MEMORY #3...

Memory #3 hit me today. I have to get this stuff on "paper" so here goes.

Baby boy number 1 :

Kazz was born 6 weeks early. He was 5 pds. 7 ounces. I was in labor all day and didn't know it. I had a backache. I woke up that morning feeling cruddy but Brian and my mom told me I had to toughen up because "you have nearly 2 more months of this!" So I was in pain all day and tried to just tough it out while I worked at the carpet store. By the time I got home that night my "aches" were 5 minutes apart. Our bed had broken on one side so I slept in the bed that night and Brian slept in the floor. At around 1:00 am I decided to call the hospital. I explained that I was very uncomfortable and wondered what I could take for the pain. The nurse asked me to come to the hospital. I explained that it was 45 minutes from our home and I would rather not. She explained that I NEED to come to the hospital. LOL So I woke Brian up. He called to tell my parents that we were going to the hospital. My mom asked him to call when we got back home. We arrived at the hospital just behind 7 other women. This is a small hospital so when I said to the intake nurses that I'm not due until August 29th and that I probably just have gas they put me in a recovery room to be monitored later. The date was July 20th.

After an hour or so a nurse came in to check on me. During the exam she said, "Oh my God, you're dilated to 4 and 80% effaced." I had no idea what that meant. I hadn't even had birthing classes yet. They rushed me into a labor room, tested my heart to be sure I could handle magnesium (I think). I felt like I was going to die. We didn't know at that time that I was born with a heart defect that could have killed me if they continued with that treatment. I immediately refused the treatment when they said it affects the baby. They stopped the medicine and gave me an amniocentesis. They got me ready to fly to a bigger hospital that could handle premies, but when the amnio came back they were very surprised to see that his lungs were healthy enough to be delivered there! What a wonderful blessing! I got an epidural at 8 cm and immediately dilated fully and gave birth in a flash. My mother didn't want to be in the room but he came so fast that she was stuck between the doctor and the door. She prayed OUT LOUD the whole time. LOL It was funny and scary at the same time. Kazz was born purple. The cord was wrapped around his neck a few times so they cut it quick. I was so amazed at how fast it all happened that all I did was look over and say wow. My doctor showed the placenta to me because it only had a little hole in it the size of my fist. The rest was completely intact. Kazz had slid right out of a little hole and the rest looked like a little balloon. Very small. He was such a tiny little booger. LOL Between pushes the phone in the delivery room rang. My mother picked it up and it was Brian's brother. My mother said, "She is pushing and the baby is almost here I have to go." Brad was mad and called everyone to say how rude my mother was to him. But I digress...

Kazz's lungs were healthy, he latched on to eat very well and went home in 2 days. I got to stay in the hospital with him until he came home. He was jaundice but that is normal for a breast fed child and so no problems were had there. I do remember being very afraid and my husband's mother demanding that Brian and I bring him to Michigan to be hospitalized. His biliruben was high and she was in a panic. The doctors in Ohio were "fresh out of school" and therefore were privy to the new and improved information that biliruben can get pretty dog gone high and cause no harm thus they didn't worry about Kazz's at all but she is a nurse and cared very much for him. That, and of course the doctors in Michigan were more intelligent and our doctors didn't know beans because we are southern...ahem... So I was scared and crying and the first few weeks of his life I never left his side, wouldn't let anyone hold him and made everyone sanitize their hands with antibacterial foam before they could touch him. LOL I was a total disaster. I had hallucinations from sleep deprivation. After I "saw our pediatrician walk into our bedroom" Brian decided to call my doctor. His prescription? Sleep! LOL

I've heard people say that they wait to see their child before they name them. I think that's a hoot. Kazz was so skinny, wrinkled and hairy I would have had to call him Fival the mouse. LOL Thank God we already had his name. Kazz (Zach is my brother. Pronounce his name backward and you'll hear Kazz - Kazz is also short for Cazemir which is polish like my husbands grandmother) Brian-Glen ( My husband and my father) I decided that, that was a good name because he was named after all of my favorite men in this world and I had to get all their names in there just in case we never had another boy. LOLOL....Sheww...

That's Kazz's delivery story. Hope you like it Kazz. :-)