Last we chatted, I was about 9 months pregnant and about ready to pop! Oh boy... Wow! That's some big hair!! I guess to go with my big belly.
Isn’t it amazing that The Lord God Almighty gave us the ability to create life. Hubby and I together created a living breathing human being. It is a miracle. A beautiful miracle. Well, this little miracle was ready to burst into our life and rock our world.
Mike and I both wanted to know the sex of our baby early on. I’m not one for surprises… Turns out we were having a little boy. A precious little boy. We couldn’t wait to meet him.
Our little boy wasn’t in a rush to enter this world, he went past his due date and decided to take an extra 10 days…. But on October 27, 1990, I woke up in the middle of the night and had to use the bathroom. But before I could get there I just started “going”!!! 😳 What?! I jumped into the tub and called to Mike. “Mike! I can’t stop peeing!!” Then it dawned on me…. My water must have broke. No stopping this now.
We waited a bit for the contractions to get going. When they started to get a bit regular we headed out to the hospital. Mike pulled the car out and lined the passenger seat with a huge trash bag. Nice, right? Yeah, cause I was “wetting” myself the whole drive there…We arrived at the hospital, got ourselves all checked in. Things were going pretty slow. They checked me, checked the baby. All seemed fine, so we were just waiting for me to dilate and get this show on the road.
We were as “prepared” as could be. Of course, most of us moms want to go the “natural” way. That was my (our) goal too. Mike and I took all of the Lamaze classes and learned all the breathing techniques. We were ready! At least that was the plan. Plans never seem to go quite as planned….
We waited… we walked… we waited some more… hours and hours and not much was happening. So, they tried inducing me. That seemed to move things in the right direction. Contractions were coming getting much stronger and closer together. They gave me a “cocktail” to help with the pain, but that just seemed to make things worse, and I was definitely getting grumpier!
But, I wasn’t dilating. Seriously?? What the heck? I was ready for drugs! The breathing "technique" was NOT doing it for me. I was worn out and done. Well, we’d been at this for over 24 hours!
Today, hindsight being 20/20, I’ve never really had tolerance for pain, zero...nada. It was just never really tested until that day... Thank the Lord for epidurals! I began to feel much better after that.
The nurses and doctor came in to check me. They were a little concerned. Apparently, all of the contractions were taking it’s toll on our baby boy. He was in some distress and I still hadn’t dilated past 4 cm. Not good.
The doctor came in and said that we needed to have a cesarean birth. Really?! I wasn’t prepared for that... But the health of our baby was more important than anything. It was actually a good thing that I already had the epidural.
So, they wheeled us in. Mike came along and was able to witness our baby’s birth. When he realized that those were organs he was looking at, he started to turn a bit white.... He told the nurse, he was going to need a chair. Poor guy.
Our little boy was delivered on October 28, 1990 at 6:54am. Proud Daddy!
Our precious little blessing was healthy at 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. We became a mommy and a daddy that day! We were so blessed and so happy! (and still are today 😍)
Unfortunately, since my water was broke for so long, I developed an infection. I ended up staying in the hospital for 7 days. I couldn’t nurse because of the antibiotics. I was pretty upset that nothing seemed to go as planned. I should have just been thankful that I had a healthy baby and that I was okay, too. I was focusing on the wrong things, I should have been counting my blessings...
After the 7 days, I was able to try nursing, but our sweet little boy was already used to the bottle. He didn’t want to nurse, it was too hard. He just fussed and cried. In turn, I just cried. I felt like a horrible mother, that I couldn’t even nurse my own baby. I’m thinking I went through a bit of the postpartum blues. I didn't even know there was such a thing back then.
Mike, was awesome....incredible! Here he is doing some Daddy duty. Loving those pants Daddy-O!
Mike constantly encouraged me and reminded me of all our blessings. He loved me and loved me. I know I was not a failure, but my feelings were lying to me. Feelings do that. It’s hard being a new mom. I was never around babies growing up. So, everything was new to me. Our church had a wonderful new moms group. We met every week. That was so incredibly helpful to me. We could share our struggles and successes. It was a great encouragement to all of us. The Lord knew I needed that. With so much love and support surrounding me, I got through that time. The Lord is so faithful and gracious.
Our little family...so beautiful. This was November 11th, Hubby's birthday. What a wonderful birthday present! Our little guy was about 2 weeks old. Isn't he precious... He was so lucky to have such stylish parents! We were rockin the 90's!
I am so blessed that I was able to stay home and be with him. Mike was working hard, but during that first year… The Gulf War started… It really affected the construction industry. Mike was laid off from his job driving a concrete mixer. He was able to find other work driving a truck, but the pay wasn't even close to what he was making before. He even took a second job delivering pizzas to help us get by. We were struggling... Our landlord was so kind and gave us a discount on our rent. These were all good things, but this wasn’t going to sustain us for long. We were praying and praying asking God for direction, for wisdom, for answers.
He answered. And we had peace. Amazing peace.
If you want to read the previous chapters in My Life Story, I have them listed here.
A Child of the 60s &70s
Life in Hawaii ~ Vacation Turned Staycation
The Jr. High Years ~The Good, Bad and The Ugly
High School ~ Flags, Driving and A Boyfriend
Trying To Figure Out Life
A Car Breakdown Can Be A Good Thing
A Whirlwind Romance And A Change Of Heart
Never The Same Again
Wedding Bells
Life After The Honeymoon
A Bumpy Second Year of Marriage
Blessings,
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