The birth of my son Dalton was a turning point in my life. He brings joy and meaning to my life and this is the story of his entering the world.
"My mother woke up on August 25, 2006 around 3 am and didn't realize that her water had broken. She ended up going back to sleep and then waking up again about 7 am with terrible pains. These were contractions but she didn't know it yet. I had already given her one false alarm so she must have thought this was another false alarm. She called my "Mimaw" (grandma) to ask what she should do but her phone had been turned off thanks to Verizon because she hadn't paid her over due bill. So crying to customer service to get it turned back on and paying the $500 fee she was finally able to get through to my Mimaw.
Mimaw said that she would leave Manhattan, KS immediately and meet my mom at the hospital. By that time it was about 8:30. After grabbing her luggage and putting it in the car, she came back into the apartment and started looking for cats. She knew that she had to get the cats to her parents house. All the while the contractions were coming on fast. It took about 20 minutes to finally get both cats into the car and then another 20 minutes to get to my grandparents house to drop them off. Then she had to turn around and get back on the highway in rush hour traffic to get to the hospital. Unfortunately contractions were getting worse and I was ready to come out. Why couldn't someone else have been there to drive her?
After finally arriving at the hospital, getting checked in, and getting into a hospital bed, a good friend, Lisa arrived to be with my mommy until Mimaw would arrive. The first nurse was crazy and told my mom that her water hadn't broken but that the contractions weren't far apart so they were going to monitor her. However, when her shift was over at 11 and another nurse came in she confirmed that my mommies water had broken about 8 hours earlier. Thank goodness Mimaw arrived shortly after that with great grandma in tow. I was lodged ready to go and pushing my mommies ribs, but I wasn't quite ready.
At about 4:00, doctor Courtney came in and administered the epidural. They also upped the pitocin to try and get labor going. And about 6 my aunt Charity and my mommies friend Courtney ran up to Rainforest to bring my daddy back. He didn't stay long because he had to return to work, but promised to come see me when I was finally out. Another 9 hours passed and I was getting antsy. The pitocin wasn't working, my mommy was get anymore dilated and about 4:15 was given 2 options. She could either wait 1 more hour, or they could perform a c-section. She really didn't want to have a c-section and waited a little longer. 4:30 came and I became quite distressed, it had been over 25 hours since my mommies water had broken and I was ready to come out.
My mommy was wheeled in for an emergency c-section and I was born healthy and screaming my lungs out at 4:56 am on August 26, 2006. I weighed exactly 9 lbs which no one in the hospital room could believe considering they had been predicting no more than 7 lbs and was 19" 1/4 long. My Mimaw was the first to hold me since she had been in the operating room with my mommy and my mommy was still paralyzed and couldn't hold me. I was so glad to be out and see the world. Unfortunately I had a couple problems. I was breathing a little to fast for the doctor's comfort and my blood sugar level was extremely low. I was given a bottle of sugar water immediately.
I did get to be with my mommy for a couple hours before they whisked me away to the NICU where I got the best care possible. I can bet my mommy will never forget this story or what happened the night after I was born. I'll update you on that later."
some jello to try and calm her down. Finally she was able to sleep for a couple hours but woke up with another panic attack and this time the nurses knew what to do and put her on an oxygen mask and called my Mimaw.
