Tell About the Birth of Your First Child.

My first child was a boy, though the doctor swore up and down before he was born that it would be a girl. He, in fact, wrote GIRL across my belly in magic marker before I ever went in for delivery. The nurse later told me he was unhappy because he had never been wrong before. Oh well.

Two weeks after my due date, I decided I better catch up on my laundry, since I did not know when that child would ever come. On a Monday I washed everything that was dirty. Since I did not have a washer or a dryer, I toted all the laundry to the Laundromat and washed it all. I then took it all back home and hung it out on the line outside to dry. Gil was working, so I did this alone. Later that day, I brought it all back in and folded and put it all away. That night Gil and I went to our friends’, Maryann and Alex Johansen, to have dinner. Afterwards we started playing a board game. I was tired and my back hurt but was having fun, so I did not say anything about going home. Alex finally turned to me and told me I was in labor. I told him no I had just done a lot of carrying heavy things and was just sore. He said he had been watching me wiggle in my seat since dinner and that I was down to 10 minutes apart from each wiggle. They had a baby about three months before, so he knew what he was talking about. I sure did not know what to expect, so I took his word for it. Gil and I headed home.

We had to travel past our hospital on the way home. Gil asked if I wanted to stop and be checked out. I still did not believe I was in labor, so I said no. When we got home, we both went to bed and I slept soundly until around 7 a.m. At that time I work up with a sharp pain. A few minutes later, I had another one. Okay. This might be it. Well I had a weekly checkup appointment at 9 a.m., so I waited and went to see there first. By then the pains were very regular and getting more painful. My appointment was at Kaiser Clinic in Santa Clara, which was right next door to the hospital. After getting into the exam room at the doctor’s office, the nurse asked how I was doing. I told her about my contractions. She went to get the doctor. He told her to send me immediately to the hospital and he would check in with me in a little bit there.

I had not brought anything, as I still did not believe it was my time—even though I was two weeks past my expected delivery date. I wanted to go home first, but Gil stated he would go and get my things if really was the time. So to the hospital we walked.

It took a little while to get checked in and settled. Finally a nurse came in and checked to see what was going on. Sure enough I was in labor and had started dilating. She said I was not too far along yet, but they would keep me since we lived quite a ways from the hospital.

So they prepped me for delivery. I was pretty nervous and asked if I could delay this, so I would have time to get emotionally ready for it. I was told that was what the previous nine months were for.

Not too long after being admitted, I heard a woman screaming and crying. The nurse taking care of me came in. I asked if something was wrong out there. She said no, that a woman was just being a baby about it all. Then I was REALLY scared. My eyes started to tear up. The nurse said do not worry. It is not that bad. She is just taking it to extremes. At that point I turned to Gil and told him to make sure if I started to scream like that to cover my mouth with something.

The day was long. Remember I was at the doctor’s office at 9 a.m. I did not go into hard labor until late afternoon. See I could have gone home and psyched myself up for what was coming. Since I did not bring my bag, I had nothing to keep myself busy. Gil went into the waiting room and brought in a couple of magazines. One of them was a Sports Illustrated. There was an article about Roy Campaneras and an injury he received while batting. After reading that article, Gil and I had a long conversation about baseball. We were great baseball fans.

Finally things started happening, which I do not remember too much about. Around 6:30 p.m. on July 1st 1970, our Jason was born. When we first met him, Gil and I decided he was not really a Jason. All evening we discussed what we would name, as Jason was the only name we even considered. The next morning we decided it would be Donald. We have always been thankful we did not name him Jason, as that was the most favored name for that year and several years to come.

He was beautiful. In fact I had nurses come in to my room to meet me, as they had seen him and thought he was the most beautiful baby they had ever seen. We thought so, too. I will write more later about Don and the joy he gave to us.