My Baby - Ahem, I mean, my Big Boy turned 7 years old today! I can't believe he's been on this earth with us for 7 years, and yet, it feels like forever. I love this boy more than words could capture! I am so grateful that he came to our family and has blazed the trail (if not the birth canal - more on that later) for his little sisters. Christopher is such a wonderful example! I thoroughly appreciate his sensitivity, compassion, obedience and endlessly loving and giving heart.
Warning: Long post! And a graphic story...
So Christopher had a rather unique, or should I say frightening, entrance into this world. He was 10 days overdue so we scheduled an induction on the 24th, a Saturday. We arrived at the hospital at 6am and by 7am I was all "wired up" and just waiting for the doctor to administer the pitocin. When you go in for this you have to have been fasting since midnight the night before. When a nurse offered me a glass of juice, I gratefully accepted - grape, my favorite. They started the pitocin around 7:30am and by 9am I was feeling nothing. So my doctor came in to break the bag of waters and "get things moving." How prophetic that phrase would become. After she did so, Christopher's heart rate dropped dramatically. They tried to get me to roll from side to side, get up on all fours, ANYTHING to get this baby's heart rate back up - nothing. I remember hearing the doctor's fateful words, "We may have a cord!" Ok, WHAT is "a cord" and how do we fix it?!! She did a pelvic exam and reach into my cervix and yelled, "CORD! O.R. STAT!" This is bad.
FYI: "a cord" was short for a Prolapsed Cord (occurs in about 1 in 1000 births). Basically Christopher's head wasn't engaged in the birth canal and when she broke my bag of waters his cord washed down before his head did. This pinched the cord in half, cutting off oxygen, nutrients, etc. to the baby. Typically the head puts further pressure on the cord which increases with each contraction. I was told you have a maximum of 10 minutes before fetal death, of course by about 4-5 minutes there is some kind of brain damage.
Sidenote: I also ended up having a condition known as polyhydramnios. It's an overproduction of amniotic fluid, so while it may have seemed that his head was down, there was so much fluid, that he could never have fully engaged in the pelvis. It's very difficult to diagnose early. This occurs in .5-2% of all pregnancies. Am I weird, or what?!
I was laying on the hospital bed flat on my back with the doctors hand WAY up inside me (thank goodness she was a tiny Asian woman!) trying to hold the umbilical cord out of the birth canal, thus keeping oxygen flowing to the baby. The time was 9:15am. She rode with me into the O.R. (operating room) and nurses, anesthesia and doctors started piling into the room. The tried to kick Chris out of the room, and I PANICKED! "Ok, he can stay."
There was no time to try placing an epidural, so they had to give me general anesthesia (knock me out). As the mask was placed over my face I felt the excruciating pain as the doctor sliced into my lower abdomen. Then I slept.
Christopher was "extracted" as we say, at 9:20am. He was non-responsive at first (the cord was wrapped twice around his neck), but after some good, hard rubbing (and spanking), he came around and let out a good cry. My doctor was amazing. I know this is an OBGYN's worst nightmare, but her quick thinking gave us a perfectly healthy baby boy!
When I woke up about an hour later, I started throwing up every ounce of grape juice I had, had earlier. A grumpy nurse came in and started wiping me up while mumbling something like, "That's why we don't give juice to induction patients!" Yeah, yeah, yeah, where's my baby?! When Chris finally brought him in, I took him into my arms for the first time and burst into tears. As a gazed at him in my drug-induced state, I remember so clearly saying, "He looks like a little man!" That has been one of his more prominent nicknames ever since. He was so perfect, but I was so worried that something had happened to him during the "extraction." Incidentally, Chris didn't tell me all the sordid details until months later.
It was a very long, hard recovery (apparently I don't react well to anesthesia), but it was SO worth it!
To my Buddy:
"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, for all of Eternity, my baby you'll be."
I wish I had pictures from further back than 2 years old, but we didn't have digital camera and I don't have any on my computer at the moment!
Warning: Long post! And a graphic story...
So Christopher had a rather unique, or should I say frightening, entrance into this world. He was 10 days overdue so we scheduled an induction on the 24th, a Saturday. We arrived at the hospital at 6am and by 7am I was all "wired up" and just waiting for the doctor to administer the pitocin. When you go in for this you have to have been fasting since midnight the night before. When a nurse offered me a glass of juice, I gratefully accepted - grape, my favorite. They started the pitocin around 7:30am and by 9am I was feeling nothing. So my doctor came in to break the bag of waters and "get things moving." How prophetic that phrase would become. After she did so, Christopher's heart rate dropped dramatically. They tried to get me to roll from side to side, get up on all fours, ANYTHING to get this baby's heart rate back up - nothing. I remember hearing the doctor's fateful words, "We may have a cord!" Ok, WHAT is "a cord" and how do we fix it?!! She did a pelvic exam and reach into my cervix and yelled, "CORD! O.R. STAT!" This is bad.
FYI: "a cord" was short for a Prolapsed Cord (occurs in about 1 in 1000 births). Basically Christopher's head wasn't engaged in the birth canal and when she broke my bag of waters his cord washed down before his head did. This pinched the cord in half, cutting off oxygen, nutrients, etc. to the baby. Typically the head puts further pressure on the cord which increases with each contraction. I was told you have a maximum of 10 minutes before fetal death, of course by about 4-5 minutes there is some kind of brain damage.
Sidenote: I also ended up having a condition known as polyhydramnios. It's an overproduction of amniotic fluid, so while it may have seemed that his head was down, there was so much fluid, that he could never have fully engaged in the pelvis. It's very difficult to diagnose early. This occurs in .5-2% of all pregnancies. Am I weird, or what?!
I was laying on the hospital bed flat on my back with the doctors hand WAY up inside me (thank goodness she was a tiny Asian woman!) trying to hold the umbilical cord out of the birth canal, thus keeping oxygen flowing to the baby. The time was 9:15am. She rode with me into the O.R. (operating room) and nurses, anesthesia and doctors started piling into the room. The tried to kick Chris out of the room, and I PANICKED! "Ok, he can stay."
There was no time to try placing an epidural, so they had to give me general anesthesia (knock me out). As the mask was placed over my face I felt the excruciating pain as the doctor sliced into my lower abdomen. Then I slept.
Christopher was "extracted" as we say, at 9:20am. He was non-responsive at first (the cord was wrapped twice around his neck), but after some good, hard rubbing (and spanking), he came around and let out a good cry. My doctor was amazing. I know this is an OBGYN's worst nightmare, but her quick thinking gave us a perfectly healthy baby boy!
When I woke up about an hour later, I started throwing up every ounce of grape juice I had, had earlier. A grumpy nurse came in and started wiping me up while mumbling something like, "That's why we don't give juice to induction patients!" Yeah, yeah, yeah, where's my baby?! When Chris finally brought him in, I took him into my arms for the first time and burst into tears. As a gazed at him in my drug-induced state, I remember so clearly saying, "He looks like a little man!" That has been one of his more prominent nicknames ever since. He was so perfect, but I was so worried that something had happened to him during the "extraction." Incidentally, Chris didn't tell me all the sordid details until months later.
It was a very long, hard recovery (apparently I don't react well to anesthesia), but it was SO worth it!
To my Buddy:
"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, for all of Eternity, my baby you'll be."
I wish I had pictures from further back than 2 years old, but we didn't have digital camera and I don't have any on my computer at the moment!
Chrisser's 2nd birthday, going on a horse ride at C&M Stables in Florence.
Christopher and Peanut on 4th of July 2004
Isn't he cute?! On my birthday in 2004
Sweet babies! Christmas 2004
Christmas 2003
Birthday 2008!
Some of his "lute!" He REALLY needed new clothes!
Getting ready to open his gifts
Grandma surprised us and came up to celebrate - actually, this is a REALLY long story, but we were all sick (including grandma) so it was low-key, but very nice.
Payton enjoying some cake and ice cream
Christopher made the first cut - silly boy!
His birthday sign
The birthday cake spread
Blowing out the candlesWhat a day! Like I said, we've been sick - AGAIN! This is our 3rd round of "junk" and we've pretty much been continually sick for 2 months!
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