A November to Remember

November 8 - Cherished Memory #8

My daughter's birth on the 5th of August was my 5th Cherished Memory, so my son's birth on the 8th of July is my 8th Cherished Memory.

Jeff was supposed to be born on the 4th of July.  That day came and went with no sign of his appearance.  Again, we didn't know whether it was going to be a boy or a girl but we had decided if it was a boy his name was going to be Jeffrey Thomas.  I can't remember if we had any girls names picked out.  I think we really wanted a boy since we already had a girl, but our main focus was on healthy baby, no matter what the sex.

Again I went to the doctor and he said that since the baby had not shown any indication of wanting to be born yet, we could induce again.  He said that he was going out of town and if I wanted him to deliver the baby, it would have to be on the 8th of July.  That seemed like an easy date to remember, 7/8/88.  I certainly didn't want to wait until 8/8/88!

One more time we went to the hospital in the morning.  This time it was Mills Hospital.  Amanda had been born at Peninsula but in the two years since then, the local hospitals had done some changing and now all babies were delivered at Mills.  It is a little farther away from our house but not too bad.

My "focal" for this birth was Elmo.  He was a cute Sesame Street character that Amanda liked so we figured that she could have him after the baby was born and then she would have something to cuddle too.  Isn't he cute?


We were in the hospital about 8 AM and even though they started the pitocin right away, once again it took forever for anything to happen.  Complicating this delivery was the fact that I had developed gestational diabetes so they were really keeping an eye on both me and baby.  Finally the contractions started to come fast and furious.  I had already made up my mind that since I had delivered Amanda without an epidural or any pain meds, I could do it again with this one so it was a natural birth.

Just as I was starting to push, I could hear the doctor say that something was "stuck" and he had the nurse put the head of the bed way down so that my head was almost upside down.  It turns out that Jeff's shoulder was stuck so they had to push him back in a bit and rearrange him to come out head first.  I wasn't aware of that until after, but I think it was a little scary for a bit.

And then he was out.  What a cutie!  (Although at first he looked like a little old man, all wrinkled).  He was born at 6:23 PM.    

 

This year he turned 28 and what a fine young man he is.







So, that's my 8th Cherished Memory.  I am listing them in no particular order of importance, they are all equally cherished memories (just in case you were wondering).