Mark

Mark is my one and only son. Poor kid is surrounded by three sisters. Mark is my ray of sunshine. He has always been a very emotionally connected person. Even when he was little, he'd see some injustice - there are so many in this world - and he would 'feel' the pain. He's just very empathetic. He surprises me sometimes; but the biggest surprise was when he and his friends made a music video and I happened to catch a glimpse of it. Oh My!

Mark is usually very quiet - at home. He played in his high school band - the French Horn! Now he's off to college playing the French Horn. He's going for Music Education and I am so proud of him!! He is paving his own way and doing a nice job of it!

When Mark was little, he loved Ghostbusters! He had this little jumpsuit - just like they wore on the movie. I embroidered his name over the pocket. It was adorable. It was a one-piece, khaki colored suit that zipped up the front. He used to wear it ALL THE TIME! Now, in addition to the suit, he wore a backpack. Not just ANY backpack but THE backpack. It had a gun attached to it to shoot at any stray ghosts. He also had a trap. This was an important addition to his gear, as he needed a place to put the ghosts. He would come into the kitchen and say, "mom, any ghost-es (that's how he pronounced it) bothering you?" Sometimes I'd say yes just to see the excitement on his face as he whipped out the trap and said, "STAND BACK!" He was about four at the time.

He loved video games too and sometimes when I'd think, hmmmm, things are really quiet..... I'd find him in my bedroom playing Mario with the sound off (so I wouldn't know). His Mario-obsession has not gone away and he's almost 19! It has changed somewhat, though. He came in the house the other day with a t-shirt on that said, "I scored with the princess". A whole new meaning to a young man.

Of course, you'd have to know Mario to know who the princess is. The problem is that there are two characters you can 'be' when playing Super Mario World - Mario or Luigi. Mark would like to be Luigi each time. When you beat the game, or WIN, a message from the princess pops up and says something to the effect of "Oh Mario you are great and thank you for saving me" -- doesn't matter if it was the Mario character or the Luigi character who beat the game. Used to piss Mark off. This t-shirt he's wearing has a pic of Luigi under the caption.

Want the birth-story of Mark? His is my most interesting. You see, Steph was just 4 months old when I got pregnant with Mark. So the kids are close in age - what of it?

So I'm trucking along with the pregnancy, about 26 weeks along, and one night I had a tupperware party. I decided to use my nice china since I had a dishwasher. You know how those things are, lots of snacks and finger food. Punch was, of course, served. The party went well; but I was pooped when it was over. I loaded the dishwasher but didn't run it that night.

The next morning I got up and went to run the dishwasher. Of course, it decided at that time to break down. So I had to take all the dishes out and hand-wash them. After standing at the sink for over an hour, my back was killing me. Imagine standing at a sink with this huge belly and leaning over a little to reach the sink for that long. Well, needless to say, my back hurt so bad I couldn't even stand up. I tried - I went and lay on the couch to see if resting would help; but I still couldn't straighten my body out. Then I realized I couldn't straighten up because my stomach was tight. Hmmmm, something is not right (ever read Madeline?).

So I call my doc and he wanted to see me right away. I had to get a sitter and drove myself there. My husband worked nights and was sleeping. Couldn't wake him up. The doc checks me out and says he thinks I'm in labor. WHAT???? So he sends me off to the hospital so they can hook me up to a monitor to see if it's really contractions or not. Do not pass GO do not collect $200. I had to go directly there or he was going to call an ambulance. Damn! I went.

So I get there and they hook me up. I'm told that, YES, this is active labor and I am dilated 2 cm already. I was so scared. I did not want to lose the baby. I tried laying really still and not moving; but the pains just kept coming. It was more like continuous because there wasn't much relief.

So they tried several non-pharmaceutical things first. Lay still, dumping several IV bags into me (dehydration sometimes causes contractions) all with no results. The fluid dump did offer temporary results, the pains would stop for like an hour and then start up again. They'd dump some more in and they'd stop again for a time. But they always came back. The only thing that worked was terbutaline. This is really an asthma med; but has a side effect of stopping contractions sometimes. Well, it worked for me. They tried over and over a dosing/timing that worked but finally settled on every 2 hours. They tried switching me to oral terbutaline; but that didn't work. I had to take the injections.

Another sidebar here is that I had to give myself the injections in order to be able to go home. If I didn't, I'd have to stay inpatient for three months!! I was heartbroken because Steph was just 10 months at the time. I wanted/needed to be home with her!! It was the first time I was torn between my kids. Up until that time, it was just Steph. I learned how to give the injections, of course.

Mark was born only 10 days early and weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs 8 oz!! He had a full head of hair, too which was the complete opposite of Steph, who was still bald at 13 months.


Now he's a very handsome, very healthy young man - as you can see! xoxo