Caleb

My husband and I have been together since I was sixteen and he was eighteen. We were married in 2003, and conceived in November 2004, much to our excitement! The first six weeks of my pregnancy were great; I had no morning sickness or nausea. Then one day at work, I started to feel queasy, so I went home thinking I would return to work the next day. That didn't happen. I was out of work for seven weeks. I was so sick my husband had to take four weeks off work to help me. I lost 23 pounds, was nauseous everyday all day, gagged over everything, was admitted to the hospital six times for fluids and tests, and cried, really cried.

At one point, a blood test came back abnormal so I had to see a liver specialist. He said my liver was shutting down because I was not eating or drinking much, so it didn't have to function. I knew that I had to force myself to eat and drink. I worried about the baby growing inside me. Was it going to be healthy? My husband and I were so nervous and we knew we had to get my liver back on track. I tried to go back to work half days but I was just too sick and weak, so I left my job.

When the time came to find out if we were having a boy or a girl, I was finally excited and happy. At the beginning of the pregnancy, my husband and I both wanted to have a boy. As things began going downhill we didn't care what it was as long as we had a healthy baby. When we found out we were going to have our little boy, I cried of course; it was something to smile about and that was what I needed. I could finally picture our baby and envisioned blue eyes and brown hair like me, with daddy’s lips and my ears. I started feeling better; it had been 20 weeks and I had made it half-way, and it had been a long winter. Better weather was approaching, and I was looking forward to spending time outside in the sun and going shopping for short periods of time.

At 28 weeks I went for the glucose test, which I had been dreading. I failed the one-hour test and had to go back for the three-hour test. I failed that one as well, but just by a few points, so I didn't need insulin shots. I just had to watch my diet, which wasn’t so bad.

My due date was getting closer and I was seeing the doctor every week. During a routine visit, he thought the baby might be breech, and sure enough, an ultrasound confirmed this. Now I had to decide if I wanted the doctor to manually try to turn the baby or have a C-section. I did NOT want to have a C-section, but I thought about it for a few days. I was scared about turning the baby and having the cord get wrapped around his neck or hand so I decided to have the C-section, which was scheduled a week before my due date. I wanted the baby out. For the next few weeks I was very nervous … and sad. I really wanted the full experience, labor pains and all.

On August 5, 2005 at 6 AM, my husband and I were off to the hospital. At 8:37 AM, I had a beautiful, healthy, perfect eight-pound, 11-ounce baby boy who we named Caleb Leigh. He is the best! Everything I went through for him was worth it. I spent five LONG days in the hospital and our adventure began.

Caleb is now one and he has blue eyes and brown hair like his mommy, and daddy’s lips and mommy’s ears! Oh, and by the way, the C-section was a piece of cake!