My son was born 6 weeks early, he was a late premie the doctors would later tell me.

The night our son was born was a scary night. I just finished eating dinner in our hospital room that my husband brought me. I laied down in my hospital bed with all the bands that were monitoring his heart rate.

Since his heart rate kept going up and down the doctors wanted to keep in observation and decided whether or not to pull him out early or to put me on bed rest and since I was almost 34 weeks along it wouldn’t be a long wait. So that night I remember as it was yesterday my husband was on his computer and I was watching pretty woman when suddenly I had the urge to go to the bathroom. That happens a long when your baby is sitting on your bladder. So I prepared my self to unhook all the monitors and go the bathroom for a min. Within seconds I had three nurses rush into my room asking me what was wrong. I told them that I just had to go to the bathroom. They told me the baby’s heart rate had dropped and they were waiting for it to go back up when I unplugged myself. So they hooked me back up and they kept moving the bands around trying to find his heart rate and I could see the concerned looked on the nurse’s face. Though she kept calm and told me everything was going to be ok. That’s when all the action started.

The head nurse started to yell and get the other nurses in line and then all the lights came on. One nurse is screaming to the other nurse to get my doctor and that they cant find the baby’s heart rate. At the same time one nurse is telling my husband that he needs to get changed into scrubs and one other nurse is cutting my top off and putting me in a hospital gown. While another nurse is still trying to find the baby’s heart rate. All the while I am so scared and trying to just make eye contact with my husband. I knew if I could see his face and know that everything was going to be ok.

They wheeled me into the O.R. and I have never been in one and all I can hear is that the baby’s heart rate was under to long and they had to get him out to make sure he was ok. So they prepped me for a C-section and all I can remember was the shaking. I was shaking so much because I was so scared and when I was getting the epidural I remember hugging the nurse and she just kept telling me that it was going to be ok that our son was ok. And all I can think of was where is my husband. He was outside the O.R. pacing back and forth calling our family and telling them the baby was coming.

So finally they laid me down and set me up to start and I remember the blue curtain going up and I look to my right and see my husband walk in and I began to cry. Crying because I was so scared, crying because I finally got to see his face and just because I needed him. Within in minuts the doctors tell me they are going to start and my husband is rubbing my hand and head telling me we are ok, that the baby is ok and within in that I hear the most wonderful sound in the world. The baby crying. He was born at 1:17am on July 22^nd, weighing in at 4lbs 11 oz and 17 inches. He had to spend 1 week in the NICU for observation. And while in the NICU I reconnected with an old family friend that I have not seen in over 30 years. She was a NICU nurse that was friends was with my aunt and I was so grateful for her and all the nurses there. I remember them wheeling me in hours after the surgery and I see all the wires on my son and thinking if he is ok. They tell me he perfect and that he is a good boy. After my two days in hospital were done I couldn’t leave. I didn’t want to leave that hospital with out my son and I was so grateful for the hospital I was in that they allowed me to stay in a room till he was released. Since he was late premie and he passed all his testing he was able to go home in a week. The nurses in the NICU were amazing they helped me so much and taught me how to get a perfect latch, how to bath and change his diaper the right way. They were so patient and loving. The NICU and the nurses at Centerastate Hospital in Freehold NJ are truly angels.