Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane.....

I've wanted to join in on 'Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane ' so here ya go.



I can remember the day I had my first child quite vividly. I was woken up at 3:30am to the wonderful feeling that something just wasn't right. I wasn't sure what that was but a quick chat with my mother-in-law soon convinced me that I was in labor, plus it was the 7th. My father-in-law had predicted from the very start of my pregnancy that I would deliver my baby on the 7th. You see my husbands birthday is on the 7th, and we were married on the 7th, so it should follow suit that our first child would be born on the 7th. And he did not disappoint.

As this was my first delivery we wanted to be sure to keep the contractions going, so anytime that they started to slow down we would start to walk. I believe that we had to of walked quite a few miles that day. On one walk we were wandering through the park in town, at 5:00am in the morning, and came across a brand new little Tonka truck. This made us sure that our baby was going to be a boy! WhooooHoooooo! You see this was a time in the distant past when ultrasounds were not given during each pregnancy and the majority of new parents had no idea what gender their new baby was going to be. Although I had always had a feeling that I would only have boys the Tonka truck confirmed my feelings.

Moving on with our day, we eventually took a ride the 3 short blocks to the hospital. We wandered up to the 4th floor, that would be labor and delivery, and was quickly given a bed in which to twist and turn and moan and groan in pain. Again, here we are in the distant past and no one even mentioned an Epidural. What?! you say. No Epidural?! And yes I will say it again, I had no clue, I mean no clue what an epidural was, and no one even offered. I didn't even know what one was 4 years later when I had my second child, but that's a completely different story. So here I am, hurting like you would not believe and my poor husband is just holding my hand, being such the good husband as I crush all life out of said hand. Seriously, I didn't even know about breathing to help you through the pain. I just tensed up and made it so much worse. I just have to laugh. Boy was I uninformed and naive.

Finally it's 3:00pm in the afternoon and it's time to push, yes push! Yeah. I push and I push, still with no pain medication at all, and by 3:40pm the doctor is doing an Episiotomy, at which point my husband, midMan, has to step out for moment to regain his balance and his stomach. At 3:48pm, on June 7th, our first born entered into this world with a wonderful head full of black hair, I was terrified to have a bald baby, and yes midMan made it back in time to watch the wonderful happenings. I know, of all thing to worry about, that should have been the last thing, but as I said I was naive! What can I say. He weighed in at 7lbs 14oz and 19 inches long.

I was able to head home in less than 24 hours. We had even managed to pay the complete bill, hospital $448 and doctor $500, before we even went to the hospital. The cost makes it seem like such a long time ago, but seriously it was only 25 years ago and the total bill was $948, it was more than double that 4 years later. We had no insurance and we had no idea what medicaid was. We just did what we had to do.

We have watched him grow into a really amazing young man. And we are so very very proud of him and his accomplishments. (I wish I was more organized and I would have had a picture for you all to see, but you can see him if you go back about 4 postings.)

Love to All,

midRae