A BABY STORY...

Well it was quite a journey welcoming into the world our first grandchild, Crew Anthony. Let's start from the beginning. On Mother's Day I received a frame with a picture of a positive pregnancy test. My little girl was having a baby! She actually is little. At almost 5 feet and around 112 pounds, there isn't much to her. I wondered what she would look like pregnant, imagining how cutesie she would be. I was in for the surprise of my life. My tiny, health conscious, marathon runner gained 75 pounds. No that isn't a typo. She almost doubled her weight.

Missy is left with sissy Lexi on right

They live 3 1/2 hours away from us but try to make it home a couple times a month. Each time I would ask her what her doctors thought about the weight gain (she had a team of doctors and midwives) and each time she said they didn't say anything. A lot of the weight was water retention but let me tell ya, towards the end I almost didn't recognize my own daughter. She looked so huge and bloated and I was worried about her. She had signs of preeclampsia  such as the water retention and a bit of high blood pressure but not enough protein in her urine to make the doctors too concerned. I have to give her credit, she taught school up until the time she delivered and never complained once as she got kankles, a double chin and shoulders like a line backer. All she cared about was that she was going to be a mom.


Labor went well at first and she was dilated to a 5 and they broke her water and then things get even better when she got her epidural. It didn't seem to phased her that it took about 4 tries before they finally got it in the right spot. She was dilated to 10 and they call it "labor down" which meant they want the baby to come down some on its own. So they spent the first 3 hours waiting...Crew was face up and crooked and after 3 hours of pushing she needed a c-section. Crew Anthony was born shortly after and when we got to go back to see them I saw her crying for the first time. They gave her a spinal block to do the surgery and she said she couldn't breathe. It was very frightening for her.


Crew was born 5:47 a.m. Dec. 10th. We had been up all night so we went back to Missy's to get some rest. The next afternoon when we went back to the hospital we learned  the doctor was concerned because Missy's hemoglobin count was low. They said she could have internal bleeding.  Luckily after giving her blood, the count went back up so they said it had stopped. 

I must add her husband was (and is) an amazing guy. He was right there through it all and stayed with her in the hospital day and night. He is a hands on husband and father.


Finally, she gets to come home. Later that night she woke me to let me know her incision was bleeding. She had a trail of blood from the living room into the bathroom. She very calmly called the hospital and asked what she should do. (insert panic for me). They said to put a pad over her incision and if it soaked threw to go to the emergency room and if not to call her doctor in the morning. For two weeks she went every few days to the doctor and he would pack the opening until it finally stopped draining and closed on its own.

Crew is quite the sleeper and so good. Actually he was too good because we didn't even know the poor thing was almost starving until he went for a check up and still hadn't gained any weight. He weighed 7 lb. 4 oz. when he was born, 6 lb. 8 oz when he came home. After being home a couple of days they had to take him back to the doctor to see if he was gaining any weight and since he wasn't  Missy had to started pumping and bottle feeding him so we could see how much he was eating. Luckily he  is now both bottle feeding and breast feeding and growing. 


The whole time Fern kept saying to Missy "You are my hero. I've never seen anyone go through what you have and be as brave. You are unbelievable." And yes she was amazing. She has even shocked her doctor because she started asking him question about when she has her next baby!!


Now she knows what it's like to experience a whole new love. The love you only share with your child. She is in heaven and let me tell ya, she earned it.

P.S. GO BEARS!!!!!