Thursday, March 20, 2008

A Special Day

First off, thanks to all who wrote comments on my last post. I honestly didn't write it to get pats on the back, but hey, they are always appreciated and serve to lift me up (which is great right now because we are living in a house of hormones at the moment)

Today is a Special day. Why? Because today at 1:15 am.....ahem...well a few years ago I became a mother for the first time!

Isn't she the cutest??? This was my sweet little guinea pig. I was not much more than a child myself when she was born so she really got the brunt of my experiments and boo boos. She is the one on whom I cut the teeth of motherhood.....And she has turned out pretty amazing despite myself!

I wanted to document the story of her birth since in those days whenever anyone in the family gave birth, life as we knew it at the time came to a grinding halt. We were hog & cattle ranchers with a family farm in a small community and were pretty tight as a family. So when the first labor pains started, the forces were marshalled, everyone rallied and gathered to observe, coach, time contractions and cheer the laboring mother. For me it took about 2 1/2 days to get this child born...so we had quite a coaching,timing and cheering staff going. She is the first grandchild of my parents so of course they dropped everything and came over with my sisters. (they lived 2 hours away) The first day my 16 yr old sister with a brand new driver's license drove me to the doctor's office to get checked out (she's the one who drove through the wall in the garage)........ My sister in law always stepped in to time the contractions and by the end of the 2nd day we had quite a large group gathered at my mother in law's house to watch me huff my way through the Lamaze breathing. We lived aways from the hospital so her house became labor central. The guys were camped out watching some cowboy movie...the ladies were observing me....(I am not exaggerating when I say that I had quite an audience) I went to the hospital twice and the nurses would just say, "honey, it's not time yet." We decided after the last visit that we were just going to wait until after midnight to go back to the hospital since we didn't want to get charged for another day. We drove back to my mother in law's house for round 3 of the huffing, observing, coaching, timing, etc. By this time I was getting really annoyed with the audience (not realizing that my contractions were progressing VERY rapidly). The guys pretty much gave it up (since the movie was over) and went to bed, all except TL of course and the long suffering ladies. At the stroke of midnight we headed back over to the hospital with our entourage and I was really feeling desperate. The nurses saw me and conceded to admit me-not bothering to check my progress. I'm not much of a screamer but I had to finally admit that I was REALLY uncomfortable and so when they finally decided to check me, panic ensued when they realized our little baby was finally coming and coming fast......

So she came, she's here and she is great!


Her code name originally started out as M.A.....(Madwomen apprentice) since she is a mommy herself but since she is in the blogging world now, she's not so anonymous-go see her blog here.

Have a happy, happy birthday! Thanks for making me a mommy today!

9 comments:

linda crandall said...

Happy Birthday Jen!

Wow 2 1/2 days! Mine were all 8 hours and with an epideral:) Way to go Marilyn!

kristie said...

Happy birthday Jen! I never had the long labors, each of mine have been c -sections.

Lisa said...

You have a great memory! I'm not sure I could remember that much about my 1st and it was only 7 1/2 years ago. Wow! I love Jen, she's GREAT!!

Spin said...

Wow! thats a story. thanks for telling it and she is beautiful! I have felt very strong lately about putting all my kids births down in writing, since I was slacking at that point in my life, you have inspired me.

Heather said...

Wow, that sounds like the "good old days" of delivering. Glad I wasn't a part of that! :)

Allyson said...

This is why I wasn't born at an earlier time. I need drugs!!!!!! Oh bless your sweet, amazing heart.

Happy bday Jen!

The Duncan Proect said...

Reads like a page from a Willa Cather novel--except for the movie. What a beautiful child.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday to your daughter, marilyn. This story is something "us" mom's will never forget. LOL. can forget what we ate for dinner last night or what we cooked, or what we are doing for the moment, but, labor, nope, we will never forget, even when time passes. I believe the reason is because that is one of the hardest things to do. Ouch!

jen said...

Awww thanks Mom! Glad you made it through to get me here. :)