Thursday, January 18, 2007

My 4 Year Old Little Boy

I was looking at Josh yesterday and I couldn't help but be amazed at how big he has grown.
I remember the day I found out I was pregnant. That was 6 years ago -- June 2001. Jet and I weren't married yet. I was 19. He was 20. We were both still in college. I had to tell my parents but I was so freaked out. So finally I did. And then they were the ones all freaked out. 9 months of carrying Josh in my womb was no easy thing. I was still in school and there were so many emotional tests both Jet and I had to face. Are we going to get married just because I got pregnant (so no we did not get married), how are we supposed to support the baby? More so how are we going to pay for the delivery of the baby? Where are going to live? And oh yeah, when the baby comes out, who will take care of the baby while both Jet and I are finishing school? Yes there were many many issues but I still managed to enjoy my pregnancy. I loved steak. I loved the quarter pounder of McDonald's. I loved lasagna. OK, I loved eating. And yes I gained 32lbs. From my small frame of 91lbs (pre - pregnancy weight), I weighed 123lbs on the day I was going to give birth.
I remember clearly that day in Feb 2002. The night before, Feb.23, my mom and Aunts decided that we have a mini "party" before I give birth. My OB even dropped by and she kept joking me that I should wait for a week before I give birth because she was off to a convention in 2 days. So we all went to sleep late, like around 12am. At around 4am, I woke up because the contractions were getting stronger. I told my mom and she called up my OB. My OB advised me to start monitoring the intervals of the contractions and when they reach a 5-10 minute interval, it would be better for me to go to the hospital already. So Mom goes back to sleep. SO I get up and decide that I HAVE TO POOP because I do not want to be pushing the baby out with a "twin" coming along (if yah know what I mean). So I get that done. Then I go see Jet in the other room to tell him that it looked like I was going to give birth soon. It takes a little time for Jet to absorb what exactly I was saying. Then I decide to get in the shower. I gotta be fresh for the big day right? So after the shower, I pee. And uh-oh. Something pinkish. M-O-M!! Mom comes running in. I tell her about it. And of course she didn't know what it was, she never experienced labor (she scheduled her c-section when she delivered me because she was CPD). So she decides that it was time for us to go. We make sure everything was packed, Mom changed her clothes and I went to check on Jet to make sure that he was ready. So the guy was snoring his heart out. J-E-T!!!! Lets go.
When we get to the hospital. They asked me all sorts of questions. They did and I.E. "3cm" said the doctor. "3cm!" They asked me to put on the hospital gown and proceed to the Labor Room. Only the patient, OB and nurses are allowed inside the labor room. By this time I could feel a bit of pain (I have a very high tolerance for physical pain by the way) but I was still walking around. By 12 noon I was bored as hell. I already watched 2 pregnant women being wheeled in to the delivery room and wheeled out with their babies beside them. So I decided to ask for the Sunday papers. I sat down and read the papers. Jet would occasionally peep in the Labor Room to check on my progress. When he peeped in while I was reading the papers, I even waved at him and gave him the thumbs up sign. And then the water just gushed out.
PAIN is all I remember for the next 6 hours. My bag broke at a little past noon. And I was in pain the whole time after that. They kept doing an I.E. on me but the dilation was taking forever. I was irate by this time. I disliked the fact that there were male nurses in the labor room. I requested for a pain reliever. They put me on demorol twice. Boy they should've given me a quadruple dose becuse man I could still feel every bit of the freakin pain.
AT 6PM my OB asks me if I could still bear the pain or if I wanted to have a c-section already. I was crying in pain by this time. According to my doctor, I was dilating at a very slow pace (I was 8cm after 14 hours of labor) and the baby was not descending. SO I said, OK go!!!!
The next thing I knew, they were wheeling me out of the labor room and in to the delivery room. My OB was already in her scrub suit and all the nurses started to gather around me. I was crying and I kept asking if the baby was going to be OK. They kept telling me that this would be better for the baby since he was in distress already. Suddenly there was the anesthesiologist above me trying to explain to me the procedure she would be doing. It was all blurry already. I remember the anes asking me to go into fetal position. I was like What The...In this pain she expects me to do that?? Apparently the answer to that was YES.
At exactly 6:25 PM on February 24, 2002, Joshua Alexander screamed (yes screamed, he was screaming from the time he was brought into this world until the nurse was finally able to bring him to me 4 hours later) his way into this world and into our hearts.

2 comments:

liz said...

That made me cry a little...what a story!
I know it's not for about another month, but happy birthday!
It's amazing what our bodies can go through and put up with, isn't it?

louann said...

Hey lizzy =)
It really is amazing especially because when we are pregnant and going thru all those changes (physical,mental and emotional) we never really get to imagine that in the end we are able to get past all that =)