Sassy's birth.....DAY

Well The Sweet Sassinator is 11 today. What.the.heck??? :|

So you want a story? Would you like it in list-form? Do you have the stomach for it? Ok. Then read.

• I moved out at 18.
• I got knocked up by 19 and I was inexperienced in many areas of life, including diet and exercise.
• First of all to be pregnant at this age when I was on my way to moving to Philly with a friend and going to art school was devastating.
• I stayed behind. How else was I supposed to take care of this baby?
• Her dad stayed with me and we raised the baby together pretty happily for many years.
• Back to the story.
• After going to a pregnancy crisis center I didn't know what was going to happen or how.
• My parent's never raised me to eat healthy or exercise.
• They were "intellectuals". Reading all the time.
• They hated sports and I can't ever remember a time when I exercised as a child.
• I did take a little bit of volleyball and hap-ki-do when I was younger but I always gave up.
• So. As a 19yo girl I eat whatever I wanted and barely moved.
• Her dad didn't help the matter. He was 6'3" 285. A football player and big eater.
• We would get steak dinners for lunch everyday on my lunch break.
• I worked temp jobs while I was pregnant because I couldn't wait tables being a balloon like I was.
• I worked in downtown Baltimore as a lawyer's secretary.
• That was an adventure.
• I had such bad morning sickness for five months I would puke twice in the morning.
• So when I'd get ready to take the bus downtown Baltimore I'd throw up every morning right before the bus came and then again when I got to work. It was bad.
• I liked working downtown because I did get out and walk on my lunch break sometimes. To explore.
• Blah blah blah, long story short I moved to a bigger apartment when I was 8 months pregnant.
• I kept wanting to rearrange the furniture especially when pappa bear wasn't home.
• I was a week late. And was miserable. You can imagine.
• I decided to move the giant t.v. we had.
• Well that set off alarms and I went into labor.
• I had to call pappa bear home to take me to the hospital.
• By the time I get there I am about ready to go. NO EPIDURAL!
• What? Huh? Oh no.
• I didn't take any Lamaze classes or anything to prepare myself.
• And nothing could have prepared me for the pain of contractions.
• Holy cow. The worst pain you can imagine. It feels like your body is going to explode.
• So I'm tryin' to get this baby out and I'm not handling the pain so well. I wasn't "BREATHING"
• I finally get her head out. By this time I'm ready to die and I still have to get her body out.
• I am pushing and pushing and pushing but nothing.
• Her shoulders are too big and she's losing breath. She can't breathe.
• So the nurses are pushing on my belly like maniacs.
• Poking me in places they shouldn't be.
• Screaming at me to push. As if I am NOT pushing.
• She is turning purple.
• The doctor takes a knife and cuts me right down the middle. :|
• Apisiotomy.
• Ow. No numbing, nothing like that.
• They rip the baby out so fast.
• They take her and do little baby cpr or whatever they do to get her to breathe.
• I am dying. Like ready to die. And screaming (the whole time)
• My family is in full-tears not tears of happiness but tears of horror.
• So they finally get her breathing. Thank goodness.
• They finally start to stitch me up (37 stitches).
• I found out she is 10 pounds 7 ounces, 22 inches long. A small giant.
• The only problem with that is the numbing medicine wore off right in the middle.
• I can feel them stitching me. :| what.the.heck.
• So they had to numb me again.
• And I want to die again.
• So they wheel me into my room. No baby. And I sleep.
• Baby is going to be on oxygen and watch for most of the day.
• I sleep like you can't imagine.
• I wake up at 11:00 pm and I am finally able to see the baby.
• I didn't get to hold her after, nothing sweet like that.
• I get to hold her and she is looking at me saying, I'm hungry.
• Me too. So I ate some supper and she looked at me with envy. ;-)
• It was quiet and just us 3 at this time.
• Once I was awake the doctor comes in to talk to me.
• He tells me it is the worst delivery he has ever done.
• And he's an older guy. :|
• He then tells me that when he ripped out the baby he tore her brachial plexus nerve in her arm.
• Her arm is completely limp.
• It will require tons of therapy to recover it.
• :|
• Fast forward to when she's 6 and she's at Johns Hopkins hospital, getting tendon transfer surgery for her arm. Therapy didn't recover it.
• And her arm has and never will be right.
• So baby and I hang out and I feel the greatest love a person could possibly feel.
• Greater than a husband, a pet, your parents. Indescribable love.
• :D
• And today she is 5'3" and 11 years old.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SASSINATOR!!