Sixteen years ago today today our younger son Christopher was born. It is one of those days that I will never forget for many reasons – obviously because our son was born, but also because the path to our happy ending was very uncertain and fraught with difficulty.
We had gone through years of infertility and miscarriage before Danny was born, and after a few months we were basically told that if we planned to have another child – don’t stop trying. So we didn’t, and in June of 2007 Lisa had a feeling and we did a test while on vacation at Cape Code and eating lunch at the Captain’s Table in Chatham. It was positive.
That didn’t make it easy – throughout the pregnancy there was spotting and other difficulties, and Lisa had non-specific lousy feelings most of the time. But she held in there and on the pre-scheduled day we showed up to deliver our baby, just like we did with Danny.
As we went through the surgery our OB/GYN made a few things abundantly clear:
– Lisa’s scarring issues made the surgery no laughing matter and the attitude in the OS was tense.
– Lisa should never get pregnant again.
– Christopher was breach, and more of less stuck under Lisa’s ribs
– Another childbirth could very well kill Lisa
But despite that and relatively low Apgar scores after Chris nearly drowned in the amniotic fluid, we all headed to recovery. But we never got much chance to relax. We finally headed home almost 2 weeks later, but before then:
– Lisa had an ilius, meaning that her digestive system had shut down and would;t restart manually. It took TWO rounds with an NG tube to get her going again, and there was much bile and difficulty in between. It was scary when the chief of surgery was in our room trying to form a strategic plan of action around dealing with her. Fortunately it got resolved before we had to do anything drastic … but it was quite tense!
– I was standing in the hall with Chris about an hour or so after her was born and he turned blue. You might have heard about someone turning blue before, but when it is a baby … it is pretty literal! He turned blue a second time and was sent to the NICU, and when I joined him he was improving and one of the nurses quipped that THIS was what a normal healthy baby looks like.
For a short time I was getting concerned I would leave without a wife or younger son – but everything work out, and today that baby turns 16!
Happy Birthday Chris!
I’m so glad it all turned out – I can’t even imagine how frightening it would have been! Happy Birthday to Chris!
Thanks – it is amazing looking at this 6’2″ 16-year old and thinking of him turning blue back then. Crazy!
That had to be so terrifying! Happy Birthday, Chris!
At the time it was just surreal … I never had the chance to be scared, really. Funny how that works, you just power through it at the time – later you can think ‘wow that was crazy’!
Wow what a scary thing to go through! So glad you now have two healthy and great sons!
Happy Birthday, Chris!!
Thanks Sara – it is just a reminder that you really can’t assume things will go a certain way. We had friends who seemed to be able to ‘will themselves pregnant’. For us it was a struggle, a long struggle that impacts us to this day. You never lose those feelings.
Wow what an ordeal!! Glad everything turned out OK and you have two wonderful sons and a healthy wife!
Definitely a bizarre thought to go from the very easy c-section with #1 to a 2-week stay and all of those problems with #2. You really just never know. But like you say – so happy it all worked out for us!
That must have been so scary! Happy birthday to Chris.
Thanks so much … he really had a great day.
What a great reminder. So sorry you had to go through this and so grateful it turned out in this wonderful way.