Birth Story - Sport

 Drum roll please...

Here we have it! Finally, the last birth story and it belongs to Sport. The year was 2003. Bossy was just finishing up her Associates degree at Snow College. The other kids were scattered throughout the various schools in our district. The Dog Walker was 9 years old and after three sisters, he was just dying for a baby brother. He was so convinced he was right that I even took him with me to the ultrasound. I figured he might believe the doctor more than me. Thankfully, it didn't have to be a big deal. All pictures properly indicated "boy," although the Dog Walker thought he looked more like a monkey.

I was SOOO uncomfortable with this pregnancy! It was the first time I had experienced sciatica and that along with the bursitis in my hip made it almost impossible to sleep. I tried everything to get comfortable. The thing that worked best was building a little "house" of pillows with two behind my head and on on each side. Then I would slip one between my knees. That almost worked...

Dog Walker and Sport

 
As with the previous three sisters, the doctor scheduled an induction about a week early. It was June and the weather had been unseasonably hot. It was surprising to wake up to cool and rainy., but we reported at the hospital just before 7:30 a.m. as instructed. Unfortunately, when we got there, they had no room for us, so we sat in the waiting room for about an hour.

After that we got started and the nurses were pleased to find that I was already dilated to 3 cm. Sometimes I've been asked why in the world I am at the hospital...come back next week, so that was good news. The anesthesiologist arrived just in time to keep me from feeling even one real labor pain.

In fact, things were going so well they actually had to turn the Pitocin DOWN to keep me from delivering before I had finished the required doses of antibiotics. When the final drops pumped their way in from the second bag, they upped the Pitocin again and my little Sport came really fast. Thankfully, this was NOT one of the times the nurses refused to get the doctor there on time. He halted things for only a moment as he unwrapped the cord from Sport's neck (that was a little scary!) and one push later was all it took. I didn't even have to push a second time since he slipped out all by himself.

The nurses all ooo'd and aah'd over his beautiful blond hair. It was quite long for such a little guy. We spent the next couple of weeks listening to people gush about how beautiful Sport was. He'd probably be a little embarrassed to know about that now.

We had our typical jaundice scare and he had to visit the doctor every day for the first three days. Fortunately, he didn't have to go under the lights. We were so glad to finally have him home!

Birth Story - Bossy, Part 3

By the time we got to Utah Valley Hospital, it was late…approaching midnight. We checked our little Bossy into the border nursery and they told us to leave and find somewhere to rest. They had everything under control and since we were young and stupid (and tired) Grandma drove us over to my sister’s apartment. She and her hubby had been married about a year longer than us and her little guy was about three months old. It was so hard watching her hold him and nurse him! I was so sad and I was bulging with milk. Grandma suggested that I pump, but that just made me cry more. We finally settled down to sleep on their sofa sleeper. It was uncomfortable and we were restless, worried, and exhausted all at the same time.

The morning sun finally peeked through the window and we were up and dressed, anxious to see if the doctors had fixed all of Bossy’s problems. When we arrived at the hospital, they couldn’t seem to find our baby. I began to panic and after several agonizing minutes, our doctor showed up. Bossy’s condition had steadily dropped until her jaundice count registered 27. At that point they put her in the NICU. Since we had forgotten to leave my sister’s phone number, the doctors had to make decisions without us. Rather than risk brain damage or possible death, they changed out all of Bossy’s blood for new blood. That meant they had to open up her belly button (the cord had only fallen off the day before) and slowly pump the new blood through her veins while drawing off the tainted blood at the same time. The process took hours, but was finally completed just before dawn.

Thankfully, her numbers were dropping and she was actually getting better. We were so relieved! A part of me was so glad that I didn’t know about the horrible scary part, but I would have never been able to forgive myself if she hadn’t pulled through. I can’t remember how long she was in the hospital. I don’t remember staying more than the one night at my sister’s apartment, so I think she must have been released later that day. Her numbers stabilized and never went back up. The doctors think the high jaundice counts might have been because we have RH and the A/O incompatibility. It might have also been genetic. My youngest sister had to have the exact same procedure during her first week of life.

I’m just grateful that with 12 kids we only had this happen once. The doctors were always much more aggressive with starting treatment for jaundice earlier. At least half our kids were under lights or being treated one way or another. Thank goodness for medical care and doctors! Without them, our perfect gift (little Bossy) would have been taken away permanently.

Rockin' the Baby

I know I hardly ever do any of those linky things, but when Shell on Things I Can’t Say, suggested the Baby Bumps first and now the actual babies, I didn’t want to miss a chance to show off all my cute little ones! My friends tell me you can always tell one of our babies because they all basically look the same. What do you think? I’m thinking similar in looks, but very different in personality.

This is Bossy on the day I graduated from the University of Utah in the summer of 1986.

This is the Gym Rat on his first birthday, shortly before he totally destroyed a cake!

This is the Drama Queen, totally tuckered out during a trip to Idaho in 1990.

Here's a cute pic of Teach in the fall of 1991. We don't have very many pictures from our old house, so these are particularly fun.

The Dog Walker, being the king. As you can see, he isn't wearing any pants.

The Princess hated having her picture taken when she was little. These were done at the elementary school in the fall of 1997. Obviously that changed as she got older...

This is the Prima Donna's first birthday pic in 1999. As you can see, she is totally ready to pounce!

Crafty has always been known for her huge hazel eyes. She's about four months old in this pic. When she was little, people often commented that she looked like a Precious Moments doll.

I love this hospital pic of Sport because of the color of his hair! How often do you see the dark hair with the extremely blond tips in a newborn? He looks like he just left SuperCuts...

Scout had the prettiest auburn hair when she was little! This is her at about 8 months old. Sadly, by the time she was a year it was all gone and when it came back in it was a sandy blond.

This is Curly at about 9 months (when he was not so curly). He started going with me to play volleyball when he was less than a week old. We switched to basketball in January when he was six months old. He loved chasing the balls around the gym.



This is Baby Doll in December of 2010. She had jaundice from the time she was born in October. She was so yellow on her blessing day that we didn't take pics until a few days later. She is about 2 months old. There you have it...a dozen eggs hatched into a dozen babies. And no, they aren't cheaper by the dozen! (But they are really cute!)

Vampires, Dayglow Beds and Alien Babies.

Baby Doll was born a full month early in October and she had jaundice. They put her on lights in the hospital and after one extra day, they let her go home…with the lights. Her weight had dropped to 6 lbs, which was still pretty good for a preemie. She was so tiny and cute that the kids were devastated when they had to just let her lie there on the billi-bed. I was totally sleep-deprived and post-postpartum. I was NOT fun to be around.

dotmed.com

 **Editor's Note:  Mom didn't think it was funny but we all thought Baby Doll would make an excellent alien for Halloween.** After several days with her going in for a foot poke every day, her numbers dropped to safe levels so we sent the billi-bed back. Finally we could hold and cuddle her! Halloween was approaching when I took her in for her two-week appointment.  The doctor decided she was still too yellow so she ran more jaundice tests. The numbers had all gone back up and once again she was confined to the bill-bed and had to be subjected to the daily foot torture. Not only that, the doctor sent us to the hospital for blood tests to make sure her liver was functioning properly. Oh, and she wasn’t growing either. Her weight still hovered around 6 lbs. 

The blood tests were done at our local children’s hospital, but at a satellite clinic, not the main hospital. The blood guy promised me he was an expert on tiny arms and she would be fine. Bwa-ha-ha! But she wasn’t. He poked her four times before he was able to draw a tiny bit of blood. Each time he missed the vein and prodded that needle in her thin arm while she screamed her heart out. He brought in a supervisor. She poked what was left of her tiny vein and missed again. Then they brought out her little feet. They were already criss-crossed with scabs and scars from all the billi-rubin pokes. That didn’t stop them. Two big jabs together would make it bleed enough to fill the tubes they said. 

So they jabbed her. She screamed. The tears leaked slowly from my eyes and dropped on her blanket. I tried to comfort her tiny quivering body as they massaged the blood from her legs into her feet and then into the endless pile of tubes. "It’s drying up," complained the nurse. "Shall I poke her again?" The supervisor looked through her stash. "Maybe it’s enough…" she answered skeptically. "Why don’t you send them up to the lab and we will see?" She looked at me. "You can wait here until we know." The nurse left with the vials and the supervisor hovered in the room. She adjusted the light and closed the door. 

My Baby Doll whimpered on the table. They had strapped her down to keep her from moving. The vampire examined her tiny arms…first one, then the other. "I think I can fill that last vial from this one," she said as she snapped the gloves in place. When she plunged the needle one more time into that tiny arm, I learned something. I didn’t have to stand there and let them torture my fragile child. As soon as the blood didn’t flow smoothly into the vial and the needle started prodding, I spoke up. "No!" I said. "We’re done." 

Willem Dafoe "Shadow of the Vampire."

She pulled the needle away; I popped the straps on the bed and picked up my precious child. Her screaming subsided as I cradled her in my arms. Her health and welfare were my responsibility, but she was not a piece of meat nor was she an interesting challenge for the medical community. As it turned out, they had enough blood to run all the tests and she was fine. It took until the first part of December for all the yellow to leave her system. And when it was finally gone, she started growing like a weed. Now at nearly six months she is pink and round and chubby as a little butterball. She still has tiny scars on her feet, but at least there are no teeth marks on her neck.

Sick Babies

I’ve got sick babies. They make it so hard to sleep I thought I’d make another post. My two-year-old has always been a sickly child. He started with a month of jaundice. After a dozen ear infections we had tubes put in, but they haven’t completely stopped the infections. We are still in the doctor’s office about once a month asking for another antibiotic. The nurses at the doctor’s office all recognize him and remember his name because he has been in so many times.

His latest ailment is asthma. This requires fairly regular breathing treatments that become more frequent when he has a cold. I took him in yesterday because he had been vomiting and running a fever for about three days. Even after the pain and discomfort of a strep test he happily swallowed his medicine for the nurse and smiled at the Spiderman sticker that was his prize.

He is so different from me. I get a little headache and I’m popping Ibuprofen and complaining to anyone who will listen. My little Baby Doll is sick too. She has a stuffy nose and a cough. It’s so hard when they are so small. They don’t understand why they can’t breath and it makes us all grumpy. Not even chicken noodle soup can help at this age. Speaking of Chicken Soup, once upon a time I wrote a story that was published in Chicken Soup for the Latter-day Saint Soul, 2005. It’s a good read especially when you are sitting up late at night with sick babies. I wonder if I can find my copy…