I asked my mom to write about her experience as a first time mom for my first-time mom story round up and giveaway. (If you haven’t linked up, please do.)
Here’s what she had to say…
Some things are expected and some catch you by surprise
Some things are expected and some catch you by surprise. Some things come more quickly than others. Both of those statements could be used to describe my first pregnancy and the birth of our first child.
I met David in Nov 1967. It was what we thought was love at first sight. We later discovered it was actually lust at first sight… silly us. With that attraction came a surprise pregnancy and a wedding planned in little over a week which took place on March 16, 1968. We were in “love” and enjoying moving in to our new 1 bedroom apartment, buying furniture and getting our little nest ready for us and our baby that was due the beginning of November. (In 1968 due dates were not as precise as they are today.)
I was a perfectly healthy 19 year old and for the most part was enjoying being pregnant. A couple times I did pass out but everything was fine… it was probably the Florida heat.
I was certainly enjoying eating and on the evening of July 28th we went to an Italian restaurant. I was not particularly fond of Italian food, but David insisted that I try it.
The next morning (around 2 AM) I woke up with what I thought was a stomach ache from the Italian food I had eaten. Well, around 4:30 AM I was in our little bathroom trying sooo hard to go to the bathroom, but I couldn’t. As I sat there straining I looked down into the toilet and saw blood!
David came in and carried me out to the car. The hospital was about 30 minutes away. As he was racing down Edgewater Drive a large white bird almost hit our windshield (David swears it was the stork).
We made it to the hospital; David ran into the ER and yelled, “My wife is having a premature baby in the parking lot.”
Well, they all came running out and almost dropped me as they put me on a stretcher. They rushed me inside, no time for much prepping, and our son David Christopher was born at 5:33 AM… 3 months premature!
They immediately put him in an incubator and whisked him to the nursery. David said as David C. went by he looked up at him (let’s not burst his bubble). Our new son was so small; he went down to 2 lbs 14 oz! We just knew he was always going to be a little guy so we decided to call him “Big C”, to make him feel big and powerful.
They assigned me a pediatrician since I didn’t have one picked out. The Doctor came in and told me our baby boy probably would not make it. His lungs weren’t developed and he was just so small with not fat on his bones.
I asked for another Doctor to take care of “Big C” because I knew our son was going to live… I had God on our side.
We prayed and asked everyone we knew to pray for our little guy. Our prayers were answered as he grew stronger and stronger every day. We went to the hospital everyday and stood outside the nursery window and watched our son gasp for air with his chest and back practically touching as he struggled to take a breath.
Finally on Aug. 28, they asked if I would like to hold him and give him a bottle! I can’t express to you how emotional I was! I finally got to touch him. And feed him!
The next morning the nurse called me and said he weighed 5 lbs and we could bring him home! This was just too much.
I knew I was ready and I knew I would have lots of help taking care of our new child after all both sets of grandparents as well as Uncles and Aunts lived near by.
I soon learned we, David, Big C and I, were in this alone. Everyone in our family was afraid to touch Big C because he was so tiny! They all were use to large 8 lb babies. No body even wanted to baby sit!
So, we could this… We held him like a football with his little head in the palm of our hand. We fed him every 3 hours. We didn’t have a rocking chair so when I fed him I would rock my body back and forth (sometimes I still do this to help me go to sleep). We changed his diapers which was quite a feat with only 1 size of cloth diapers available. He went with us everywhere… which was mostly out to dinner. He was a part of our lives forever… he was our Big C.
Being a Mother was very easy for me. I read no books, did no research, asked no questions, I totally trusted my instincts. I guess I figured I turned out okay so I followed what I had seen my Mom and Mamu do… I reached back into my life for the wisdom. Motherhood was an easy transition for me. I loved it. I’m not saying it was always easy and that I didn’t get tired, because I’m sure I had bad and sad days… I just don’t remember them… Our lives were forever better because of the birth of our first child, David Christopher, Big C…
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