Faces of Loss, Faces of Hope

Eufemia

Mom to Nathaniel Joel Rodriguez

January 14th, 2009

God bless. My name is Eufemia Barreto.  When I found out I was pregnant with my 5th child I was excited-- i already had 1 son and 3 girls, when I found out I was having another son I thought my oldest son is going to be happy. But I also found out that I had infection in both kidneys but I didn't let that stop me I took care of myself as best as i could. We moved to a bigger home with more room.  I started to get sicker and sicker everyday.  We didn't know the house had mold and we all got sick from it.  I had nose bleeds, very bad headaches and I just didn't feel like getting out of bed at all I had no strength.  At 24 weeks I was very sick and in pain I went to the hospital and they told me I was in premature labor-- they stopped it and told me I had to be in bed rest cause they noticed that everything I did caused me to go into premature labor.  They said no cleaning and many other things. So we decided to move into an apt. cause we couldn't afford the rent of the home we were in.  On January 13th I went to a doctor's appointment and they couldn't find my sons heartbeat, they did an ultrasound and the Doctor told me that my son was gone and he couldn't believe it himself cause he checked like 3 times and he was pale when he told me the news. He immediately sent me to the hospital where they did another ultrasound just to make sure and my son was breached and the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times he was gone. My little boy was gone. The nurse was at my bed side when she told me with tears in her eyes that my son was gone. Everyone in the hospital treated me very well- always at my side to make sure i was doing good. My doctor didn't want me to suffer much, they kept giving me medication to keep me comfortable. The nurse told me this special medicine we are going to give you will decide when you are going to have your baby cause your body doesn't know the difference between alive and dead.  That whole night I just cried and prayed to God saying let him breath when he is born let him move, let him cry please Lord please Lord. the next morning I started to feel uncomfortable they checked me and said your in labor it's time for you to have your baby. It was January 14th, 2009.  I started to push with each contraction and all of a sudden the contraction stopped and I knew if i didn't push my baby out they would've have to open me up so I just closed my eyes and asked God to help me cause I couldn't do it alone, and @ 10:44 a.m. I had my little piano(my little girl gave him that name)in my arms and I cried and cried cause he was gone but I had the chance to hold him and kiss him. He was 1 lb. 4 oz. and 13 inches. I was only 7 months pregnant I needed 10 more weeks to go, We all have suffered through this especially my son but we have good friends who have been there for us and all my focus I have put it on GOD cause he has given me the strength to move forward I still cry once in awhile but I know he is with us always. You can contact Eufemia at femiarichard@yahoo.com