Happy Birthday, Jessica!

Jessica & Vicki 2/2010

Yikes! My first baby is turning 27 years old today. Where did the time go?

Jessica's due date was October 8, 1983. In the few days before her actual birth date, I developed toxemia and had to quit work six weeks earlier than expected. I did not have paid disability leave, so we were a little anxious about how we could survive with me being off work potentially for 12 weeks without pay.

On the morning of the day she was born, Dan had an early morning meeting (or shift, I can't remember which) at Jack in the Box where he worked. I hadn't slept well the night before, laying awake worrying (have I ever mentioned that worrying is one of my special gifts?!) As I lay flat on my bed with my feet up on the wall over my pillow, I talked to the baby. "OK, baby, you need to come very soon." This is absolutely the truth and I just kept explaining out loud to the baby the situation, our concerns, and how I really needed her to come a little early.

When Dan got home, we went and walked around Bruner's furniture store, and then later that afternoon headed over to my folks house to swim. It was early September in Phoenix. It was hot. The pool was cool. I felt weightless in it. Enough said. As I was putting on my swimsuit I decided to use the restroom before getting into the water. I will try to tell this next part without divulging too much information. As I finished and prepared to leave the room, I realized my water had broken.

I walked outside where everyone was in the pool and announced that my water broke. Controlled panic ensued. I called my Dr. who told me to meet him at St Joe's.

My controlled panic became out-of-control panic.

St Joe's at that time had a terrible reputation as the hospital with the most patients developing staph infections. I was scheduled to have the baby at Phoenix Baptist, but because she was so early, I had to switch to St. Joe's.

I was not going there alone!

We went home where I did a load of laundry, shaved my legs, and waited for my best friend Jeri to get back from shopping with her daughter. I knew Dan would have to fill out all the paperwork (I was pre-registered at Phx. Baptist) and did not want to be alone while he was doing that. Jeri finally showed up and we were off to St. Joe's.

When we got there, the admitting clerk, upon hearing my name, said "oh good, we were wondering where you were. Your Dr's been here for two hours."

Well gee, he didn't tell me to hurry to the hospital!

All this time I was dripping away, but absolutely no labor pains. By the time they got me all situated, I'd lost so much water that you could see the outline of the baby when I laid down. (Sounds bizarre, but true) They did another ultrasound. I was hoping they would tell me if she was a boy or girl (we still didn't know), but they couldn't or wouldn't see. She was breech with her arms above her head stuck up under my ribs.

So, I had to have a C-section. Unfortunately, the C-section class in our birthing classes was scheduled for that next Thursday night. I had no idea what was happening. Because I dilly-dallied so long in getting to the hospital, all the ORs were busy and we had to wait until 10:00 pm to get one.

Since I didn't know what to expect, I panicked when they started tugging the baby out. The last thing I remember before the anesthesiologist knocked me out was the OB saying, "Vicki, your daughter just peed on me!" (By the way, we attended the next Birthing Class with Jessica in our arms!)

Jessica Lynn Koons, born five weeks early. She weighed over 6 lbs. and was 19 inches long. She was born with a broken arm. It broke when he was trying to pull her out because she was wedged so tightly under my ribs.

She was beautiful! She rarely cried. She had the sweetest personality. We were both wrapped around her little finger.

Today Jessica is an accomplished, brilliant, talented, motivated, kind, compassionate, creative woman. She is a typical first born in that she approaches everything she does with the intent of doing it to the best of her ability. We are so proud of her. We marvel at all she's already accomplished and at all she intends to accomplish in her life. Happy Birthday, Jess... we love you so!