Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My first pregnancy and the birth of my first child.

I got pregnant with my first son Bailey in January of 2005. Right out of jail. For what you say? Alcohol, my greatest downfalls have always been because of alcohol or should I say alcohol is my greatest downfall. But God blessed me with my pregnancy with my first son, little did I know that it was a blessing. I was already madly in love with his father Rodney, my knight in shinning armor literally. He gave me a place to live, took me in and took care of me. We had met each other at our job at Pizza Hut six months before that. Both making barely any money working part time at that lousy job. Rodney was a full time student at the Art Institute of Atlanta. He worked his butt off and went to school. I was a high school drop out and a criminal. A match made in heaven, no?

Needless to say when we found out we were pregnant it was a big shock. I was eighteen (just barely) and Rodney was turning twenty-one that April. We were still babies ourselves, only we didn't know it. We thought we knew it all, knew we were adults and had all the answers. Bailey fixed that assumption for us, he not so politely taught us that in fact we knew nothing at all. Once we decided we were keeping our baby, I began to pray. I prayed for a little boy. Not for a healthy child or something a little less vain. I wanted a little boy for Rodney so badly, I would pray while I was throwing up what I had managed to eat into the toilet. "Please God, let this be a boy!, Please, God, please!" I remember the tears streaming down my face as I'd continue to throw up my stomach acid. I was so frustrated that I couldn't eat and even more frustrated that I was so hungry.

Looking at me now it's hard to believe I used to be a size five. I was when I got pregnant with Bailey. I will probably never be a size five again, not because I can't lose the weight but because my body shape changed so much since having Bailey and now since having Liam as well. I am so OK with that now though, I used to long for my teenage body back. I wanted to look like I did before. Now, I look like a woman, like a mother. I have round hips and breasts that scream I was made to be a mother. I love it, I love my body now more since getting pregnant with Liam than I ever have. I am finally confident in it. Anyhow, I digress.

I was a skinny little thing when I was pregnant with Bailey, I was lucky enough to fit most of my clothes for most of my pregnancy. After getting past the first trimester of throwing up everything that went down I really enjoyed my pregnancy. Only towards the end did I swell in my feet and face, I also had heartburn but only occasionally and it wasn't too bad. I was skinny with a little round belly. I loved going to the pool with my bikini on and my round belly all out. I did manage to get myself a good sunburn doing that. I don't usually put sunscreen on, I know, I know, but no one told me that when you are pregnant your skin is even more sensitive to the sun. I burned up a nice tomato red.

 I didn't take any birthing classes, I read a lot of books but didn't really study breathing or pain management or anything. I made the usual false alarm trips to the hospital, which was a huge deal for us because we lived a good 30-40 minutes from our hospital. For those of you who have not been to Wellstar Cobb Hospital, it is totally worth the drive. I went in to labor on October 18th at 8 in the morning, a day before his due date. My water didn't break however, I was just having contractions (felt like menstrual cramping) every seven minutes. Rodney who was already at work got a frantic phone call not from me but from his brother. His younger brother sat with me begging me not to have the baby yet, while we waited for Rodney to get home. Rodney finally did, although not fast enough to satisfy his brother. We hoped in the car and left for the hospital.

We did a lot of waiting after that. I wasn't dilated far enough so they had me walk the halls. I finally got dilated to a seven and then sat at a seven for what seemed like forever. Then all of a sudden I was dilated to ten. I had an epidural with my first son, I knew that I wanted all the pain med's they could give me. Unfortunately that doesn't always work out for the best. With my mom, my biological mother, Rodney and his mother on the left side of me I began feeling the urge to push. They stuck a tiny little nurse at the end of my bed with a towel in her hand. I was supposed to pull on one end and she on the other. I damn near pulled that tiny little girl into the bed with me, so we nixed that idea. I did a lot of pushing for a very long time with Bailey. I was so numb from the epidural down that I couldn't feel where to push. He was also face-up which makes it really hard for their heads to fit through the birth canal. It was a very frustrating and exhausting process especially for a girl my age.

Bailey did finally makes his way out after the doctor threatened a C-section and then got the vacuum. With an episiotomy and the vacuum he managed to make his way out at 8:50 that night. He was 7 lbs 11 oz and 19 inches long. He had a cone head from the vacuum and looked a little pale to me. I expected my biracial son to come out a little darker than he did. It took a little while for him to get darker and he still isn't all that dark (except during the summer when he becomes a nice beautiful coconut brown.). He had soft straight black hair that felt like silk to the touch. That all fell out later and his nice medium brown nappy curls came in but that is further along in the story. This is just about my pregnancy and the birth of my first son.

I quit drinking when I was pregnant with Bailey, I never really quit smoking, just cut back. I hid a lot of that from Rodney. He spent a lot of his time trying to keep me in check while I spent a lot of my time trying to work around him. I wanted to be eighteen and was not interested in being pregnant and having my actions not only affect me but our child as well. I don't know what I ever did to deserve a good man like Rodney. He has never given up on me, never let me down, never walked away from me. Like I said previously I was headed down a very bad road and God gave me Rodney who gave me Bailey. Don't worry I will post my pregnancy and the birth of Liam soon too. But seeing as Bailey is the big brother and came first I felt his story needed to be told first.

3 comments:

  1. I love birth stories :-) I'm glad you're writing these!

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  2. Thank you I am glad you like it. It's nice to share both of them because they each mean so much to me. In a lot of ways they were similar but just as different too.

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  3. My niece was born at Cobb Wellstar last June! Good place!

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