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14 Jul 05 - 11:47 PM (#1522081) Subject: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: Shanghaiceltic When our Ross was born he was 6 weeks premature. The docs decided on a cesarian as he was just way too active kicking away inside poor Liz. She look like something from the first Alien movie as her belly stretched to what looked like a promising wrestler or soccer player. Actually we did not know at that point if 'baby', 'it', 'the thing' was a boy or a girl. So Liz had to be put under a general anesthetic. We had already decided I was going to be there at the birth but I was a tad worried by the idea of a cesarian. Still I was allowed in. Sadly neither of us actually witnessed the birth, I was being gently brought round shortly after the incision was made and Ross was already out and squaling like a good 'un and Liz was till out of it. He lasted one night in the premature unit as the docs decided that he was far too healthy (and noisy)and could join us in the big world. I still have a copy of the photo taken minutes after he was born, and he still has the teddy I was clutching as I hit the deck. |
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15 Jul 05 - 12:16 AM (#1522086) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: CarolC After the doctor released his head from the giant salad tongs, he was placed on my stomach while the doctor did some fixing up of things where... (ahem... ) I never saw anything so beautiful in all my life. It's a very electric experience, isn't it? |
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15 Jul 05 - 12:30 AM (#1522091) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: John O'L Mary turned the wrong way up the night my father died. I felt her do the flip. It woke us both up. So she was delivered by caesarian. I was standing behind Jill's head and my first glimpse of Mary was of her bum being hauled out of Jill's tummy. Tom's was a natural birth. Horrific. Caesarian is much more civilized. Jill recovered from it faster too, but to be fair, that's just our experience. Another lady who gave birth the night Tom was born just squeezed it out like a sausage and was up and walking around in a matter of minutes. |
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15 Jul 05 - 01:27 AM (#1522110) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: mack/misophist One day a copper showed up at the door with two young teen-agers in handcuffs. It seems that no one would admit to owning them so, he somehow made the case that, because I had none, I had to accept these. It was only a few short days before I saw them off on a Greyhound bus to Adak, Alaska. Best money I ever spent. |
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15 Jul 05 - 02:12 AM (#1522121) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: Azizi I have one birth daughter, one step daughter, two adopted sons, and one foster son. With regard to our first adopted son: Coincidentally, 9 months after my {now ex} husband and I went through the adoption homestudy, I received a telephone call from our adoption caseworker informing me that she had a son for us. The only thing the caseworker would tell me over the phone was his age {16 months} and that he was healthy. The next day we went to the agency to hear more information and to see a photo. I remember the caseworker placing that photo face down on the desk while she told us how this toddler had come into the child welfare system. She talked on and on and I remember thinking "okay, okay-show us the picture!". I guess the caseworker knew what she was doing, because even thought she told us that the child was not yet free for adoption, as soon as we saw his picture I knew that he was ours. The next day we met him, and the day after that we brought him home to join his older sisters. It wasn't until 2 years later that he was legally freed for adoption. By then, we had found our other son. By then I had become an active member of our local adoptive parent group. That group often had 'adoption parties'. Adoption parties were a way for adoptive parents and perspective adoptive parents to meet and greet each other and share stories & tips in an informal social setting. One of the core activities of adoption parties was to look through adoption books. These books had photos and brief informational captions about 'waiting children {children who were available for adoption}. At one adoption party that my {then} husband and I attended, we {well really more me than he} spent alot of time looking through adoption books from Pennsylvania and New York. These books specified what state the child was in, but they didn't specify the city or county. For some reason I was captivated by the photo of one little boy. He became our youngest son. The irony is that out of all those books, unbeknowst to us, we chose a child who had been born in Pittsburgh and who had the very same caseworker as our first son. Three years later, I received a phone call informing me that our youngest son's older brother who was then 10 years old was in need of a foster home. Two days he moved into our home. And that's how we met our sons. Azizi |
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15 Jul 05 - 10:10 AM (#1522134) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: GUEST,freda, from the back door what a great story, Azizi, and the others too! i have three children, all in their 20s now, all "natural" births. I practised yoga twice a day during all three pregnancies. The youngest one (catter bugface) came veeery quickly - and she is a very optimistic, adventurous person who has been rushing about ever since. i was meditating when i went into labour, and decided to keep going for a while. suddenly, the contractions were extremely strong. well, we only just made it to the hospital - i was in the last stages of labour, and couldnt walk - i was carried into the operating theatre and remember lying there in incredible agony thinking (no, nothing "spiritual") "how did I EVER let myself go through this again!" the first two labours, tho much longer, (around 10 hours each) were far less painful. the first one went pretty well, the second time i had a home birth with a Sikh midwife - she was almost military in her discipline! after all that hard work, all three children were very beautiful! I forgot the first two labours quickly - the last one i would LOVE to forget! I was present with my oldest daughter when she gave birth to my grandchild. her husband was there - it was then that i fully understood what a great relationship they have. it was a wondefrul experience for all of us! freda |
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15 Jul 05 - 10:17 AM (#1522142) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: Mooh Daughter one (now 18) came into the world "through the window" (caesarian) with her mother out cold. I met her in the hall of the hospital after rushing to see her born (I was too late). A nurse had come to find me, carrying my baby, so our introduction was in the less than sterile atmosphere of the hall. I didn't want to give her back to the nurse for cleaning up. She was and is a very serene, quiet, and thoughtful child. That first moment with her is as immediate now as it was then, unconditional love at first sight. Daughter two (now 14) was a natural birth which I witnessed, and I held her even before her mother. The surgery theatre had a very large window overlooking a residential area, so this baby saw real light immediately. Right from the beginning she has been more rowdy than her sister. As with the first, I didn't want to give her up to anyone, and the bond was cast, unconditional love at first sight. Both births were very difficult and complicated for their mother, physically, but luckily no postpartum depression. Neither of us would trade parenthood for anything. Peace, Mooh. |
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15 Jul 05 - 11:06 AM (#1522193) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: *daylia* I met my first son the usual way back in the 70's. After only 6 hours of labour, an epidural (sp??? but it means freezing the spinal cord from the waist down), and an episiotomy followed by about 10 minutes of incredible pressure (no pain, just a sensation like a freight train was forcing it's way through my hip bones) - there he was! Squawking and strong and pink and slimy and healthy and a whopping (or so I was told) 8 lbs, full head of thick brown hair, and absolutely gorgeous eyes that were .... closed. He was sleeping by the time they put him in my arms. Must have been quite the boring experience from his end anyway ... but I was so doped out - half-asleep from the aneasthetic - it didn't really matter. I saw them a few minutes later in my hallucinations, and I knew they were blue, like mine. ;-) He was the biggest newborn in the nursery at the time, so the nurses asked if they could use him for a bath demonstration the next day. I said sure ... and a few minutes later had my first taste of parental humiliation. As I watched anxiously (don't you DARE break him!) the nurse laid him on the change table and started undressing him accompanied by a long, involved litany of "do thises" and "don't do thats". And all went just peachy-keen till she took off his diaper, and he cut her off in mid-sentence by peeing in her face. :-O Oooo I was SO embarrassed ... and shocked ... and looking forward to this new task with real dread at that point .... but she just laughed and said "Yes, and sometimes THIS happens too when the cold air hits. So hold another diaper this way when you're changing a boy ..." But the way I met my twins was quite different. First time I saw them I was six weeks pregnant. My doctor sent me for an ultrasound because, according to him, "you're twice as big as you should be at 6 weeks". I thought he was just being paranoid - I couldn't see that I was any "bigger" at all at that point! - but off I went anyway. Drank the proscribed 6 gallons of water an hour before, suffered through them dragging that heavy "scanner-thing" back and forth across my bursting bladder for 15 minutes with my eyes just glued on that monitor screen. All I could see was "clouds". But by the time we were done I noticed the nurse had labelled the two darkest little clouds "A" and "B". ANd I asked "What's A and B mean?" She hummed and hawed and then said ... "I can't give you the diagnosis. You'll have to wait and ask your doctor". Well, the worry kept me up half the night, and the doctor phoned at 7:30 am the next morning saying "CONGRATS! What are you going to name your twins?" I'll never forget that moment - the shock just rendered me speechless (highly unusual for me!) He had to repeat the question till I blubbered out "Twins? Twins???? Like, you mean, TWO at once?" He said "Yes" ... and all I could say was "I think I'm going to die ...." ANd he said "Well, wait till after they're born before you do that, ok?" So I did. And I met "Little Cloud A" and "Little Cloud B" in the flesh about 6.5 months later. Hey, it was fun talking about this! Thanks for asking, and thanks for listening too! |
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15 Jul 05 - 11:13 AM (#1522202) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: SINSULL I first saw a picture of my son in the infamous Blue Books where he was described as retrded and suffering from dwarfism. A week later, at an adoption fair, I saw a video of him playing with a dog. I saw magic in his eyes and set out to adopt him. It took four months to arrange a face to face meeting but by then he was, in my mind, my son and he has been ever since. SINS |
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15 Jul 05 - 06:21 PM (#1522330) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: GUEST, Ebbie Wonderful stories. I had thought the thread was a comedic knockoff of the other threads but these stories are wonderful. |
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15 Jul 05 - 06:21 PM (#1522334) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: gnu Oh my... SINS... that is truly beautiful... thanks for sharing. Sniff. |
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15 Jul 05 - 06:39 PM (#1522344) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: GUEST My daughter was born on Chinese New Year. I was as surprised as anyone that she was a text book natural birth. I envisaged I was on a raft and each contraction was bringing me closer to the shore. I gave birth to her twenty minutes after lying down on the delivery bed, after being practically handcuffed to it, as I spent the previous four hours walking around the room as it felt 'more comfortable'. Having no drugs meant I could and can remember every detail as though it was yesterday. As she was born I could see the fireworks in the dark sky from the hospital's fourth floor window. Perfect. |
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15 Jul 05 - 07:12 PM (#1522367) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: Shakey Half way. |
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15 Jul 05 - 07:38 PM (#1522380) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: Azizi Shakey, That was a good one! I had to think about it for a minute before I got it. |
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15 Jul 05 - 08:03 PM (#1522390) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: Shakey It took me the best of 30 years. |
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15 Jul 05 - 08:30 PM (#1522412) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: Bee-dubya-ell I met my kids during the buildup for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Oh, I remember something about some little snot-nosed things running around the house back in the '70s and '80s. And I remember these weird adolescent creatures that kept doing things that made their mother call me up periodically and threaten to send them to live with me. But, miraculously, those life-forms turned into genuine human beings who travel hundreds of miles to participate in anti-war rallies, help run food programs for the homeless, campaign for progressive political candidates and generally make their dad extremely proud of the way they've turned out. |
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15 Jul 05 - 08:45 PM (#1522421) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: Liz the Squeak I had a C section too, with an epidural; Limpit was upside down, back to front, with legs extended rather than bent.... all the awkward ways she possibly could be. The anaesthetist, after discussing real ale with Manitas, looked over and said 'that looks like a girl in there.... after about 10 minutes of wet sounds, and push/pull feelings, a purple thing was held up to me and I was told it was my daughter. When it came back to me it was slightly pinker and had it's fingers in it's mouth. I was flat on my back and not really with it due to morphine. The next time I took any notice of anything was several hours later. She'd pinked up nicely and looked more like a human bean. Manitas met her first, or rather, met her arse first.... I'm still waiting for that glorious loving feeling to kick in. : ) LTS |
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15 Jul 05 - 09:27 PM (#1522440) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: GUEST,Seonaid Yes, I actually *met* my son! I was working at a Renaissance Faire a couple of decades ago, and our group was setting up "families" in order to present a more cohesive setup. A young man asked if he and a 16-yr-old friend could portray my sons. I agreed. The older fellow left the group fairly quickly, but his friend stayed. The theatrical family relationship that developed with my younger "son" worked so well that we decided to continue it into the present. He calls me "Mom" and I call him "son", and he's part of our bio-family gatherings. It does confuse some people a bit that I know almost nothing about his birth, and have no baby pictures to share! |
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16 Jul 05 - 01:51 PM (#1522627) Subject: RE: BS: How did you meet your kids? From: MBSLynne I had to have an emergency caesarian too....they tried epidural as I really wanted to be awake, but it didn't take quickly enough so I had to have a general anaesthetic. Consequently Ted got to see Richard and hold him first. I spent a long time being disappointed and upset that I hadn't been able to give birth naturally and that I'd been asleep when he arrived. It was a year or two later when watching a film that I realised that we probably both would have died without the caesarian so I stopped regretting it. My daughter was an elective caesarian. Though I still would have liked a natural birth, I didn't want to go through all that again, so it was all very civilised and I was awake. I still have a vivid memory of the paediatrician looking at me upside down (I was still lying down and he was behind me) saying "As far as I can tell you have a healthy baby girl" Then they put her in my arms. Both small miracles and among my most vivid and enduring memories. Love Lynne |