Slice of Life
Cricket has started a new blog Slice of Life Sunday. It’s a weekly meme dedicated to preserving the accounts of events cut out of the lives of average people just like you and me from all over the world. This is some of what Cricket has to say about Slice of Life Sunday…..”In the short term, I hope to collect slices of real life experiences from people just like you. As different as each of our lives have been, we also share common threads of events that happen in everyone’s life. I will provide three “life events” each Sunday for you to choose from to write a personal experience account. Do not think you have to be “a writer” to participate. All I am searching for is honesty, not fiction, but a real experience from your life . . . a slice of your life. You have all week to write your Slice of Life story. Once you have posted your Slice of Life Sunday story on your blog, come back and leave a comment with the url to your post.”
Cricket is all about being a writer and a very good one at that. Her prompts this week were…
1. Family Nicknames.
2. Birth of your child.
3. Slumber party.
I have decided to play along, you know, show my support for the effort of a friend. I will be writing about the birth of my daughter, Mindy. Now I don’t claim to be a writer so this will be kind of like my joyful noise. (LOL)
It was 6 pm on a Friday evening in early June 1973. I picked up the phone and called my mother. I was having some unusual pain. Nothing regular, no hard contractions but heck, I was a young girl and had no idea what a contraction felt like. I can’t say I was particularly ready for a baby to arrive, at least not like the young people are today, they read everthing available on giving birth, I hadn’t. I had listened to my Mother and my family Doctor, that was about it. I was to call when I went into labor so I called my Mother with my unusual pain and she came over to sit with me. My husband was at work and would not be home until 11:30.
My Mother and I sat all evening timing pains to see if this was indeed labor. The pain would be regular for a little while and then it would just go away. My husband got home from work. He was surprised to see my Mother there and I think a little disappointed I hadn’t called him home from work. The pain I felt was never regular so we all finally decided it wasn’t labor after all. My Mother went home around midnight. We sat up and watched some late night tv. I decided to get to bed around 2:00 am. I had to get up at 6:00, not because I wanted to but for the last nine months nature called at precisely 6:00 am every morning. I was beat and my pain had stopped… so off to dreamland we went.
I was up at 6:00 (surprise!) and went to attend to nature, as I crawled back in the bed I sat up to straighten the blankets when suddenly…..Whoosh! What was that? My water had broken …all over the bed, sigh. We got up and I quickly bathed and got dressed while hubby called the doctor and my mother. Labor and very hard contractions started within the hour. We went right away to the hospital as doc had told us to do.
Now this is my very first experience with a hospital. We arrived before 7:00 am, they put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me away to maternity while hubby stayed to do the paperwork. Back then we had “labor rooms” which were just painted block with a bed. No window, no sweet music playing, no comfortable chairs,no telephone, no tv, just a bed and some medical equipment. This was a very small hospital in a very small town in the heart of Amish country. I don’t know if that made a difference but I was definately not in a “birthing suite”. As we approached the labor rooms I could hear this woman screaming at the top of her lungs, just screaming in pain. Okay, now I am afraid. They prepped me for delivery and I have to tell you, no one bothered to mention the razor to me…ugh. By the time they had finished with me, the screaming lady had stopped so I asked about her, thinking she must have had her baby. They sent her home with false labor! False labor??? What the heck is that? I remember thinking, if that wasn’t the real thing I may be in trouble here. Okay, Now I am REALLY afraid…..
I layed in that hospital room for ever. This baby wasn’t due untill June 21st and it was only the 10th. The 10th…the day of my baby shower. I missed all the fun. Here I am lying in this awful labor room, writhing in pain, missing my beautiful baby shower. Taking the pain meds they kept giving me, which didn’t seem to help very much. They did not give you a choice back then, you just did what they told you to do. I was young and uninformed so I just obeyed. It was a very long hot day and I wasn’t getting any closer to giving birth. It was just after shift change at 11:00 pm a nurse came in and put me on a guerney, they were taking me to x-ray. I wasn’t very wise to the ways of the world back then but I did know you do not x-ray a pregnant woman. I also had the Rh factor which I did not know much about, other than I would not be allowed to breast feed and they may have to transfuse the baby. X-ray on top of all that was just too much for a young girl to deal with. I began to cry. Once the tears started they were hard to shut off. I was in pain, getting a dangerous x-ray, the Rh factor, it was hot , uncomfortable and I had missed my own baby shower. Through my tears I somehow got the courage to ask the nurse why they were taking me to x-ray. She told me she was not supposed to tell me… but then quickly said, “don’t tell anyone I said anything” and she went on to say, they could not find the heartbeat! I was crushed! She tried to reasure me it could be lots of things, just the way the baby is laying, the baby could be breach, they just thought it was best to know.
It turned out it was just the way the baby was laying, thank GOD! They also said my water had sealed back up. They got me back to the uncomfortable little labor room and came in with a huge needle to break my water again. Things went quickly after that. At 2:00 am June 11th 1973 I became the proud parent of an adorable 7 lb. 6 oz. baby girl.
It will soon be 35 years ago but I remember it like yesterday. My daughter has been the greatest source of joy and the deepest source of grief. I think it is just because you feel your children more than any other. I know that is a day or two days that I will never forget. I was frightened and uninformed. I have never found myself in that position again, being totally uninformed and at the mercy of others. I began a quest for knowledge that exists to this day. I always have to know ….WHY?
So so perfect for the new meme!! And I must add, one beautiful daughter.
~Thanks Anni…I think she is quite perfect, but then I may be a little biased………..Mo
Mo
What a good story . I am so glad young women today know more than our Mothers. I was a late bloomer and did not have Puppy until I was way on the other side of thirty so I was better prepared than some of my girl pallies of the sixty and seventy. Peace
~I am soglad you enjoyed my story. It was a very scary thing for me, but I wouldn’t trade it. Hugs!…..Mo
I found your account well told and interesting (especially since I’m NOT a mom) … and I look forward to participating in Cricket’s meme one of these days. So far none of her topics have ‘resonated’ with a ’story to share’ … but I suspect that eventually something will click. Thanks for sharing.
Hugs and blessings,
~Thank you so much, that means a lot to me coming from someone who writes so well. It was fun to do and I will probably do it again! HUGS!….Mo
I will be back to comment on this awesome post…but thought you would enjoy the post that is in the link for this comment…hugs.
Mo, I enjoyed reading about the birth of your daughter. I assume they gave you the baby shower at a later date. Hope so anyway, lol.
So this Slice of Life Sunday does not have to be posted on a Sunday? We can write it any day of the week?
Have a good weekend,Mo.
~Hi Betty, I am happy you enjoyed my story. The baby shower went on as planned without me (LOL) I had two others before, this was one being thrown by some of my mothers friends and some neighbors. They did let me have pictures. Slice of Life can be posted anytime…Cricket lists three new prompts on Sundays. It was really fun to do. HUGS!……Mo
What a beautiful story and thanks for sharing the link for the new meme!
I’m bookmarking the link and
I love the idea and I will play along too!
will make a blog entry today or tomorrow on one of the topics.
~Hi Cassie , I am glad you enjoyed the story. It is a grand idea and I think you will enjoy it!………Mo
OK, if I did not love you so much, I would have to hate you. All these years you kept telling me you couldn’t write and now I see you must have been putting me on. I mean you are so talented, really talented. You can cook anything, sew anything, paint, draw, crochet, knit, design, whittle, build, etc, etc, etc, and now I must add write! This was very well written and I am very pleased to add it to the Pie Safe for safe keeping. And, I too did not know about the razor until it was too late!
~You know you could never hate me :p….I am not a writer, I don’t love it like you do. I must admit, this was fun to do and I am thrilled you enjoyed it! Hugs!……….Mo…..oh yeah, the razor was a dirty trick.(LOL)
I was immediately drawn in to your story, a certain sign that you are indeed a good writer.
Thank you for sharing your story. One of my daughters wants me to share some of my birthing stories, but so far I’m not ready to do that. I think you and I might be the same vintage, but I didn’t marry until 1982. Also, we had friends who home-birthed, so that was the route we took. I’m thankful all went well in the birth of your dear daughter.
~Thanks so much Joyce T. I use the T only because of the other Joyce who comments here daily. (LOL) I am glad you enjoyed the story, I would hate to bore everyone with a post that long! Same VINTAGE.. I like that! Have a grand evening!…….Mo
Who knew. You are a writer. i am with you with the bathroom visits. I realized that it was a picture of the hours I would be up feeding my girls. So sad you could not make your showers. Mine were held after the births. I am going to participate with Circket this week. Enjoy your sun shine.
Love and Hugs,
Joyce
~~Surprized myself! I can’t wait to read yours! HUGS!!!…………Mo~~
For someone who thinks she was merely making joyful noise, you wrote a beautiful slice of your life! I am gonna write about the births of my babies one day, too. But…um…I gotta write four stories…lol.
Hugs…Hope your week is wonderful. I love reading your posts!
~~Hi Phyl, Thanks for the encouraging words. Writing the story for Slice of Life was fun and I will do it again. I hope you are enjoying the weather! Hugs!…….Mo~~