Another Day, Another Milestone! [Updated]

Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. Today, we celebrate my oldest child’s 18th birthday. My little Sarah is no longer legally a child. She can vote. She can sign contracts. She can work without hour restrictions. The world is her oyster… or cup of coffee (I think she would prefer that). So, let me briefly tell you the story of Sarah…

December 15, 1993. My wife was in hospital having been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia at around 32 weeks of pregnancy. This is a very dangerous pregnancy complication, for which the only known cure is to deliver the baby. For the sake of the growing child, the doctors wanted to hospitalize my wife, and monitor her condition while they gave the baby as much womb-time as possible to develop. They wanted to deliver the child only when it became medically imperative (for both mother and child’s sake).

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary at the hospital. Wifey had been craving Wendy’s hamburgers during this pregnancy, so we dined on Wendy’s and prayed that all would turn out well. The following day, the doctors told us that they felt the time had come to deliver the baby. Ideally, they wanted to induce labor and deliver in the normal method. To that end, they had attempted turning the baby from the outside (much to wifey’s intense discomfort). This hadn’t worked, so they scheduled her for a Caesarean section.

That evening, they wheeled my wife away and had me dress up in scrubs, ready to join her. Normally, they could do a Caesarean under local anesthetic, and under those circumstances I could be present at the birth. However, they needed to put her under a general anesthetic, so I was not allowed to be in. One of the nurses kindly volunteered to take pictures. And she did. From the photos we got back, it seems as if she got a little carried away. You could probably compile the pictures into a step-by-step how to of a Caesarean section–or make a really gross horror flick. Needless to say, we didn’t keep them all.

Sarah was born at 7:49 pm. She weighed 4lbs 7oz. My wife was still unconscious, so they brought tiny little Sarah out for me to hold. She was six weeks premature, and only breathing at 50%. If she was to survive, she was going to need help. So I held her for a few minutes before they took her off to the Neo-natal Infant Care Unit which would be her home for the next four weeks. We visited Sarah every day. We spent our Christmas afternoon up there with her and the other premie babies. Eventually she was well enough for my wife to be able to nurse her, so she visited during the day to feed her.

Then, one day in January 1994, we were given the all-clear to take her home. It seemed as if that day would never come, but there we were, standing on the threshold of the house with our little daughter, her grandmother taking a picture to mark the occasion. Now Sarah is a bright and healthy 18-year-old young lady. We are extremely blessed–not all premie babies grow up unaffected. A year later the hospital held a reunion for babies in the NIC-U the previous year. Some of them still needed medical assistance. I particularly remember one child being wheeled in with an oxygen tank strapped to the back of the pushchair.

Now Sarah is working towards graduating high school. She loves writing, music, and drama, and is still deciding what to do for college. For her birthday, she wants her dad to take her to Barnes and Noble. Something about the mingled smells of coffee and books, I’m sure.

So, that’s Sarah’s story. Happy Birthday, Sarah! 🙂

Baby Sarah

All-Grown-Up Sarah!