A Birth Day Story

My little mister turned six last week. SIX. Oh, my gosh. I bought him a Nintendo DS for his birthday. His sister has one, and he always wants to play it and it, of course, causes many fights. So, he finally got his own.



Nope, not at all excited. HA! Isn't he just the most handsome boy EVER?

I always, always, always remember when he was born. I remember when MG was born, too, duh, but MB's birth was different.

I had him a week early. He was already almost 8lbs (geh), so we induced. I had him on May 18, 2004. We took him home about a week later, and only because I fought to take him home. Why?

I saw him for about two-seconds after he was born before they whisked him off to the NICU. You see, my little baby would stop breathing and then not start again without some prompting. They think the little esophagus flap was weak, and he got acid reflux a lot. So, the acid reflux would get into his throat and babies don't know how to deal with it. You would see him arch way back to try and get away from it, and then he would just not breath because he didn't know what else to do. Um, it's pretty scary to see your brand-new little baby turn blue.

They had him hooked up to oxygen and an oxygen and heart-rate monitor. Whenever he would stop breathing, his oxygen levels would drop and the alarm would go off and you'd have to blow in his face to shock him into taking a breath. I can't tell you how awful it was to see my otherwise healthy little boy laying in the little bed with wires stuck to him and the oxygen tubes up his tiny little nose.

I think for me it was worse because it wasn't expected. I would look around the nursery and see the tiniest little babies in incubators, fighting to live, and then look at my 7lb 9 oz, 21" long son and think that he looks fine. He was born on time and shouldn't be there!

They wanted to keep him longer. I was on the verge of a nervous-breakdown at that point. My marriage was pretty much over, I was recovering from giving birth, taking care of an almost four yr old, living with my parents while MB was still in the hospital, driving myself over there six times a day to feed and hold him. I told them no. They didn't like it, but I wanted my son home.

So, they finally said ok. But we had a huge oxygen tank in the living room for a month, plus an oxygen monitor that I had to hook him up to every time he would sleep. And the little portable oxygen tanks. He was on it for a month, plus this nasty looking medicine to help keep the reflux down. After a month, I had pretty much had it. I pulled myself and my parents together and prayed healing. Then I took the oxygen tubes out of his nose, took him off the monitor and left it in God's hands.

Obviously, the story ends happily because my baby is six now and has never had any issues. Thank God!!

So, Happy Birthday to my handsome little man.