Happy 17th Birthday, Sam!

Lately, I have given more Blog space to my oldest "baby" whom my husband informs me is "no baby!" I have another "baby" who is also getting on up there in height and years. Today, Sam turns 17! It is unbelievable that these years could have passed by so quickly.

I remember Sam's Birth Day as though it were yesterday. My parents and younger brothers had come out to South Carolina where we were living and doing our Air Force stint at Shaw AFB. It was hot, hot, hot. My daddy says he remembers that he had never been hotter in his life. That is South Carolina for you.

The family had stayed with us for about 10 days in our little two bedroom house waiting for the child Sam to come on out. Time had dragged by, and the family needed to get on back home to Tennessee. So, on Sunday night, June 19, I went for a two hour walk with my mom. We came back home, I got in the shower, and the contractions started.

We went to the hospital at about 11, and all the men folks stayed home with our smallfry Daniel, who at the time, was about 18 months old. Sam's daddy was not feeling well, so Mom volunteered to go and get me started and have daddy join us later.

The labor went pretty quickly, and they would not give me anything much for pain. I think I got one shot of Demerol. Sometime in the 3 to 4 a.m. range, Dad and Sam's dad came over to the hospital, which was only 5 minutes from the house. I was begging my father to make them give me drugs!

All the birthing rooms had been full, so I was in a grungy labor room which was little more than cots lined up down a wall. Finally, someone came in and wheeled me down to delivery. My ex, Sam's father, decided that he was too close to throwing up to go with me into Sam's birth, so Mom got drafted at the last minute. I was screaming pretty good by this point, and Mom was panicking, as she had never witnessed a birth before. Somehow, she managed to be knocked out for all 5 of us!

Anyway, Sam came on out pretty soon, a little after 5 in the morning. His cord was tightly wrapped around his neck, and he was sooooo blue. They wasted no time with him, whisking him away to the nursery. Later, I found out he was really in distress. He had strep and pneumonia caused by my water leaking and them not catching it. His condition required an 18 day hospital stay, much to my distress.

Additionally, I had pushed so hard having him, that I broke all the blood vessels in my neck, chest and face, so I was quite a sight. They call them petechial hemorrhages, but at the time, even the doctor was not sure if I was having a reaction to the drugs or what. So, for a bit, there was pure chaos at the hospital as they tended to Sam and me.

Sam, when he pinked up a little, was the most beautiful baby! He was so cute, and he had a deep, lusty little cry. He was a spunky kid. They had to put i.v.'s in his head, and he learned that when they washed his head off, they were going to insert a needle. We had a hard time when we got him home giving him baths, because he thought bad things were coming.

It was devastating not to take my baby with me when I left to go home. I exhausted myself in the following days, driving up to the hospital every 4 hours to nurse him. Despite my best efforts, my milk supply did not hold up, and he had to end up bottle feeding eventually. He did well after the initial crisis. However, in later years, we found out that the incident had left him with mild cerebral palsy. At age 4, he showed signs of extreme speech problems, and we sought therapy. Though he was a beautiful kid with curly blond hair, his face showed signs of something like a stroke---a drooping on one side. It did not last forever, and the speech therapy all but corrected his speech.

Sam has always been such a great, sensitive kid. I personally believe his ordeal left him with some gifts which he uses to the glory of God. He is so sensitive to the needs of others. He was invaluable to me when Hannah was born and I was so sick. He took up with her and cared for her with the greatest tenderness. His hands are "healing hands." He can rub a migraine away like no one I have ever seen before.

My second-born loves music of all kinds. He loves to lead singing in our local church, and he is quite gifted. He was in the chorus at school and won many awards this last year. He has a set of Pearl drums that are his pride and joy. He will shortly be adding to the drum set with some new cymbals. He tried playing the sax for a while, but he has had some teeth problems that have made that difficult, so he gave that up.

Sammy, alias Newbie, alias Newbie Newbie Doo, was a favorite among teachers and students, when he attended school. (I guess he will be returning to home schooling this year.) He won the academic achievement award for the last two years in a row for his grade. He loved playing basketball,and although he was not a starter, he loved the game and was getting pretty good by the time the season was over. Of course, it helps that he is nearly 6'3" with a size 13 foot! He can nearly dunk it!

Sometimes, it seems like the second-born lives in the shadow of the first-born, but Sam has never seemed to mind that this was the case in our family. He has always been happy to sit back and laugh at his brother Daniel who was entertaining the family. But the truth of the matter is that Sam is really the wind beneath Daniel's wings. They are as close as brothers can be. They complement each other so well. Where one is weak, the other is strong, and they work together to finish a job. There is a quiet sense of mutual admiration between them. Each recognizes that the other has talents and abilities that he does not have, and they work together to do what needs doing in any given situation.

Yes, sometimes Dan and Sam fight like an old married couple. But like an old married couple, they "kiss and make up" pretty quickly, too.

I was looking for pictures of Daniel when I did his senior board for graduation, and it was very difficult to find one of Daniel that did not have Sam in it, after Sam came along. They have always been together, in their memory at least. I don't know if they will always stay close, but I suspect there will be a life-long bond there.

Sam's sisters are great fans of him as well--especially Hannah. Sometimes, she has been known to call him Mama, a fact which brings her father much distress. I tell Tim that I am not surprised that she has done it, because Sam absolutely took over for me when I was so sick in the six months after her birth. He cared for her so tenderly that she bonded with him. Both of the girls will run to Sam above their other two brothers when they want something, because they know that he will likely get it for them.

Sam has been the best son a mother could ask for. He never has caused me grief, except for the brief period of time when he was going through puberty and got the universal "stinky attitude" along with the stinky feet! But it was not bad, nor did it last long. When I am down, Sam is there to lift me up. He is full of love and compassion, yet he is very masculine and strong. He is going to make some girl a dandy husband with these qualities.

Yes, it has been 17 years since those turbulent days in 1988 in the Magnolia State. Life is indeed but a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. You mothers of little ones reading this blog---hug them tight and know that you will turn around one day to find yours all grown up, and you will ask yourself, too, how the time got away so quickly.

If there is anything I have learned this year, it is how blessed I am to have two good sons like Dan and Sam. I still have 3 little ones, and we will see if they turn out as well. I see so many kids in trouble these days, and I am just thankful that my kids are not playing with fire. I hope that when they leave me, and it won't be long now, that they will be good men and good husbands, etc. When they do go, I will have many wonderful memories of two cute little blond towheads who were both brothers and friends.