After 11 years together with Franklin, with just the two of us, my life, in just a matter of hours, was about to change. FOREVER.....
18 years ago tonight, I was about to go to dinner with Franklin and his cousin Jose, a last meal of sorts, before I entered the hospital at 11:00 pm to be induced into labor. My child, my first, sex unknown, was a week late and showed no sign of wanting to enter the world. Sorry kid, we are going to force you to come out of that warm, comfy belly you've lived in for over 10 months!!!
We had dinner at Max's, and at 11:00, armed with pillows, a boom box, baggage, a bottle of champagne, and a myriad of other things that made it look seriously like we were moving in for good, we entered Sequoia Hospital, the same hospital where I myself was born 26 years before. I was settled in a private room, IV inserted, and was off to dream land....
I was woken up rudely about 7:00 am with sharp contractions. No one warned me that Pitocin, to induce labor, would bring on the pains sharp and hard. The rest of the day is a blur, but I do remember that over the course of the next 8 hours, I would be poked, prodded, etc. and only would progress to 2 centimeters dilated. The doctor informed me, after inserting a probe on the baby's head to monitor its heart rate, that because every time I had a contraction, the baby's heart rate went down, I would be heading for a c-section. At 4:00 pm, I didn't care anymore. I just wanted this kid out.
So both my doctor and her husband suited up, as well as Franklin and my mom (who showed up at the hospital in high heels and a nice dress to see her grandkid enter the world!) and at 4:22 pm, 6 lbs, 15 oz and 19 inches long, my first born son, Alexander Lorenzo Perez Herrera was born. The first moment I saw him, as they placed him near my head, was a drug induced stupor and what came out of my mouth was "His nostrils are HUGE!" I instantly fell in love with him, though. My little man.
I stayed in the hospital 4 days. It was hard learning how to breast feed him, trying to recover from major surgery, and all sorts of other issues, but we were ecstatic.
And tomorrow, on December 9, 2012, my baby celebrates his 18th birthday. What is in the plans? I go to teach BodyPump and BodyFlow, dad is off running the field for a soccer tournament and the birthday boy has homework and needs to film some footage for a video assignment that's due this week. Cassie and I spent a few hours today compiling a special surprise project to unveil tomorrow for him. In the evening, dinner at his favorite restaurant with our local family, 22 of us, and hopefully over Christmas, another celebration with our out of town family.
I simply can't believe it. 18 years. He is officially an adult. He is more independent than ever, driving himself everywhere, and I have been getting lots of practice letting him go. But he will never be far from my heart.
I am immensely proud of the man my son has become. I can't wait to see what's in store for this next chapter of his life.
No comments:
Post a Comment