My Life Story - The family grows!

 Ok another time slip. We're back in 1996, about March. Greg and I had only been dating for a few weeks when I missed a period. We were living at his one bedroom apartment in Carrollton with my sister and her daughter. Greg was at work, I took the pregnancy test and when it showed a very clear positive, I took it to my sister. She expressed the same mixed feelings I had, but I think she was more excited. I had just had a miscarriage in November, I had barely known this guy for two months, and I had no idea what I was going to do. How was he going to react? I was so scared. 

He got off work and came to our room. I told him to go look in the bathroom. He came back with an odd dreamy grin on his face. Then, I knew it would be ok. Somehow, it was going to be ok. My pregnancy progressed, I never really had morning sickness but started with indigestion/heartburn about a week after that positive pregnancy test. As we were not married and I had no insurance, I went to Planned Parenthood. They confirmed the pregnancy test and gave me information on options. Contrary to popular belief, nobody tried to talk me into an abortion, it was honestly never even thought of except one moment when they asked me if I knew my options and which direction I wanted to go. For a second it flickered through my mind, but then it was gone. I said I definitely wanted to continue the pregnancy and they gave me information on where to go, how to apply for Medicaid, etc. Greg and I talked, at the time he was store manager at Domino's Pizza. He made enough  money he could pay for doctor visits until we got health care worked out. 

I chose Dr. Nasiha Ahmad as my ob/gyn. Really, just because she was the one who had a space available when I needed my appointment. She was absolutely fantastic and made my pregnancy concerns minimal. I had a practically text book pregnancy, when "What to Expect" said I should be experiencing a symptom, that symptom showed up. I didn't gain too much weight, I did really well. My due date was October 29 so we hoped for a Halloween baby. That date came and went and no signs of impending labor. My mother was staying with us and my step father had bought us a car that was...well...it was crap. It didn't start most of the time so we had to push start it. But, it was a car. As the days dragged on, my doctor brought up induction. She said that she was only comfortable letting me go 14 days past my due date, so we scheduled my induction for November 12. The interesting thing about that date was that Greg and his sisters were also all born on the twelfth. He was April 12, his older sister was February 12, and his younger sister was August 12. Having our first baby on November 12 seemed like fate. 

November 11 came around, he closed at the restaurant that night. My mother and I drove to pick him up from work and the car died on the way home. Greg got out to push it, ended up over exerting himself, and was vomiting on the side of the road in the middle of the night. My heavily pregnant mind panicked, thinking this was definitely a bad sign. But, we were too far in! 

I arrived at the hospital at about 7 am. They got me hooked up to all the monitors and an IV and started the fluids and a pitocin drip. The contractions started coming and getting heavier, and suddenly my goal of a med free delivery went out the window. I remember asking for drugs and they gave me some Demerol. It made me sleepy, but didn't do anything for the pain, so I was painful AND sleepy and that made me very cranky. Finally, I was dilated enough they could do an epidural. 

I remember the doctor coming in and telling me that the anesthesiologist would be in to get me started and that I would have to sit on the edge of the bed. I dozed off and the next thing I knew I was trying to sit up. In my mind, it was just a moment since they had told me that I needed to sit up for the epidural. I guess that was funny? Anyway, the anesthesiologist finally came and inserted the needle. I don't have any memory of it except suddenly it didn't hurt. I could have kissed him. 

Then, I slept. Contractions came and went and I slept. Family came and went and the typical laboring woman scene played out. About 8:30 that night, I was finally fully dilated and they said it was time to start pushing. The epidural was still so high, I couldn't feel anything, so I just faked it but they said I was doing a good job so I kept doing that. After about 2 hours of pushing, we weren't making a lot of progress. The medical team started talking about cesarean and started getting things ready for that. I guess my body really didn't want that and suddenly we started getting things in gear. My beautiful baby girl was born at 10:55 pm on November 12, 1996. 

Today, she turns 25 years old. She's grown into an amazing, strong, intelligent, and willful adult that I'm so proud to have in my life. Every day she makes me more proud and it's been such a privilege to be part of watching her grow. 

Please forgive the video, it was badly transferred from VHS to digital.