Tomorrow my baby turns 6, which means I'll be rolling out the annual birthday letter post tomorrow. I plan to put all of their birthday letters in a book and give them the book when they turn 18. I'll continue my tradition past that, but hopefully it's something they'll cherish.
I always get nostalgic in November, so tonight you can journey down memory lane with me, as I reminisce about his birth.
On this night 6 years ago, we went to Krieger's with Jacob's mom and talked about how James would be here within the next few weeks. In fact, my c-section had been scheduled for November 17th. I was still feeling pretty bummed that I had to have a c-section since I delivered Daniel without any complications. It wasn't that I thought it was a cop out...I just didn't feel like being sliced open with a knife. I knew it was for the safety of both James and myself, but I was still scared.
It took me awhile to fall asleep that night. (Acid reflux and eating an entire platter of appetizers didn't help). I felt completely fine, but I had an unsettling feeling as I was trying to get some sleep.
I woke up a little after 4am for one of my many bathroom trips. As I laid back down in bed I felt a big gush. I remember praying that it was my water breaking, but (here comes the TMI), it was a big gush of blood. My 3rd and biggest bleed of my pregnancy due to placenta previa. My doctor had told me after my last hospitalization, that if I started bleeding anytime past 34 weeks, they would deliver.
I called Brenda, who drove an hour and a half to come stay with Daniel as we headed to the hospital. The bleeding had slowed down and I could feel James moving, so I knew all was okay until we got there.
I didn't expect things to move as quickly as they did. My other 2 visits I had waited in triage for several hours, so I assumed it would be about the same. The next thing I knew, I had the doctor, nurses and anesthesiologist at my side telling me everything that was going to happen. I was wheeled to the O.R., got my spinal and then laid on a table trying to stay calm because I was about to get cut open while awake.
At 7:58 the doctor said he was getting ready to start, and by 8:02, James had made his grand entrance into the world.
I made a conscious effort to try and remember everything, because I had such clear memories of Daniel's birth. I had the worst cold, so I wasn't feeling well. I heard James cry and they held him up for me to see before they went and cleaned him off. That's where things got a little hazy. While I didn't feel any pain, the tugging as they were sewing me up was nauseating. I felt so light headed, dizzy and sick. But, all was right in the world when they brought James to me and laid him on my chest. I didn't find out until the following day, that the reason I was so light headed was because I had lost a ton of blood during the delivery and was on the verge of needing a blood transfusion.
I was then wheeled to recovery, which I don't remember much of, except they brought me James. He was only with me for about an hour, if that, before they decided he needed to go to the NICU because he had fluid in his lungs. It was rough being apart from him. I had Daniel with me the whole time. The only good thing was that it gave me time to recover some from the c-section and rest my cold was draining me.
The NICU gave updates and Jacob went up and got some pictures. As soon as I got them to remove my catheter, I had them take me up to see him. I didn't get to hold him, which broke my heart, but I was happy to see him. Later that night I went up again, and the nurse said I could try to hold him, but if his stats dropped he'd have to go back in the bassinet. He did wonderful. I sat there rocking him and just staring at how perfect he was. I cried happy tears and thanked God for my brand new baby boy.
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