The Unexpected
My husband and I had just found out that I was pregnant with our second child- well I knew in my head I just didn't want the woman in the white coat to tell me it was true. My first daughter was only 1 yr. old, so after months of denying the truth I decided to go to the doctor. She uttered those words I had been dragging to hear, "You are 5 mo. pregnant." I was shocked at the length, I knew I was pregnant, but not 5 months. Well, after being told that, I had no choice but to schedule an ultrasound to find out the sex of our new baby. The appoinment was set for the very next week. I arrived on time and found out that we were having another girl. I took the excitement back to my husband; who was not all that excited. However, since I was already in my second trimester I had to schedule another appointment in 2 weeks, who would've known that I would not make it two more weeks- seeing how I was only 20 odd something weeks pregnant. I woke up feeling horrible on July 3rd, we had plans to go out and get things for the holiday, Independence Day a.k.a Fourth of July. I made my husband take Victoria, our oldest daughter, with him so I could lay down. I slept the whole day and before I knew it I was up at 10 o'clock p.m throwing up and bleeding, pretty heavy. I woke my husband and he called the ambulance to rush me to the hospital. Thank God my OBGYN, who delivered all my children, was on call. She rushed to the hospital did an ultrasound, looked inside- lol, I forgot what they called it, anyways I was in way too much pain to really understand what she was telling me was going on. The next thing I know I was getting the good stuff- the drugs in the spinal, epridural, and I do remeber her telling me we have to take this baby out. It all happened so fast. I was cut open, the baby was out of me and I was stitched back up within an hour. But, it was now 12:05, so, my baby was born on the Fouth of July! My husband was not allowed in the room, because they didn't have anytime to prep him, so, I had to go through that part alone... but it was ok because it was only 5 mins. LOL. They transferred me in a room where my husband was there waiting and everyone rushed out, they didn't tell us anything about the baby at first because everyone was in there attending to her, we were terrified. Later, they came to report that the baby was fine but had to be rushed downtown. A nurse brought her in the room inside of a glass case with a lot of tubes going inside, at first I could not see anything but a blanket but when I looked inside the blanket there she was. She was so small, like a little peanut. I spent two weeks in the hospital and my husband spent two weeks traveling from hospital to hospital keeping an eye on me and the baby. When I was released I went down to she her and I could tell that she was bigger, she looked more like a baby, however they had yet to wiegh her. When she was finally weighed she was 1lb 11oz. I know, WOW. She was released 90+ days later, perfectly healthy and has been ever since :). Valerie is now 10 years old and she is so smart and talented. She loves to dance (tap and ballet) and she loves to play her Violin. The best part about this story is we had the name Valerie picked out for her before all of this happened. Valerie is formed from the Latin word valere, which means "to be healthy" or "strong". Thank you God for your grace and your mercy!
