Our Story of a Syndrome:The Birth-- Part One






Last night I laid in bed unable to sleep--so many thoughts on my mind. Not one thought, not one particular anxiety, just thoughts.  Frustrated I decided to see if Netflix is Android enabled on my new itty, bitty Galaxy 3.6 Note. If Netflix was possible I would bring up my account and find something to watch in bed.  Really, the idea seemed incredulous.  In my 70s childhood I never even dreamed that someday I might be able to lay in bed and hold a three inch "TV" in my hand, minus any cords or antennae, and watch a movie!  But I did.  I watched a movie that I had recently added to my instant queue--knowing it would be my "kind of movie." The clean, girly, sappy kind of movie. BBC makes the best!Within the first couple of minutes I was in tears.  Not just tears, but rolling, strolling down the cheeks kind of tears.  This movie hit me on all kinds of levels, and eked open a lid allowing months and months, not to mention years, of mom emotions to come flooding out. 

 Fourteen months ago I delivered a beautiful five pound, four ounce, full term baby boy! Beautiful I say, but admittedly I was dumbstruck the first few moments after his birth because I wasn't expecting such a tiny baby!  I had experienced gestational diabetes (due to my uhh, "over 40" status) and carried to 39.2 weeks.  How could this baby be so small? 

 The birth happened so fast, as I knew it would. My first daughter, Maggey, came in only a couple of hours and I was was warned this one, being the second,would come much faster.

True enough. At 7:59am, while standing outside with my daughters waiting for the bus, my first contraction hit.  Within minutes I knew I wasn't going to last long.  I was scheduled for an induction the following day, but the Time was now!

I arrived at the hospital dilated to 7 and moving along fast...and in intense pain.  At 11:21am Rhyse Addyson Cole was born.  

The attending OB who delivered Rhyse was only in the room about 10 minutes from push to delivery--then he was gone. I never saw him again.  At that point the attending hospital doctors were in charge.



Rhyse's Apgars were good.  He was small. But there was no immediate indication that something was very wrong...at first.  But after being cleaned up and bundled up and smeared with eye cream it was time to attempt his first feed.

The feed didn't go well. In fact Rhyse didn't give any indication at all that he wanted to suck.  My daughter Maggey, seconds after birth, was like a vacuum cleaner! And she still is!  But Rhyse's first feeding and subsequent attempts completely failed. I had no idea at that moment that feeding was not only going to be an ongoing challenge, probably for years to come, but the medical package was only going to get bigger and bigger and heavier and heavier as the days drew on.

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