Monday, July 16, 2018

Life Review: Brenda's Story of Daniel's Birth

On 13 July, 1982 our wonderful baby boy, Daniel, was born.  What a busy morning it was,  I (Brenda) thought I had lots of time before he would arrive and was busy taking care of last minute details while feeling a bit uncomfortable.  I remember making the bed and watching Kelly sleep as these  were her last moments as an "only child".  Phillip seemed a bit nervous and finally ordered me to  "get in the car" .  En-route to the hospital we were behind a small VW beetle that was slowly chugging along.  I was not able to sit down on the car seat due to so much pressure.  

We finally made it to St.Mary's hospital where we entered the ER, I think, my mind was a bit distracted at this point.  This was on the ground floor. I remember that we entered the hospital at 8 in the morning and Daniel was born at 8:30. They whisked me to the 3rd floor and asked for a urine sample.  I burst into tears and said "I can't give you a urine sample"!!!!!  They decided they should check me and they found that I was ready to deliver!  Daniel was very quickly born, and then the difficult part of the day began.  It was so frightening to see our son literally half blue and half pink and they took him away from me. The Docs thought something was wrong with his heart and he was quickly sent via ambulance to the Children't Hospital in Atlanta.  

Phillip had to borrow a car to follow the ambulance to the hospital.  Our car was so unreliable that he was afraid to use it.  All this was while he was in Grad School and we were living on our savings plus the $6,000 he earned each year as a grad assistant. Phillip sang hymns as he drove to Atlanta, these were the days before GPS had been invented and he wasn't familiar with Atlanta, at all.  I was pretty much alone in Athens and prayed for my sweet baby boy. It was a scary time, asthere were no cell phones, so I had to wait to find out how Daniel was, until someone called me long distance from a pay phone.  

Daniel was born with persistent fetal circulation.  His heart was found to be just fine and we were so grateful.  Also, his lower body was without oxygen; had it been his upper body, it would have made a dramatic difference in life as he knows it today.  

We thank God for our Daniel, and he has been blessed and cared for from the moment he was born.  Daniel is such a joy to us.  Daniel didn't require surgery of any sort and we were so thankful.  The valve slowly closed on its own and I got to hold him for the first time when he was one week old.  He is so loved and he makes us so proud.  We thank God for you and the man that he is are today. 

Thanks be to G^d that the remaining 4 were delivered without complications!  Now the pregnancies were another story- but they may be another post!   Brenda

1 comment:

  1. I never knew this! By the time I entered the family in 1985, this was old news. So glad everything turned out the way it did. And I hope you learned your lesson about getting to the hospital in time...mercy!

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