C.

C. was born at 24 weeks and 4 days in New Jersey. I was then a second-grade teacher and hubby was working in South Jersey. Sometimes he worked from home and the day C. was born, it just so happened that he was home. I remember the contractions starting Thursday or Friday of the previous week, right after an upsetting situation that had occurred at work. They were very light at first and I did not become alarmed until Friday night when the pain became increasingly unbearable. Hubby urged me to call the doctor on Saturday morning but something was going on with shift change at the answering service and I was put on hold for so long that I just hung up. We were supposed to go to New York that weekend so we went. I was in pain the entire time I was there but had no idea that I was in pre-labor. One of my colleagues at work had reassured me on Friday saying that what I was feeling were Braxton-Hicks contractions and so I left that alone until Sunday morning when I just could not take it anymore. I finally got through to an on-call doctor who told me to  get into a bathtub with Epsom salt to ease up the contractions.  I thought that was ridiculous so I did not do it. There was no way I could sit quietly while my body was being racked by what felt like rings of fire. Huh huh.. So we went back home hubby and I, hubby clearly worried. I was tolerating the pain as best as I could but by Monday morning, wasn't feeling much better. Hubby pleaded with me not to go to work but I did not listen. I was supposed to attend a workshop that day but I did not even make it through that. I was doubled up in pain and would have stayed there if one worried co-worker had not decided to take me home. She drove my car and my husband brought her back to work. Things happened pretty fast after that. I went to the doctor who told me she wanted me to go to a high-risk women center and that's where they gave us the news that I was actually in labor. The doctor who examined me called my obgyn who instructed me to go the maternity ward of the hospital. At this point I wasn't really sure I understood what was happening. I remember telling my husband to stop by a Taco Bell ( I had Taco Bell cravings all throughout my pregnancy) because I figured I was going to be at the hospital for a while and did not want to go there hungry. It never crossed my mind that I would be giving birth that day and so we went and just like that, the contractions increased in frequency.  As soon as I got there, I was admitted and hooked up to monitors. Nurses were inciting me to stay calm and not to push, my obgyn was there, monitoring me and the baby and suddenly, my son's leg broke through the sac.  They had to take him out. I was screaming for them to take him out anyway and my husband sort of became numb(my poor hubby). They took me out and I didnt' see him until after C was born. I remember getting an epidural; I remember hearing my son cry and then they took him to the NICU. Before I gave birth, a group of neonatalogists came to talk to hubby and I asking us if we wanted them to resuscitate the baby if he came out not breathing and we said yes. We figured it was not up to them but to God whether he lived or died so we went for resuscitation. And so C was born weighing 1lb 9oz and, measuring 13 inches long. He spent eight(8) months in the NICU and,  one (1) month in a Florida PICU. Altogether, C spent the first nine(9) months of his life in a hospital and did not even get to see his baby room in New Jersey. When we moved from New Jersey to Florida, he was still in the NICU and traveled on a hospital plane with doctors and nurses to Florida where he was admitted to a PICU. I have to say though, that by that time, C was stable enough to leave the hospital and before our move was finalized, the NICU doctors were already trying to talk us into moving him to a specialized children's home where they took care of kids who were medically fragile. C. was medically fragile because he was on a ventilator, needed oxygen and had a trach. But we did not want that. Hubby and I categorically refused to move him to that recovery house and were gearing up for a fight when this move came about. So the time he spent in the PICU was really to transition him to a home vent which was a smaller, portable vent and monitor his progress on it. The PICU doctors tried to convince us to get him a G-tube but we refused since he was able to eat by mouth and that, to me was the best decision we ever took as C's parents. Things have been rocky in the years that followed but C has made some great progress. He stopped using the ventilator at sixteen (16) months, got off oxygen at about the same time and when he was two and a half, underwent trach reconstruction for a collapsed trachea. That was the most important of all of his surgeries and he'd already had two before that: a pda ligation and a tracheotomy.  C started talking right before starting kindergarten. Of course, his speech is delayed, some sounds are unclear and he does have serious language issues but he talks. He is language impaired, which essentially means that he does not always understands everything that people say to him the way he should but he does talk. The best way to communicate with him is by using plain, direct language and if needed, to use visual cues as well but that's a giant leap forward.  He reads, too. Not the way he should but a lot better than I expected. than everyone expected. He loves to watch TV, way too much and yes, he was diagnosed with PDD when he was six years old. What does he do mostly that's symptomatic of PDD: He perseveres on objects, ideas or activities and when he wants something, will ask the same question until he receives an answer. He's mildly autistic because, though he is socially awkward, he does seek the company of other kids, wants to play and interact with them and engages in their games occasionally.  I think, and so does my husband, that his communication impairment holds C back a lot of the times and keeps him from trying too hard to interact with other kids out of fear of being rejected but, we're working on that. He's getting a lot of therapy and we're hoping that this will help him overcome some of his challenges. Time  will tell.