The Addition of Addison

by Bob Sparrow

Addison at 1 minute old

Somewhere around 353,000 babies were born in the world last Friday, June 2, 2017, approximately 11,000 of those were born in the U.S. on that day and around 1,300 in California.  So having a baby that day didn’t appear to be really that big a deal.  Unless it’s an addition to your family that you’ve long-awaited and comes with a back-story fit for a tv mini-series.

Daughter and expectant mother, Dana Sparrow Borrelli has been through two open-heart surgeries, the first when she was one-and-a-half and the other just a few years ago, as well as several intravenous operations where doctors go in through an artery in the groin up to the heart to replace a valve. I don’t think they learned that on YouTube!  Once her heart was ‘baby-ready’, there were other difficulties in bringing a new Borrelli into this world, including a miscarriage and several tries of artificial insemination.   During that process, daughter Stephanie, Dana’s older sister, volunteered to carry the baby for her as a surrogate mother – a true act of love!  They ultimately tried the very expensive process of in vitro, and it took! The process produced 8 fertilized eggs, four boys and four girls, a girl was inserted and the other seven were put in the freezer for future delivery – probably not all seven!
This entire process would have certainly discouraged the average person, but Dana is no average person – through it all, she kept an unbelievably positive attitude, and while we know she was dying on the inside, there was never a ‘why me?’ attitude, just great perseverance.
Her perseverance paid off in spades last week with the arrival of Addison Sparrow Borrelli, a 7 lb. 8 oz., 22 inch beautiful girl, but of course it didn’t come easy.
Dana was brought into Huntington Hospital in Pasadena on Wednesday evening around 10:00 p.m., May 31 with the idea that she would be given a medication (Pitocin) that would help her deliver in approximately 12 hours.  Linda and I left home early Wednesday morning to make sure we got to the hospital on time.  Around mid-day Thursday, June 1, Dana was getting severe labor pains and was given an epidural, which relieved the pain, but slowed down the labor process.  Thursday evening, still no baby and cervix dilation was minimal.  Through the night, Dana and Joe were resting fairly comfortably in her room, in fact they were probably resting more comfortably than we were trying to catch a few winks on hard, straight-back chairs in the waiting room.  We maybe got 30 minutes of shut eye throughout the whole night.  By 7:00 a.m. we were back in Dana’s room where she was getting closer to delivery, but still not there.  Around 8:00 the doctor arrived and Linda and Joe got to remain in the delivery room, I’m ushered out to the waiting room.  After about an hour of ‘pushing’ and with exhaustion written all over Dana’s face, Addison made her debut, showing a few ‘battle scars’ but looking beautiful and healthy.  Dana, not so much – she looked and felt exhausted, but her heart held up well and within 30 minutes, her color had returned to her face along with her engaging smile.  But it wasn’t until the following day that Joe brought her a cheeseburger, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

The cherry on top of all this for us was that of all the 353,000 babies born in the world on June 2, Addison was voted ‘The Most Beautiful’.  OK, only our immediately family got to vote, but the vote was not influenced by the Russians!

Dana and Joe took their new addition home on Sunday, June 4.  Linda and I had a hard time complaining about our 40+ hours without sleep when we realized what Dana had been through to make this miracle happen.  We all agreed – it was all well worth it!

28 comments on “The Addition of Addison

  1. Bob,

    Barb and I had a similar experience 17 years ago with our Miri cal granddaughter. I feel you pride and delight.

    Extremely well written account. Congratulations and “years of joy”

    Howard

  2. What a beautiful story, and yes, a beautiful burger — I MEAN BABY GIRL!💗💗! Congratulations to the proud parents and probably still sleepy grandparents!

  3. Oh what a truly wonderful & “teary” story. Congratulations to all and I have no doubt that she will bring your family more joy and happiness than your hearts can hold!!!!!!!

  4. Love this story, Bob. What a trooper Dana is. And so wonderful of Stephanie to make such a generous offer. What lovely daughters you have. Baby is beautiful, of course! Even though I was not allowed to vote (I guess relationships between in-law family do not count) my vote would certainly be MOST BEAUTIFUL in the world born on June 2, 2017. Congrats to you, Linda and family.

    • Yes, your vote counts Sue!! Thank you for the nice comment, we are so thrilled to have Addison join the family.

    • Thank Don, great to hear from you. Hope you can get down this way sometime soon – you have a place to stay. And we still need to plan that hike on the ‘Trail of Death’!!!

  5. What a beautiful and touching story. So very happy for you all and especially Dan and Joe. Addison is so blessed to have them as parents and to be the youngest member of your amazing family. Love and hugs, Margaret

    • Thanks Margaret – we are blessed to have her join the family. She may regret it later, but it’ll be too late then!!

  6. I am crying…what a celebration for all of you!! Blessings on this new “family”. I’m sure you will have more blogs about Addison

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