I honestly can not believe it was 8 years ago today my little boy was born. It just doesn't seem real. I thought I would post Riley's birth story for those of you who haven't read it. Keep in mind, Riley's very premature birth has nothing to do with his disease and disabilities he has now, so I guess you could say he has always had it pretty rough. He is such a fighter! And to show the improvement since last year's birthday, I am posting a picture from Riley's 6th and 7th birthdays, as well as one of him now that he is 8.
I think on every birthday of your children, you think back and reflect on that first “birth day”, and relive the moment your child came in to the world, and the moments leading up to it. The moments leading up to Riley coming in to this world seven years ago were not all good, nevertheless, I always think back and remember Riley's birth story. And in Riley fashion, it couldn't be typical.
August 26 was not supposed to be Riley's birthday. He was due on November 9. Since we had just switched some shopping centers around into different regions, I had just acquired the shopping malls we own in Mississippi into my division. I had never been to any of the malls there, or to Mississippi for that matter. Since I knew I would not be able to visit these centers during the holiday season when I typically would have made the trip to Mississippi, I scheduled a trip to see these malls at the end of August. I even had one other trip scheduled in September to a conference in Minneapolis, all with my doctors approval. So on a hot Sunday afternoon, Joel took me to the airport in Chattanooga to pick up my rental car, and I hit the road. I had my audio book in, so I was set! I planned my first stop to be Bonita Lakes Mall in Meridian, Mississippi. Since Brandy, yes, the same Brandy you have all grown to know, had just recently accepted the position of Assistant General Manager/Assistant Marketing Director at this property, I decided to go down Sunday and have dinner with Brandy and Autumn, see the mall on Monday, then head to my next stop. We decided to have dinner at Outback, and then Brandy was going to take me to see where she and Autumn lived. I remember two things about dinner – one, I ate a plain baked potato because I was so afraid anything else would give me heart burn and acid reflux – and two, Autumn wanted to sit in my lap in the booth (she was much smaller then!), but once she got on my lap, or at least kind of got on my lap, she said my belly was too big. She was getting squished! So after dinner and a tour of their new place, Brandy and Autumn dropped me off at my hotel. This sounds weird to me now, because if this happened today, I would of course have just stayed with Brandy and Autumn! After a long drive, I was ready for bed. I put on my very favorite maternity gown and went to sleep.
The next morning, August 26, I picked my phone up off the night stand and called my mother before I turned on any lights. She had just answered when I flipped the light on and saw blood. I know I must have scared her to death. I remember saying, “Oh my God, I've got to go, I'm bleeding.” I called Brandy right away and told her I thought I needed to go to the hospital. I asked her a few questions trying to figure out if this could somehow be normal, or maybe the baby coming. I jumped in the shower, which Brandy will never let me forget, and threw on some clothes and waited. When Brandy picked me up at the hotel, she told me she was going to take me to the only hospital she knew of, Riley Hospital. The mall happened to be working on a sponsorship with Riley Hospital, or else I'm sure we would not have had a clue where to go since she had JUST moved there. We get to the hospital and spend way too much time being checked in and answering a ton of questions. All I wanted was for the lady to find my baby's heart beat. She seemed way less concerned than either of us. Finally she said I would go upstairs to have an ultra sound, after she did find a heart beat. We went upstairs and I was put on a flat table. Little did I know that when I laid down on that table, I would not be getting up again that day. Of course, I had already called Joel. I told him just to hold on and I would call him back when I knew something. At this point, after hearing a heart beat, I was pretty calm and I remember both Brandy and I joking around and laughing a lot. When the tech did the ultra sound, she said it appeared I had had a placenta abruption. Apparently, this is typically VERY painful, and since I had not had any pain what so ever, she wasn't real sure and wanted the doctor to see me. I believe at this point, Brandy was telling me I needed to go ahead and call Joel, and I was saying, let's wait and see what the doctor says. I remember the tech telling me, “You need to call your husband and tell him to go ahead and come down here.” I am so glad she did. After being examined by the doctor, I was moved into a very nice birthing room. It was great. Still, Brandy and I were having a good time at this point. They were going to hook me up to some machines and watch things. Joel had started his trip to Mississippi, and everyone else was kind of on stand by. We really didn't know how this was going to play out. What I do remember is being extremely hungry since I had not had anything to eat yet, and I was craving McDonald's french fries. Not only was I craving them, I was begging for them. The nurses said no food in case they had to do surgery. I was in no pain (even though the machine said I was having small contractions - I didn't feel them at all), Brandy went and picked up some magazines and we were having a good old time watching TV and reading magazines all day. I was being given medication to stop contractions, and also an injection to help the baby's lungs develop faster. This could only be given every 12 hours, so the hope was to keep me there in the bed and give me another dose in 12 hours. That was just not in the cards. At some point, Joel got to the hospital, then we all three were having quite a nice time in our birthing suite. I had begged for food all day and Brandy finally snuck me and m&m. I don't know if it had anything to do with the 1 or 2 m&ms, but shortly after, I got sick. When they tell you not to eat, DON'T EAT. So by this time, it is late in the afternoon, I think Brandy must have had to pick Autumn up at daycare of something, so she left for the time being. Then things started happening. The baby's heart rate began dropping, and again, I got sick. This happened twice, and the second time, the doctor came in and said they felt they needed to go ahead and take the baby. I just remember being clammy and hot and sweaty, and trying to pull all my covers and clothes off as they wheeled me out of my luxury birthing suite into emergency surgery. At that point, I didn't care who was around. The last thing I remember was a guy trying to put a mask over my mouth and nose, and me thinking for some reason he was trying to kill me (this really worries me when I think about everything Riley has went through – I'm sure there have been times when he thought people were trying to hurt him).
The next thing I remember is waking up, back in my suite and it was dark outside. I was very groggy, and I don't think I even knew if I had had the baby or not. I remember Joel told me he was here, and I asked what his name was! In my drugged state, I guess I thought they came out with a name. Speaking of which, we had not decided on a name. Remember, we still had 11 weeks left to think about this. Shortly after this, the doctor came in and gave us a pretty bleak prognosis. In fact, they were transporting him down the street to another hospital into their NICU – Jeff Anderson Hospital. The doctor offered to give Joel a ride over to the hospital so he could spend some time with the baby. They brought him in the room in a transport unit for us to see him before taking him away. All I remember was seeing all of his dark hair.
Brandy and Autumn made it back to the hospital, and although I don't remember much, I do remember Autumn standing on a little stool feeding me ice chips! I was pretty out of it that night and can't really say that I knew the severity of Riley's condition at the time. The only other memory I have of that night is of waking up in the middle of the night and Joel and I discussing that we still didn't have a name. That's when Joel asked what I thought about Riley since he was born at Riley Hospital. I guess he could have been a Jeff, or Anderson, if Brandy had known where that hospital was instead. That would have been a little weird since Jeff is my bosses' name!
The next day, Joel's parents and sister, my mom and Shannon, all traveled to Meridian, Mississippi to meet Riley. To make an already long story not too much longer, we stayed in Meridian for 9 days in the NICU before being transported back to TC Thompson in Chattanooga for 5 weeks in the NICU. Riley was on a ventilator for a week, and we weren't able to hold him for a week as well. There is so much that happened in that first 5 weeks of Riley's life. He got off to a rough start, but he just got better and better every single day, and believe it or not, he never had any setbacks. It's hard to believe that 7 years ago, Riley and I were in the hospital, just as we are tonight. I hope this is the last birthday he ever has to spend in the hospital!
As far as his 7th birthday, I think it must have all been a bit overwhelming. We had a little party in his room today – I believe about 9 people, and he tried his best to go to sleep during it. After all of our guests left (thank you Brandy, Autumn, Shannon and Uncle Brian for making the trip here – it was great seeing you all), he was crabby the entire day, and night. I sure hope he wakes up in a better mood tomorrow, but who can blame him for being upset when he had to spend his 7th birthday in the hospital.
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