Sweet Child of Mine

 I knew we were getting close to the baby being born in late June for three reasons: 1) My wife became overly concerned with small details (a dripping sink, dusty fan blades, the sound of a butterfly landing on the roof), 2) the house AC broke down when it was 100+ for over a week, and 3) the due date was four days away. 

I’ve had much experience here and knew the “nesting” quirk meant we were in the home stretch. Also, it seems every time we have a summer baby the car or the house AC is on the fritz. Then five of the six boys came down ill and I was certain Murphy’s Law holding true, the baby was coming. 

But we got five days after the due date, and no baby. Then, all of a sudden it’s 1:30 in the morning and my wife is waking me up saying her water broke. Glossing over a lot, by just after noon that same day I was holding our first baby girl. My daughter. 

Apparently that had not entirely sunk in after having six sons, and when I was filling out the birth certificate without even thinking I checked the box for male. I had to sheepishly ask the midwife for a new form due to “force of habit.” 

Things were going great for a few days and then it felt like the earth fell off its axis. When baby girl woke up with a 102 fever and we took her to the ER I had no idea what we were in for. Despite the fact that five of her older brothers had had fevers in the preceding week and we strongly suspected the same viral illness, the situation is still considered serious until they rule out all sorts of terrible stuff when you’re four days old. 

To gloss over some more, there were many, many tests, an infinity of waiting, and two nights spent in the pediatric ICU. I didn’t know this but the ICU is in a different time zone than the rest of the world. The good news is they have an analog clock with a second hand in every room so you can be sure every. Single. Second. Is. Counted.

Our sweet baby girl was diagnosed with viral meningitis (the doctor, who was great, assured me it was the best of the meningitises to get) and also a UTI. He let me know that’s fairly common with baby girls. I asked him if spending nights at the ICU was also common with baby girls because this was the first time in seven kids we’d ever been admitted to the hospital. He didn’t think so. 

We’re back home now and despite one of her older brothers coming down sick and using up whatever spare energy Grammie, Grandma, and I had, I’m glad to report she has continued to do well. 

I’ve noticed before when you (maybe it’s just me) get to a certain point of sleep deprivation, exhaustion, or overwhelmedness, the kindness of others is more apparent and easier to truly appreciate. 

THANK YOU to the family, friends, neighbors, and medical staff that helped us through these last few days. Grammie held down the home front in a most demanding situation and against terrible odds (6 to 1!) most of the time. Grandma played one-on-one defense against the 2-year-old and helped even out the odds for the ICU days. The two oldest boys blew me away with their helpfulness and their knowledge about how to take care of their brothers. 

I can’t even name everyone who brought or offered food, gave gifts to the boys to help distract them, or offered to help watch boys or even take a rotation on-call for the sick boy. It turns out we are surrounded by people who believe the Golden Rule still shines, and that the saying, “a friend in need is a friend indeed” is more than just words. We are blessed to have you in our lives. 

Ok, let’s wrap up this birth story. After taking a road trip I once opined that Texas is really just a bunch of small towns with a few huge cities between them. Well, similarly, more and more it seems life is really just a bunch of crises with a few hugely joyful events breaking them up. And in that sense, the joyful event of the birth of our sweet baby girl came at just the right time.