A little known secret...shhhhhh

Ha!  That's a joke.  I'm an open book.

I know a lot of special needs moms online.  I know a great many of their kids are preemies.  I know that preemies have greater survival rates than ever before.  Back in the day, when I was born, preemies and not that much premature at that simply died.  This survival rate seems to bring a great deal of live long health problems for the children surviving though.  Included are hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, seizures, heart issues, lung issues.  You name it.  And first time parents of preemies can be terrified of having a second child.  It's natural.

Jimmie is not a preemie.  He was due on July 3, 2006.  He was born via emergency c-section on June 23, 2006 due to my sudden loss of amniotic fluid.  My water didn't break.  It was just gone.  Overnight.  We induced labor, but Jimmie was sunny side up and not turning over for anything...and then his heart rate dropped.  So c-section it was.  He was small.  Apparently I have a small uterus.  A fact commented on both times I gave birth by the operating doctors.  So he was small.  6 lbs 1/2 oz.  But he was technically term.

I, on the otherhand, am a preemie.  I was due May 10, 1968.  My father was going to be 33 years old on March 29, 1968, and my mother teased him mercilessly about being 33 before he was a father.  But then I stopped moving.  M mother went to the doctor in a panic.  Apparently I was completely tangled in the umbilical chord.  There was no choice but to deliver me, immediately.   I was born March 26, 1968.  Of course the first words out of my father's mouth to my mother were, "I'm only 32."

I was baptized by the nurse, who was also Catholic.  I weighed 3 lbs 11oz..  I had highline, which is underdeveloped lungs.  In years subsequent to my birth, preemies with highline were intubated and given oxygen.  I was simply placed in an incubator.  My lungs would either develop or I would die.  I also had jaundice.  The Kennedy baby died from similar issues due to prematurity just a few years prior.  I was by no means considered healthy.

Appetite has never been a problem.  I ate like a horse out the gate.  I gained enough weight in less than a month to be sent home.  My lungs developed fine.  I have no heart problems.  I have no lung problems.  Lord knows, I have no problem keeping on weight.  I have never suffered any ill effects as a result of my premature birth.  None.

But don't think they expected me to live.  Preemies just didn't.  I did.  I am blessed.

I guess I would just like those parents who are afraid of having that second child to remember that things happen.  Just because one child is born prematurely and has problems does not mean the second will...and even if the child is born prematurely, it doesn't mean there will be problems.  Some of us are just fine.