched a bit of a fit at 5 am and he was finally brought into my room to stay.

Every mom has in her mind how her birth story is going to go, and if we're honest, rarely does it go the way we plan.  Everything I had hoped would happen, didn't.  Everything I feared did.  I did not want an epidural.  I wanted to have him naturally, not by C-section.  I wanted to be able to breast feed, he couldn't then wouldn't latch...but when it was all over, God had blessed us with a beautiful baby boy to hold and love.


We ended up staying in the hospital 3 days.  After the fact, my doctor told me that I could have never and would never have a baby "the natural way."  Had it been the "old west" days, we would have likely both died in childbirth.  My pelvic floor bones are very tight together, so much so that the baby's head could not even enter into the "dropped position".  My Man joked that the Baby "heard" we had a new digital camera and wanted to look good for his first pictures. (And isn't he just GORGEOUS??)

While we were falling in love with this little Guy the country was arguing over "hanging Chads, pregnant Chads " and who the next president would be.

We had an extra day in the hospital for the Baby's recovery. He became jaundiced just as they were preparing to release us for home.  He spent a day under the Bili-Ruben lights in the hospital.  Then the hospital sent portable lights home for him to sunbathe under for the first week.  We also had a nurse that came daily to take blood out of his tiny foot to check all the various "levels"
 
Look at that little smoosh face!!
 
 
 


 
 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow! It is so worth it in the end, though. Love the story!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Boy Wonder!
We're all so glad you're here and being the awesome kid that you are! and might i add, i'm soooo happy we don't live in pioneer times or we wouldn't still have each other Rea! ohhh myyy goodnesss!! didn't we all look so young! LOL Sheryl

Niki said...

Wow. You look so young.
Z does look great in his first pics with out the "birth canal head".
Can you find the UV pictures where his hands are behind his head and it looks like he is kicking back in a tanning bed?