January 4

January 4 marked what would have been, my older son Brandon's 11th birthday (January 4, 1999). Without going into a bunch of details, I had very life threatening complications that forced me to give birth at 24 weeks pregnant. I had been diagnosed with partial placenta previa (follow the link for more information) Placenta previa

I carried him for about a month before I was finally hospitalized on New Years Eve and spent the first few days of 1999 in Morgantown, laying in a hospital bed because the doctors told me he wouldn't survive and gave me two choices. Have him and live, or carry him and stay in the hospital until I did. Apparently I hemorraged so much that the final blood test they did at City came back abnormal and they felt I could be better cared for in Morgantown.

I lay in the hospital bed bringing in the New Year and after RW arrived, we waited. Finally on the 4th I told the doctor ok, because I knew I'd done what I could do. So they induced labor and he was born. He died 30 minutes later in my arms. I won't get any more detailed than that right now, but for those who have only known me a short time, that is the sad part of that day.

A year later on January 4, 2000 is the day I left my abusive first marriage with Shawn's support. I left after a confrontation and went to his house, where Rob was then arrested. Shawn and I have been together ever since.

There is more that I'm going to be saying, I just chose not to go into much detail here for personal reasons. You are more than welcome to email me and ask, but otherwise I just wanted to kinda give you an idea of how bittersweet that day is.