My Boy

Four years ago today the Vancouver Winter Olympics were going on and I took my 18-month-old daughter to the doctor for her check up.  I was also supposed to be having a baby boy. 

After three years of fertility treatments, I was finally able to get pregnant with my daughter.  I adored her and she was the perfect little baby.  When she was about 10 months old, I realized that I was unusually tired, a tired that persisted no matter how much I slept.  I had an extra pregnancy test laying around so I thought I’d take it just to rule it out but you cannot imagine my shock when it came back positive.  I had never seen a positive result before and I’d taken close to 50.  It was so exciting and overwhelming and seriously surprising. 

We had recently moved here and I started calling around to OBGYNs trying to get an appointment for confirmation with my hands shaking as I dialed. My husband was out of town and when he returned home a few days later he had his parents with him and so I whispered it to him late that night when we were finally alone. The next morning I got the call from my doctor that I was indeed pregnant. We were walking out the door with my in-laws and since we were not ready to say anything yet I had to just nod to Josh with excitement in my eyes.

One of my favorite moments of the pregnancy was telling my family that we were expecting a baby. All 27 of us were together at a family reunion. While I was given a hard time for holding back on certain activities, it was worth the moment we had when we finally announced it during a family talent show rap. (Look on my FB page under Aug 2009 if you want to see the video). I appreciated their shock and excitement and it was a memorable way to share such happy and unexpected news.

Even before we had the ultrasound I knew it was a boy.  The baby was so active and felt different from my first.  In all our years of marriage, we’ve only ever agreed on one boy name and so that is what we started calling him as soon as it was confirmed we were indeed having a boy. I was nervous though because I have all sisters and we had a daughter so I didn't know much about bugs and construction trucks and scouting.

On his due date, I took my daughter to her doctor appointment and felt pretty normal all day.  Since she had been two days late, I wasn’t really expecting anything that day.  That evening while watching the Olympics I started to feel like maybe I was having contractions.  I still felt okay but I did wonder if he was coming soon.   Then at 2:30 a.m. I woke up in pain.  I decided to just lay there and see what happened and an hour later, I decided things were getting serious so I woke up my husband.  When I stood up to get out of bed, my water broke.  I still tried to take a quick shower but ended up just getting some clothes on to go.  We woke up my little girl, took her to a friend’s house about 4:15 a.m. and got to the hospital about 4:30 a.m.  

I told them I wanted an epidural as soon as I got there but they were super slow and so finally I asked for whatever they could give me and ended up with an IV drug to help dull the pain of contractions.  I am a wimp when it comes to pain and I was very grateful I got that medicine when I did.  It took the edge off of the pain and made it possible for me to endure.  Around 6:45 a.m. they said I could have an epidural but I was already at a 9 so I said no thanks.  I was nervous though about the pushing because I had an epidural with my daughter and hadn’t felt a thing so I had no idea what I was in for.  The nurse assured me it would be okay but what came later was the most painful five minutes of my life! Thankfully, two pushes later, my son was born.  It was 7:25 a.m. on a Thursday morning and he was healthy with lots of dark hair and the most beautiful chocolate brown eyes and long eyelashes.

I consider him our miracle baby.  He was completely unexpected and such a gift.  I am thankful every day for this sweet, thoughtful, and loving son who on a regular basis drives me crazy but melts my heart.