I vividly remember sitting down with Donte as we discussed having another baby. Donnie was about 7 months old and was the easiest little person to have around. Surly if we have another baby he or she will be just the same....since they would be coming from the same parents right. Donte was thrilled and just knew that the next one would be a girl but we had the out look of as long as the baby was healthy we wouldn't care.
I went out and bought a pregnancy test and placed it in my upstairs bathroom's drawer. I didn't work at the time so my days were spent with my precious little Donnie. We would start the morning with breakfast and big bird. Oh how he loved "Elmopalooza". I bet I still have all of those songs memorized. Sometimes we would meet up with friends. The highlight of the day for Donnie was when Donte would come home for lunch. It was a glee full hour that he could run after his Daddy and get all his energy out before nap time. for me it was a perfect time to get a little cleaning done before I got Donnie down for his nap.
I had a few complications after having Donnie. After 17 1/2 hours of labor, I had to have a C-Section, and after I thought that I had recovered from that I went home and my incision promptly opened up again. Not a great situation to say the least and made it hard for me to do anything. I was breast feeding as well .....it was a lot coming at me but every time I looked at my little boy I knew it was more than worth it....I also knew that there was no way that I would do this for anyone or anything else other than my sweet little bundle of joy.
In my own mind I thought that I would get pregnant easily. Maybe 2 months at the most. Donte and I started trying immediately and I was counting the days so I could gleefully pee on that little stick. I remember the first time when I got a negative result...Oh well....I will be preggo next month. Well needless to say next month came and went and still only one little line...I wanted there to be two. Months went by and still no luck so I said to myself it will happen when it happens.....if it's meant to be.
We were busy planning Donnies first birthday party when Donte found out that he was leaving for PLDC in 3 days....3DAYS. Donnies birthday party was in one week. He would miss it. Luckily PLDC was in Graf and we lived only 30 or so minutes away. That morning I packed up some cupcakes, a wrapped birthday present, and bundled up my newly adorned one year old and headed through the snow to Graf so my baby could spend at least a few moments of his first birthday with his Daddy. We had a little Gray Nissan Sentra and when we got to Graf Donte joined us in the car. Donnie was ecstatic that he was able to escape his car seat and we sang happy birthday to our one year old with a candle lit in the middle of a yummy chocolate cupcake. He then got to open a present from Daddy. Donte had to get back in to his barracks and I had to get home to get the party started. What a great party. The house was full and in true military style, everyone chipped in to help me where needed. Heavy presents were carried for me and there was virtually no clean up. We were all a little family over there.
PLDC lasted roughly a month so at least Donte would be home for Christmas. Of Course him being gone put a damper on the whole baby making progress but I had already pushed that to the back of my mind. I was blissfully happy with Donnie and if God felt as if that was the only child that he wanted to give me then so be it.
Finally December rolled around and Donnie and I were so happy to have Donte home. Unfortunately Donnie had caught a bug. He was sick as could be, my poor baby couldn't keep anything down or in. He was also teething so between the throwing up and the fever we took hi to the Doctor who prescribed an array of meds to help him out. Apparently a nasty virus was spreading around the post and he wanted to stop it in it's tracks. I took Donnie to the Doc on the 22nd and was so happy when he was doing so much better by the very next day. Unfortunately I was starting to feel nauseated and couldn't keep much down either. I figured I could take the adult version of what the doctor had prescribed for Donnie and I would be fine. Christmas came and went and I still wasn't feeling much better Donte was swearing that I was preggo but no honey really I am not. I have no preggo symptoms I have the gunk. I finally went to see the doc on the 31st of December and lo and behold I should have listened to my hubby I was preggo. I was so happy and so was Donte. We then explained to Donnie that he was going to be the big brother.
In the next 30 weeks I was violently ill, hated anything that had chicken in it, loved grilled cheese and foot massages, and loved every doctors appointment so I could see my little bean grow into a little baby. At my 7 1/2 month appointment I noticed that my doctor was taking a little longer on the ultrasound and I asked what was going on. Now let me explain that Germans are very blunt and there is no sugar coating....she said very matter of factly that she thought that my baby had spina bifida. She pointed at the screen and showed me the dark area which could have been a depression at the base of this little babies spine. I was devastated but there was nothing that I could do but wait until Monday to have another ultrasound, a 3D one that would give us some answers. I was broken and scared and was wondering what I could have done wrong. That was the longest weekend that I have ever had to sit through. Monday came and we went to the Amberg hospital and again the 30 min wait seemed like an eternity....no matter what the outcome we were in love with this baby and would deal with it. As I lay there on the ultrasound table and saw the gorgeous images I was praying that it was all a mistake. Please let it be nothing. After the ultrasound I got cleaned up and we waited for the Doctor who gave us a folder with all the info and advised us to go to our regular doc....are you kidding me. I thought that they would tell me at least tell me if it wasn't bad. Oh my God this is not happening to me. We sped over to Doctor Burg-Wurms and waited for an opening. I didn't care if we were there all night I wasn't leaving until I had an answer. She finally called us back to her office. I was so scared I felt like a child that had just lost everything that was stuck in a dark tunnel alone with no flashlight or glimmer from anywhere. These emotions were compounding inside of me and I couldn't hold it in anymore. I sat there with tears rolling down my face as I waited for the results. He was fine....just perfect....he was just tangled in his umbilical cord and was pulling on it...it was wrapped around his upper leg and hiney. She showed me the comparison from the ultrasounds she had done and the ones that were just taken and it was all so much clearer. I cried tears of joy and made her do another ultrasound just to make sure.
Fast forward to September 13th the day before my due date. I had slight labor pains for a couple of days and since Donnie was late I didn't want the same situation with Daniel. I went to the Doc and got the meds to get my labor started. It was hot and uncomfortable that day so Donte grabbed my fan, Donnie went to my girlfriends house and we headed to the hospital. After all of that they say that no I am not ready yet...um yes I am, and I want a room. They finally get us settled and I feel like I am dying. These aren't the same contractions that I had with Donnie. He was induced too so they should feel the same right? I felt like a fish that was getting it's backbone pulled out. Finally after laboring all night I went into surgery. I was knocked completely out again. When I woke up on Sept 14 I was back in the ICU and the nurses rushed to get my husband. Donte came in carrying a beautiful bundle of joy. I immediately unwrapped him and he was perfect. 10 fingers, 10 toes, a head fully of hair and as I gently rubbed my fingers down his back a perfect spine and two little chubby legs kicking away while his perfectly formed lungs were screaming to be wrapped up again. Welcome to the world Daniel Slade welcome to our family. We promptly nicknamed him Chubba Bubba. A little miracle born on his due date weighing in at 9 lbs exactly and 21 inches. We are complete a perfect circle of 4.
