Mason's Story

Mason Thomas Long was born on April 25th at 11:42 a.m. and though his delivery was scheduled as a routine c-section, he tried to make things interesting by sending me to into the early stages of labor the night before his impending birth. The nurse who admitted us placed the monitors on me and asked if the contractions that were showing up on the strip were painful ( you know, from 1-10, ten being the highest) . At that point, they were a five. She commented that it was just proof that Mason was ready to be born. Despite his apparent readiness, he was sitting very high, wedged up under my ribs and the vacuum extractor was used to pry the little guy out! Weighing in at 7 lbs 10.5 ounces, 20.5 inches long, he was born a little " floppy" but after a minute of vigorous rubbing, Mason cried a good , strong cry and didn't stop until they'd taken he and Mike down the hall to clean him off and admit him to the hospital.




Mackenzie , Grams and my sister Carley all came as soon as they'd gotten word we were in recovery. Mackenzie feel instantly in love with Mason , whom calls " My sweet Mason boy". She wanted to hold him right away and was certain to tell each person wearing scrubs " Remember! He's ours!"


Despite the few hiccups  to start, things went very smoothly after that- much more so than I had anticipated. As soon as I was settled into our room, I was able to have the IV drugs stopped and went onto oral pain meds at half the usual dose. As soon as possible, all other " attachments" were removed so I could get up and move around and by the end of the second day, it was clear that I was ready to be discharged in the morning. The only hesitation was that my staples needed removing but thankfully the doctors and nurses were more than confident in Mike's ability to do that job.

The only thing missing from our happy occasion was our sweet Mackenzie, who was having the time of her life with Grams who had planned lots of special activities. Each day, when I heard about all the fun they'd had, I wondered if Mack would even want us back! Of course, each phone call from her started with an excited " I love you, Mommy! I miss you so. I just loooove Mason!"  And so it was , we were all more than ready to get our boy home and start to find our new normal.

There was a time in my life that I doubted that I'd ever have another child. I didn't think it was possible to ever love someone else as much as I love Mackenzie and I didn't think it would be fair to another child to play second fiddle the light of our lives. A wise friend calmed my fears by telling me that adding another child to the family doesn't divide the space in your heart to love, it multiplies it. I can't think of anything that I have found to be more true than this. Our lives feel so complete with the entrance of Mason to the world. Welcome to the family, Sweet Mason Boy!