Thursday, August 7, 2014

Happy 14th Birthday, Mikelle!

It is hard to believe 14 years have gone by already. Happy birthday to my beautiful Mikelle! 

Am I really the mother of a high school freshman? When I was in high school, parents seemed so old, frumpy and uncool! haha 

It feels like just yesterday I was waddling through another hot summer here in hell trying to fit (no pun intended) a summer class in before having my baby. Man, that professor did NOT like me. I don't know what her deal was, but she looked at me on the first day as if I was a high school pregnant teen or something. Plus, her voice sounded like a female Stephen Hawking. Only her voice was real - not a machine.  

This was an Art of the Western World Survey class. That teacher wouldn't ever call on me. Yes, it was college, but she indicated she preferred students to raise their hands. Okay, fine. That's what she wanted. But she never called on me. So once, I finally just blurted out my comment/observation to the Byzantine art we were discussing. She responded, "I'd prefer it if you raise your hand." 

I said, "I would, but you never call on me." Yeah, she hated me. lol But I digress. We're talking about Mikelle!

Okay, one more thing about the judgmental professor. I had Mikelle 3 days after the final and I was back at school 2 weeks later for the Fall semester. During that first week of the Fall semester, I saw that same professor in the hall and she gave me a dirty look, after clearly looking at my absent belly and appearing confused. 

After I gave birth to Mikelle, I was caught off guard at how scared I was. She was so small. She was 7 lbs 3oz (pretty average baby weight). But I was paralyzed with fear as if I would do something out of ignorance and kill her. I also felt like I "failed" with her birth and I couldn't stop crying. Looking back, I know all of that was part of the hormones and postpartum craziness, but at the time, it was such a reality for me.  Plus, she did not want to nurse, she would not nurse, and then when she became jaundiced soon after we brought her home, I found myself panicking more than I expected.

Her birth was rather difficult. Not her labor. That was a breeze. It was a flawless induction (I was induced due to my blood pressure continuing to rise. My doctor wanted to induce me even a few days earlier than that, but I had to take the final exam in that class with the stuffy professor first) and a perfect epidural.  However, Mikelle's birth was something else. After two hours of pushing, she had to be extracted with a vacuum and forceps. Turned out, she was "corkscrewed" and that was why the pushing wasn't doing much good after a certain point.

Anyway, no need to go on and on about that. I hope she has a great day. I know it's been a struggle for her lately with this move and the new school.  

Happy Birthday Mikelle!

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