Happy Birthday, William

Happy Birthday to our dear son today. Thirty-three years ago, it was raining and cold. I was at the beginnings of labor and Michael wanted to keep it going, so we walked into town. There was a new group of buildings gathered together, which included doctor and real estate offices that had large overhangs. We walked the entire grouping under the overhangs for an hour. By the time we got home, I was in full labor.

But, we had to drive over the pass. Michael eyes lit up! This was his chance! He zoomed and I soon worried whether we would arrive alive! I finally had to say, "Slow down! I am not having this baby yet!" We arrived at the hospital ready to go in and just quickly give birth. 

But alas, it was not to be. We arrived at 11:30AM, got settled until, oh no, we had a problem. Insert the monitor on the baby’s head. Yes, we had a problem. It was under stress. In those days, there were no portable sonograms. So, it was all on the monitor. The labor pains were awful. How was I ever going to get through them?

My wonderful doctor came and went. I was his only patient in labor, at the moment. The nurses came and went. My parents arrived to the hospital to support Michael. He was a mess. I finally sent him away to get some dinner at 6:00 with my parents when it happened. The audio of the baby's heartbeat on the monitor stopped. I pressed the help button while pounding on my stomach trying to rouse the baby. I knew it was bad when the nurse turned white, yelled something, rolled me on my left side, applied an oxygen mask and my doctor suddenly appeared. 

He was calm. 

Here is the choice, he said, "There is something wrong with the baby. The heart keeps stopping. We've got to get it out of there. There is an operating room available right now or we can try to work this out but an operating room may not be available if we need it. What do you want to do?" I looked up and said, "Now." I didn't want any more damage done to the baby.

In the meantime, Michael had heard my doctor being paged while they were going to dinner; he ran back and arrived just as they were having me sign the papers for the caesarian. He was really pale and even more nervous when I had him sign the papers. 

Everything was moving quickly. They flew past my parents with only a quick kiss and tears and into the huge, cold, filled with people operating room. Every time I would have a labor pain, the doctor would hold me in his arms until it passed then they tried to do the spinal again. Finally, they hit the right spot and I felt nothing! It was marvelous! It began. They had called in my pediatrician who was there with his partner - this is the man who is now in my pulmonary rehab class!

"It's a boy! You were right!" The doctor and I had a bet. I knew it was a boy but he kept insisting it was going to be a girl.

A wave of relief hit. He was out. I learned later that the umbilical cord was wrapped around one ear and every time he tried to go through the birth canal, it would cut off his oxygen. 

He was born at 8:21PM and was huge. He 9 lbs. 5 ozs. 

But, I was only able to get a quick look at him before they whisked him away. What I didn't know is that he was cleaned up and placed in Michael's arms. I love knowing he had one parent immediately.

My parents and Michael were able to visit me one at a time, to tell me how good he looked and how very huge he was! I had to lay flat for 12 hours because of the possibility of spinal headaches for months before finally being moved to a room in the morning.

A nurse came in to tell me that I could go and get my baby but she would be back to walk with me. I waited. She didn't come back soon enough so, with the recent c-section, I crawled to the bottom of the bed because the sides were up, grabbed my pole with the I.V. drugs and walked down the hallway to get my boy. The nurses were stunned to see me! “How can you walk?” I felt no pain. I wanted to see my baby. We got back to the room together, I unwrapped him; made sure he had all of his parts, smelled him and held him close to my chest. I whispered a solemn promise in his ear to be the best mother on earth. 

The doctor used to hang out in my room. He told me that from the time they removed the heart monitor until the time William was born, no one knew how many times his heart had stopped. They had anticipated that he would be born with cerebral palsy but saw no signs of it after the birth. No one knew how much oxygen did not get to his organs and that he would have major learning disabilities. Fine. Okay. Anything, I didn't care as long as he was alive. He fought so hard to be born. 

In those days, women stayed in the hospital for three days after giving birth. For a c-section, it was five days. Nice rest. Begin to recover. I was so ready to get home.

As I have written before, we arrived home; we placed him gently into his crib and went to the family room. I gently sat down; Michael looked at me and asked, "What do we do now?" It really was the beginning of our life. No child was ever so loved. Throughout his time at school, I was just happy that he was doing well and no disabilities ever showed up. We were truly blessed. He is nothing but our joy and our life. He has taught us so much.

So, happy birthday, son. It has been a joyous 33-years.