A BIRTH STORY- MY CABOOSE, PART 1

After experiencing a miscarriage at 12 weeks and nearly a year of “trying”, we were thrilled to find that we were expecting. I discovered that I was pregnant at probably 4 weeks. I felt healthy. I was active. For the first time ever I had found a really great running partner… reliable, good company, etc. We had been running together for almost a year. My friend had always kept running throughout her first two trimesters. I wanted to follow her example and didn’t feel it was necessary to stop exercising all together. We kept running 3 times a week, about 3 miles each run nothing too strenuous, but just enough to feel good. At about 6 or 7 weeks, Carl and I stopped at his sisters for a quick visit. He pulled into the driveway and I got out of the car to check and see if they were home. As soon as I stood up, I felt a gush! I took one look at Carl and said, “We’ve got to go home”. We drove the 5 minutes back home and I went inside. After previously having a miscarriage, I was convinced that I was losing this baby. I called Dr. Nance and told him that I was having a miscarriage. He scheduled me for an ultrasound that day. When I went into the Dr’s office I was completely convinced that I had miscarried already. The ultrasound showed a live fetus. I couldn’t believe it! Dr. Nance sent me home with instructions to limit my activity for the next month.

Sitting around and being lazy was hard. It was early summer. I wanted to do all the fun active things that come with summer time. However, I followed the Dr.’s orders and kept my activity low. The follow-up appointment a month later showed that everything was okay. Dr. Nance gave me permission to resume normal activities. The rest of the pregnancy was uneventful. I didn’t have anymore bleeding and I felt really good for the most part. I was able to keep the weight down within reason (unlike baby #2).

With our first two boys, Carl and I found out the gender before the big day. In my heart I knew they were boys and the ultrasound simply confirmed my feelings. We decided with this pregnancy that we would wait until the Birth to find out. I imagined how exciting it would be to delivery this baby and have the Dr. announce “It’s a BOY or it’s a GIRL”! I love being the mom to boys yet having a girl would add a lot to a family of boys and so I was okay either way. To tell you the truth, I had no idea this time if I was having a boy or a girl. It was exciting!

Our baby was due February 12th, 2004. During this pregnancy, Carl experienced a company wide layoff. I’ve learned that blessings come in unusual ways because our being “unemployed” qualified myself and baby for Medicaid. I had never used Medicaid before and didn’t realize how having this insurance coverage would impact the life of our family. Carl was able to find employment with a company that required too many hours, too little pay and insurance after 90 days. I checked the calendar often realizing that the insurance would take effect February 1st. I hoped that I could make it that long so we would have “double” coverage. During the month of January, I often joked that this baby could come anytime after the 1st of February. January came and went. We invited my sister to stay with us so that “just in case” the baby came in the middle of the night we could pick up and leave without having to wait for somebody to come over. Little did I know that this decision, this one time saving element… would save my baby’s life!

... to be continued