Egads... It's an Eddie! − 7 December, 1971
I've been picking my brain for several months now about the story of my birth. We have to start our stories at the beginning, right? So, it is only appropriate that I make mention of when I was born.
Now, although I was there, I must admit that I don't remember anything at all about it -- just like when you get really drunk and don't remember what you did the night before. Hmmm... I wonder if mom got into the liquor cabinet that morning...
Since my memories are a bit fuzzy that far back, I went to the next best source of information: mom. So, without further ado, here is the start of my story, from my mom's point of view. (And you'll notice the complete lack of expletives and sophomoric humor. The "potty mouth" gene must not come from the maternal side.)
====================
We had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our second baby.
I woke up about 6am because my water broke, so my husband didn’t go to school that day. I called my sister, Doris, to let her know we would be bringing our daughter to her house. After our daughter woke up, we took her to stay with Doris while I was in the hospital.
By noon I wasn’t feeling any contractions yet, so we went to the hospital to see Dr. Hort. He said I was in labor and to come back when I could feel the contractions and they were closer together. I went home, did some cleaning -- including scrubbing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees. By around 5 or 6 that evening the contractions were harder, so we went back to the hospital. Aunt Vera (grandma's sister) was one of the nurses on duty, so I was very happy she was the one getting me ready for delivery.
I knew from when I had our daughter that I did not want them to give me anything for pain relief -- it would just make me sick, especially the "gas" I could take when I had a hard contraction. I told them to just leave me be and that I didn’t want anything. But after a couple of hours one of the nurses came in and said she couldn’t stand it anymore and gave me a shot to help ease the pain.
Our baby boy arrived at 8:26pm. He was a beautiful boy with light hair and blue eyes, weighing 8lbs 11oz and 22in long. It didn’t take long before he was hungry and started nursing right away. He was the only baby in the nursery, so he got plenty of attention.
Aunt Vera came in and asked if we decided on a name. I wanted Eddie and my husband wanted Michael. So we flipped a coin -- Eddie it was. We both agreed on Nicholas as his middle name.
We were in the hospital 2 days. When we got home, our daughter was so excited and tickled with her baby brother. She just wanted to hold him and kiss him.
When Eddie was 6 weeks old, he was fussy and felt very warm. I took his temperature; it was 104. I called the doctor. He said there were a lot of people there with the flu and he didn’t want me to bring the baby in and expose him to what they had. He told me to wrap Eddie in a damp towel with some rubbing alcohol on it to get his fever down. That seemed to work, but we were pretty scared for a while.
Now, although I was there, I must admit that I don't remember anything at all about it -- just like when you get really drunk and don't remember what you did the night before. Hmmm... I wonder if mom got into the liquor cabinet that morning...
Since my memories are a bit fuzzy that far back, I went to the next best source of information: mom. So, without further ado, here is the start of my story, from my mom's point of view. (And you'll notice the complete lack of expletives and sophomoric humor. The "potty mouth" gene must not come from the maternal side.)
====================
We had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our second baby.
I woke up about 6am because my water broke, so my husband didn’t go to school that day. I called my sister, Doris, to let her know we would be bringing our daughter to her house. After our daughter woke up, we took her to stay with Doris while I was in the hospital.
By noon I wasn’t feeling any contractions yet, so we went to the hospital to see Dr. Hort. He said I was in labor and to come back when I could feel the contractions and they were closer together. I went home, did some cleaning -- including scrubbing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees. By around 5 or 6 that evening the contractions were harder, so we went back to the hospital. Aunt Vera (grandma's sister) was one of the nurses on duty, so I was very happy she was the one getting me ready for delivery.
I knew from when I had our daughter that I did not want them to give me anything for pain relief -- it would just make me sick, especially the "gas" I could take when I had a hard contraction. I told them to just leave me be and that I didn’t want anything. But after a couple of hours one of the nurses came in and said she couldn’t stand it anymore and gave me a shot to help ease the pain.
Our baby boy arrived at 8:26pm. He was a beautiful boy with light hair and blue eyes, weighing 8lbs 11oz and 22in long. It didn’t take long before he was hungry and started nursing right away. He was the only baby in the nursery, so he got plenty of attention.
Aunt Vera came in and asked if we decided on a name. I wanted Eddie and my husband wanted Michael. So we flipped a coin -- Eddie it was. We both agreed on Nicholas as his middle name.
We were in the hospital 2 days. When we got home, our daughter was so excited and tickled with her baby brother. She just wanted to hold him and kiss him.
When Eddie was 6 weeks old, he was fussy and felt very warm. I took his temperature; it was 104. I called the doctor. He said there were a lot of people there with the flu and he didn’t want me to bring the baby in and expose him to what they had. He told me to wrap Eddie in a damp towel with some rubbing alcohol on it to get his fever down. That seemed to work, but we were pretty scared for a while.
Comments:
PandoraBox (May 8, 2008. 01:16pm)
Simple and to the point. Charming story !
edunn (May 9, 2008. 02:53am)
Rubbing alchol on a damp towel? Would that be OK to do now? Funny how those things change. Looks like you still turned out OK :)
intrepideddie (May 9, 2008. 03:54am)
I can't shake this recurring dream where they couldn't find any rubbing alcohol so they used scotch (a nice single-malt) and gave me the towel to *suck on*. Mmmm.... scotch....