When Michelle was about 8 months old, I decided that I would enroll in school for the January semester. She was a very happy baby and quite
agreeable to staying with her grandma. So with the help of my mother, who agreed to baby-sit, I went back to school. Just after I had registered for the semester Tommy and I found out we were having another baby!
This baby was due May 24 and the last day of finals for the semester was to be May 16. Michelle, our
oldest, had been 2 weeks late so I thought the dates would work out
fine! Oops!
I was taking 4 classes, 3 of these classes had oral/written reports and presentations rather than final exams, the same man taught these 3
classes. The professor's policy was that if you missed any days of the
final presentations, regardless of whether you had done your own or not,
it would be considered an automatic fail. These presentations were to
start on May 5 and end May 16.
I showed up on that Monday with all three of the papers done and ready to do the presentations before
I lost my nerve! I volunteered and went in the first round for all
three classes. Whew, got them all done. Now I could relax and just sit
there while everyone else went. I only had one other class to worry
about, and that exam was going to be a take home final with a specific
date and time to bring the completed exam back to the professor. No
problem!
I left the college that Monday afternoon, stopped at my mom's to pick up
Michelle and went home. Tommy
came home from work and we had supper. About 11 o'clock that night I
went to put Michelle to bed. As I
was laying there with her, waiting for her to go to sleep I felt
something strange. I called in to Tommy to come in (he was almost
asleep) and he was kind of grumpy and said "what do you want? I'm
sleeping!" I
called back and said that my water had just broken. That got his
attention! He came running in and we got everything put together. We
took Michelle to my mom's house and then on to the hospital!
I wasn't having any real contractions yet, so they started a pit drip to
hurry it along. They didn't like to leave it for too long after the
water had broken because of the chance of infection. I had heard about how brutal the Pit. drip was and thinking about my first experience, I
asked for some pain med. They gave me something to help me rest. I
woke up during contractions, but dozed between. These were no where
near as bad as the ones with my first had been. Josh was born at 9
o'clock on May 6 (Tuesday morning)! He weighed 6 lb. 3 oz. No wonder
the labor went better, he was close to 2 lb. smaller than his sister. I
talked the doctor into letting us go home on the 7th. I saw no point in being there any longer than I had to be!
I went home from the hospital on Wednesday. On Friday I went over to
the school to talk to my professors. The one who had the presentations
was irritated that I had not been in class on Wednesday
or that morning (I had called and left messages on their voice mails).
I explained that I had been in the hospital having a baby (how hard is
it to tell that someone dropped 20 pounds over night anyway?). He
says "oh, well, I expect to see you in class Monday". My other
professor says "what are you doing here?!? get home, don't you worry
about the exam, we'll come up with something!"
So, Joshua spent the next week in a Snuggli pack sitting with me at a desk so I didn't lose all the work
I'd done all semester. I went all three days with a 1 week old baby to
class. (talk about a weird place to nurse in public!!!!)
By the way, I got "A's" in all of the classes!
Now he is a very happy, bubbly little boy who is almost 2. My kids are 16 months apart, and though it gets exasperating, I wouldn't change it.
They are best friends. They will go anywhere as long as they are
together. Josh (at 22 months) weighs about 28 lb. He has more than
caught up from his lower birth weight! His big sister, Michelle, at
just over 3 years weighs 35 pounds. The two of them are the happiest,
healthiest pair of kids you could want.
--
Kerry
Ps 127:1
Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it
Copyright 1999 by author
Used by permission
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