My mom was at home with my dad. It was about three in the morning when they got to the hospital. The pain would come and go. About four in the afternoon, the pain got worse, and that was when my grandma and my Aunt Monica went to the hospital. Because it was taking too long for me to come out, they went home. My parents were left alone in the room with the fetal monitor left on my mom. My parents noticed there was something wrong. My dad not knowing English didn’t know where to go to get help. He wanted my mom to do that even though she was in labor and in pain. About 9 o’clock, the doctor said it was time. It was going to be a natural birth, but it had to be an emergency C-section because I kept turning when they tried taking me out the other way.
I was born on March 25th, 1980. I have cerebral palsy because the umbilical cord was around my neck 3 times at the time of my birth. No oxygen was going to my brain. My mom had to wait three days to see me because I had to be in an incubator. For some reason, my dad wasn’t in the room when I was born. He saw me in the incubator. I had to stay at the hospital for 2 weeks because I had to be on the machines. The doctors told my parents I was not going to live for a long time, or if I did live, I was going to be like a vegetable. When my mom took me home, she had to tube feed me for two weeks. Because I couldn’t suck, she had to make the nipple of the baby bottle bigger so that the milk could drip into my mouth. The doctors were wrong. Here I am enjoying life. I am very thankful for being here.