James Michael's Birth

Wow, I can't believe it's been 12 years, since the birth of my first child! It seems unreal. He is such a blessing in my life. My right-hand man :) He is always helping me with everything. He has always been such a good child. Hardly have to discipline him at all. (Mainly just attitudes occasionally) A good hard worker. Loves his little brother and sisters. Loves to take care of babies. He is quite the artist and is now cooking quite a bit, and likes it :)

His birth story...

I found out I was pregnant with him at around 5 am one morning. We were ecstatic! All my life, all I had wanted to do was get married and raise children. (my standard answer for how many kids I wanted was "so many you can't count em" LOL) So, I couldn't wait!

There were no midwives available in the area at that time, so I was seeing a nurse-midwife that was actually a friend of our family. I loved her. I saw her through my entire pregnancy. I got very sick at the beginning. I don't throw up, but I was so nauseous I couldn't eat and lost weight. I gained 35+ pounds, but my tummy was very small. People didn't believe me when I was over due! They thought I was still around 6 months along :) About a week and a half before he was born I got into a slight car accident. I was driving a little car and a big pick up truck didn't see me and slammed, twice, into the side of my car. (he was trying to back out of a parking lot, but didn't look out his back window) It hurt my neck and back, but not bad. I was very distraught about it though. (he just drove off) I didn't have a phone so I had to go home to make a call. Side note: I have no idea why no one stopped him. He was an old man, but still. No one called the police. No one asked if I was ok. They all just stood there and stared. Quite the absurd! Anyways, so I was very upset and called my husband, who was working about 2 hours away at the time. So he called my mom and she came and picked me up and took me to the doctors office. (she only lived about 20 mins away) They checked his heart rate and it was fine. The were going to hook me up to the non-stress test machine. Now mind you I was still VERY upset at this time, not hysterical, but very upset. So when she went to put the jelly on the monitor she realized the tube was empty, so she got a new one. She opened it and started to put it on and apparently there was an air bubble in the tube. Half the tube shot out, over the monitor piece and right into my face! And all over the rest of me!!!! I absolutely died laughing! She was horrified and so embarrassed, and I just kept laughing. My mom was laughing too. She tried to wipe it off me, which made me laugh harder! She finally was convinced I was ok. I think she thought I'd lost it :D They finally got me hooked up and he was fine. So I went home. Past up my due date and 6 days after my due date had my doctor appt. I saw the NM and asked her how much longer she thought it would be. I was very anxious to have him. Partly because it was my first and I wanted him in my arms, but majorly because I had been feeling this overwhelming feeling that something wasn't right and he needed to get out. So she stripped my membranes and set up an induction for the next day. Ah, how naive I was! I figured that since I was a week late that it was "normal" to induce :P  So we went home and had my family over to eat, KFC. I don't think we slept at all we were so anxious :)

We got to the hospital early the next morning. Got checked in. They took me to my room. My mom got there (she was so afraid she'd miss it that she flew, like over 90 mph, to get there). The put in the gel to soften my cervix and contractions started. That was around 8am. So around 12pm they hooked up the pitocin and broke my water. I didn't really have "water", it was more like thick pea soup. Apparently he had already had his first poop :) Most likely from the stress from the car accident. So they were all very concerned. In addition to a the regular nurses they would have a neonatal nurse with all the special machinery for suctioning him ready for after he was born.

The contractions really picked up then. I finally thought it was bad enough that I let them convince me that it was "OK" to take medicine for it. So I received a shot of stadol. Wow, that didn't do much :P mainly just made me sleep between the contractions. I don't remember the times exactly but I received another shot a few hours later as well. Around 6ish my mom and husband took turns going to eat. While hubby was gone, things started to get really intense, read transition :) So I was really worried he wouldn't make it back in time and started telling them to get him. He came back in plenty of time ;)  I finally was a 10 some time right after 7. The doctor came in and the neonatal nurse and they got everything set up. (I had the doctor at the practice because the NM was unable to attend for some reason :( I started pushing. And pushing. And pushing. For a half an hour. The doctor didn't do much besides give me some shots and watch. Finally my mom said "Wouldn't it help if she had an episiotomy?" The doctor said "yes, but she said she didn't want one" WELL, after 30 mins of pushing I was desperate to get this baby out so I said "if it'll make him come out then do it!!!" LOL...the things women do in the midst of labor. Very bad time to make decisions! Now while this was going on, my husband was support one of my legs. My mom the other. And suddenly my mom says to DH "are you OK?" and everyone looks at him...He was white as a ghost! He shook his head and so MY nurse took him over to the couch and the neonatal nurse came over and held my leg! I could see him over there with my nurse giving him a cold cloth and asking him if he was ok, while I was pushing our son out :D (he thought there was something wrong because of how jelly like the head was, but that's just normal as they're coming out and being compressed like that) So...once the episiotomy was done, his came out pretty quickly. And then I had to push his shoulders. And then I had to push his chest. And all the time I'm thinking "why isn't he blooping out?" Why you ask? Well, because my birth story goes...I pushed your head out and then you just blooped out! So, I was apparently expecting all my children to just "bloop" out! LOL...it's so funny the things we think sometimes! So anyhow, they put him straight up on my belly, which was nice. He was breathing fine and they just suctioned him out right there. I got to nurse him and hold him for quite a while. Then the nurse took him and weighed him and I think she suctioned him again. Then once she was done, she just let him sit there under the heat lamp. I was getting sewed up at this time, and was getting very anxious to hold my baby again! So I kept asking for him. Finally the doctor said pretty loudly "I think she wants her baby!" So they finally gave him back to me. He nursed like a champ! He was so beautiful! I was so in love! Daddy recovered and was also so in love! 

We had to stay a full 24 hrs from the time he was born because I had tested positive for group b strep. I was so glad to be released and go home! We ended up moving a week later. Back to the town both our parents lived in. When he was 2 weeks old he caught a "cold". Well by the time he was 4 weeks old his cold turned out to be whooping cough with secondary pneumonia. We had taken him to the ER, where they gave him an antibiotic shot and gave me a prescription for a 2 week course of strong antibiotics. This happened to be the Saturday before Easter. James and I stayed up all night holding him, praying for him, and watching him cough so hard he turned blue and would stop breathing. Never in my life had I been so scared. Praise the Lord he lived through the night and the next day both of our families came over to celebrate the holiday. He got better slowly, but surely. I weakened him though so that he was sick very frequently during his first year. We were in the ER so many times with him, thankfully nothing as serious though. 

He is now a very healthy, handsome, wonderful, smart boy! He has always been such a sweetheart! I thank the Lord for His protection over him and His blessing me with my son!