Tag Archives: child birth

Arielle

Posted on by
Reply

We were living in Woodland Park.  I’m not sure if I was working construction at that time or if I was working in Cripple Creek. If I remember right, I had purchased my first cell phone. I think I gave the excuse that I needed it in case I was working and your mom went into labor, but in reality, they were just too cool.  Expensive but cool.

I remember this because she forgot to call and tell me she was in labor.  I don’t remember what time I got home. But when I did she informed me she had been in labor all day.  It was about an hour and a half drive from our home to the hospital. Your mother might have thought we had enough time, but I thought you were going to be born in the car.

I was in the driver’s seat and she lay in the back of the car yelling every time she had a contraction.  The pedal was to the metal and I hoped a police office would pull me over so
I could have him escort us to the hospital. But there’s never a cop around when you need one.

We pulled in front of the emergency room at the hospital.  I ran inside finding a nurse that followed me outside with a wheelchair. We helped your mom out of the car and placed her in the wheelchair. I think I was in mild shock as well and I remember her saying something like your head was already breaching.  I jumped into the car to go park it.  It was an emergency entrance and I couldn’t leave it blocking the entrance.

When I ran into the hospital a nurse directed me to a room. I remember you lying on the bed with no one else around you. You were clean and the umbilical cord had already been cut. The birth had to have happened within minutes if not seconds of me dropping off your mother.

I picked you up and held you in my arms as a nurse appeared and commented about how I must be the father and scuttled me towards the nursery.  You looked like an elf and Ithought you were the ugliest baby I had ever seen.  I rubbed my nose on yours welcoming you to the world and telling how much I loved you as I carried you into the nursery.

You were my first girl.  I had never felt and instant love and attachment like that before. I just wanted to protect you from any bad things ever happening to you. In that one second, you made me realize how bad I treated the girls when I was still in school. I never wanted anyone to treat you like that. I wrapped you in my arms and never wanted to let you go.  It was absolutely the best day I’ve ever had.

Shayne

Posted on by
Reply

We were living in a small town in California called Atwater. I was trying to be a rock star. After studying and playing in Hollywood for a year, I came to Atwater to be with your mother. So why would I leave Hollywood and move to Atwater if I was trying to be a rock star?  Well, I have asked myself that many times through the years.  The only logical answer I can come up with is that I really didn’t want to be a rock star that bad.

You were actually born in Merced which was a short ways from Atwater.  It was at night and I don’t remember what time we arrived at the hospital. I do remember we were there early and your mother was in labor with you for many hours.  It seemed to be a hard labor.  You are my first child.  I had never seen a baby born and felt as though I was in a trance.

When your head came out the umbilical cord was around your neck twice and you were blue. All of a sudden all hell broke loose in the room and it was urgent that you came out now.  After you finally emerged, a nurse took you over to a table and put a tube down your throat sucking out any liquid that was in your lungs.

It must have taken a few minutes for you to take your first breath as your mother, in a delirious voice started asking why her baby wasn’t breathing. After what seemed like an eternity, you started to cry.  I think everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief with your first breath.  I finally got to hold you and welcome you to the world, and the doctor let me cut a small piece of the umbilical cord that had already been cut.

You spent the first week of your little life in the hospital and finally came home with no further complications. You were my first child and I never knew I could experience the feelings I had that day.  It truly was one of the best days of my life.

 

Sarah

Posted on by
Reply

We were living in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Your mom started going into labor in the evening. It was about a two hour drive to get to the hospital in Colorado Springs. So we left and had a pretty uneventful drive there. Your mother wanted to have a natural delivery so she declined the epidural the nurses offered.   I guess it must have been about three in the morning when the pain got pretty bad. The doctor came in and said she was dilation was almost to ten and she could start pushing.

I don’t remember how long all of this took but it was early in the morning when your little head popped out and you had your first glimpse of the world. I cut the umbilical cord and the nurses cleaned you. The doctor hadn’t left and I knew something was wrong.  I looked over at the doctor.  There was so much blood. The nurses put my attention to you and kept me busy taking care of you. I welcomed you into the world and they wheeled your mother out of the room.  I wasn’t sure what to do so I called my mom and dad and then called your mom’s mother and father.

After about an hour or so my parents arrived and my mother was busy holding you when the doctor came into the room.  “I can’t stop the bleeding”. He said. “I just can’t find where it’s coming from. I need to take her entire reproductive system out and stop it that way.  She won’t be able to have any more children. I’m sorry”

“Do what ever it takes to save her” I said. She had two children and I had two children. We weren’t planning on having more children. But I put on a show like I was sad when inside I was actually very happy.

My mother noticed that you started wheezing and in came the nurses carrying you away too.  I sat there in shock.  I honestly believed I was going to loose you both that night. Your mothers parents showed up and I explained to them what had happened.  Your grandmother on your mothers side was always so calm and with her “bless her heart” accent, it seemed that everything was going to be okay.

I walked out of the room to the nursery and looked at you with an IV sticking out of your head.  I guess it was the only place they could find a vein to put it in. Your mother was put in a hospital room. You were put in neo-natal intensive care in different hospital across town.

They put four pints of blood into your mother.  She was so close to bleeding to death that we almost lost her that night.  I took the next two weeks off of work.  I would go to your mothers room so she could pump milk for your to drink and then I was off to the other hospital to feed you.

One of the saddest places I’ve ever seen is neo-natal intensive care. All of those babies had been born prematurely and some of them you could hold in the palm of your hand.  You looked like a giant compared to them and I used to wonder why they had put you there.

The nurses were very nice to me and always had a rocking chair ready for me to sit in while I held you and fed you.  The also love to pull off my shirt.  Was good for you they would tell me, and the skin to skin contact was something that babies really needed.  I’m sure part of that is true. But it never bothered me. As hard a job that has to be for those girls, I hoped it would bring a little joy into their lives.

The wheezing had stopped but you did have a small hole in your heart that I guess closed as you got older. When we took you home you were on oxygen for like the first six months of your little life. We did live at almost 10,000 feet above sea level and I’m sure it was just a precaution. Your little life started out pretty hard and the strength  you have today shown even then.