It's a What????

14 years ago today Snake was born. Quite a momentous day in our family. I had a planned C-section because my doctor had determined this baby was going to be a bit bigger than Kiki and she was right. But what they hadn't counted on was that Snake wasn't quite ready to be born, not quite hatched. So when he was born he had a bit of a breathing problem. So he had to go to ICU and he was pretty sick for a few days. At the time, I didn't realize how sick he was and I think that was because of the calming nature of the doctors there, they assured me he would be fine and he was. Later they estimated that he was about 3 weeks premature. That means Snake probably would have been one of those 42 week pregancies that all mothers dread and I most likely would have been induced anyway.

It was quite confusing in the delivery room. Because they needed to get him in an incubator and start regulating his breathing, I wasn't allowed to hold him and they whisked him away. My sisters had been calling every 5 minutes. The nurses wouldn't give any info out over the phone. Snake was the second grandchild on my side of the family. Finally Chizz was able to call everyone and let them know. It was a boy. A boy?? One of my sisters said "You had a what? A boy?". She had to repeat it. As I am the oldest of 5 girls, one granddaughter so far, we weren't quite sure what to do with a boy.

When I finally got to see Snake, it was very emotional. He was breathing so hard, almost panting, and I could see his little chest moving up and down very rapidly. He had tubes running through him. And he was HUGE. He was 8 pounds and barely fit in the incubator. An 8 pound preemie. If he had been allowed to be born at his own pace, he probably would have grown to 10 pounds and would have killed me. There were other babies in the ICU at the time. I remember a little girl right next to Snake. She was about 3 pounds, she was so fragile, you could almost see through her skin. When the other mothers came in ICU, they would look at this big, huge Baby Huey and raise their eyebrows a bit. I always felt fairly defensive - "he is very sick, too". But we were lucky, he was able to come home after about a week.

Now Snake tries to kill me in other ways, usually just by trying to drive me crazy enough to jump off London Bridge. He is funny, stubborn, marches to the beat of a different drummer. He has allegiances to strange sports teams, CAL, the Yankees, the Eagles. He knows a lot about some things, less about others but it is all the same to him. He is a good friend, good company, good talker, good cousin. He likes pop tarts, pop rocks, popcorn and juicy fruit gum. He likes to annoy his sister, to sleep late, to take incredibly long showers until the hot water or his father's patience runs out - either one. He is pretty cool and I have enjoyed being on the ride so far. Mostly.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SNAKE!!