Today is my birthday and I got a phone call from my mom who out of the blue just started to tell me about the day I was born. So I thought I’d share that story although it isn’t an unusual one, but I felt like sharing it since it’s something that tends to not be written down.
side note: I feel like birthday’s should be more about the mother than the baby. After all, they do most of the work!
Probably 1983, when I was about one but this is the closest I had on hand to baby me 🙂
This is my mom’s version of the story:
“It was three days before your due date and I was at the doctor’s for a checkup. I was in the waiting room when I felt my water leak a bit. I went to the receptionist and said that I thought my water was leaking so they took me in a room and got me ready for a doctor. Â They got me dressed, on to the table stirrups and all, and went to find a doctor. All the while I could feel myself leaking a bit more and didn’t understand why I was still there waiting! About 15 minutes passed when a nurse came back in, checked me, and said she was going to just send me over to the hospital since all the doctors were busy. I drove myself to the hospital, they put me in a wheel chair, and I signed in. They wheeled me up to the room, I stood up to get undressed and onto the bed when whoosh… my water officially broke and there went the long pants I was wearing!Â
I had called your dad to let him know. He was taking a class at the high school (not a high school class though, some sort of mechanics class) so I had to call the school. They wouldn’t let me talk to them so I told them ‘Well, this is his wife and I’m having his baby at the moment.’ To which they replied that they would rush the message to him. About 10 minutes later he showed up at the hospital! He had taken his bike to the school so I could have the car that day so he must have flown on his bike to the hospital! [side note: that is normally about a 20 minute bike ride with traffic!] He was huffing and puffing when he finally arrived but he wanted to be there because he got to be in the delivery room this time with me. He didn’t get to for Devon [my older brother]. He didn’t need to rush though as it takes time from the water breaking to the actual delivery.
I got to the hospital about 12:30 and had also called my friend who was a nurse in that part of the hospital. She had told me to let her know when I was there so she could be my nurse. Of course, it was her day off but she came up anyway to sit with me. After a few hours, she mentioned that she didn’t like something and left to find a doctor. That made me nervous. A bit later I heard nurses telling the doctor “Just come in! Don’t bother washing!’
I told them I had to push a bit on that last one and they set me up to deliver. The umbilical cord was around your neck, that was what my friend didn’t like. Your heartbeat was slowing the further down you went and when I had contractions. Once your head was out, they cut the cord without a problem, and out came the rest of you! It was such a relief!Â
My friend turned to me and said I now had the perfect family: a boy and a girl. I felt so good after the birth too. The nurse asked if I was hungry and I was and then I proceeded to call everyone to tell them the happy news. It was so easy that I thought I could have five more without a problem! I didn’t want to have five more but I felt like I could. “
I was born at 4:40 so only about 4 hours of labor! I have had friends who had over 20 hours of labor so I know how lucky my mom was. Days like this make me wish I lived so much closer to my family. I miss them!
Left to right: my nephew with my sister-in-law (who was pregnant with my next nephew at the time), my brother, me, my mom, my dad, and my sister. This goofy picture pretty much sums up my family!