Sunday, August 1, 2004

The Birthday Story

Today we are once again going to Louisville.  It is Family Day for my company at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. Amusement Parks!  Also, I hope Bridget will come along with us, since she loved amusement parks with a passion for many many years.  It is her birthday this Tuesday, she will be 24.  I cannot believe it, but it is true, I was there when it happened.  All these years, this is the first one she is not living a stones throw from me.  And when she was younger, she would wake me up in the middle of the night and want to hear her Birthday story....

Bridget is a true Houstonian, born in Houston.  When I lived there, everyone was from somewhere else, no one could claim Houston as their birth place that I knew.  I was living there because I was unmarried and my Mother sent me there to live with my Aunt.  As it happened, my Aunt and Uncle went to Pennsylvania for the summer leaving me to house sit.  I was a week away from my due date, working at the Holiday Inn Astro Village as a night clerk, and my parents were driving down from Kentucky to be with me for the duration of the birth.  

I woke up on the afternoon of August 2nd with gas!  Not too bad, but bad enough that I called into work.  Then it got worse so I called my Doctor's office and reported my condition.  "Get to the Hospital" they told me, "Have it checked out."   I went next door to the neighbors to let them know I was leaving for the hospital, my parents were due in that day and I wanted them to be on the look out.  They went nuts! She ran around like a crazy woman telling me there was no way I was driving myself to the hospital in LABOR.  LABOR!!!!! I was just having stomach gas.  

So we went, I let them drop me off and I was looked at and Jesus, Mary and Joseph! I was admitted, I was dilating.  It was 10pm, I was hooked up to monitors and the tv was turned on.  Saturday Night Live, Grateful Dead was the band that night.  Then the pain came!  I would see if coming on the monitor they had attached to me.  Waves crashing!  You could see them building up before feeling them!  "Please give me a wash cloth!"  I would place it in my mouth and bear down on it like Tartan in the movies bearing down on tree bark...funny the things that run through your mind at the time, and you remember them 24 years later.  

The Doctor was not working that weekend, it was his turn to be off.  My Doctor had yet to arrive, being this was my first baby, and I had just been admitted.  I had a young nurse from North Carolina with me the entire time, since I was alone with no family.  She was wonderful and commented to me that there were only three of us in labor that night, which was very unusual for the hospital.  That enabled her to never leave my side.  Thank you God, and I really do mean that.  

My pain was such that it was not even registering on the chart! It was shooting off into space.  "Puff puff puff, like you are blowing out a candle. Push, Push, Push."...so I did and North Carolina requested the Nurse in Charge check me in the absence of the Doctor being anywhere!  She checked me and threw down the sheet, "Don't push anymore!  Call the Doctor, get her into Delivery!"  

I had gone from just barely in labor to ready to deliver in three hours!  I had missed the window of opportunity for an epideral and delivered Bridget as natural as you can get. A doctor I had never seen before delivered me.  He had red bushy hair that resembled Bozo the clown under the surgery cap.  At 2:02 am (central daylight savings) I finally found out that they baby I had been carrying for nine months was a 21 inch girl!  I was so certain she was going to be a boy, that I astonished!  

She was so alert from the very beginning.  The highest APGAR the pediatrician ever registered (so he said).  Mom and Dad came in the next morning, Mom was crying! From that day forward to today, she still thinks Bridget was born on the 2nd!

"What are you going to name her?" Mom asked me, "Nicole."...."Oh no no no no no no no...."she murmured with Bridget in her arms, 'This is Bridget, after my grandmother, there has not been a Bridget since."  

And so, that is the story on how Bridget came to be and of how she came to be called Bridget.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a wonderful birth story.  I would have felt so scared, being alone except for strangers and having it all happen so fast.  My best birthday wishes for Bridget.  Now go enjoy that amusement park. Six Flags is always fun.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful story, (you can always count on a Tarheel, in a pinch!) and what a cute pic.
Have a wonderful time at 6Flags...ride a coaster for me, I had to swear em' off.  ;)

Andi


http://journals.aol.com/greyhoundloner03/attemptingauthenticity

Anonymous said...

Great birth story!  Happy birthday to Bridget!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE birth stories! This is a great one! Happy Birthday, Bridget!  Have an awesome day at six flags...JAE

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to both of you!  I love my children's birthdays and the memories they bring.  And thanks for visiting my journal -- I can see that I'm going to enjoy yours!

Anonymous said...

Ah thanks for sharing the story. I have a similar one about my son. He's a native Californian. LOL!

She's just beautiful and you must be so proud of her,
Angela

Anonymous said...

That is one beautiful yong woman. Trust me, I know about these things.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Bridget!

You have such a knack for telling stories, it must be the Irish in you!  This was wonderfully told...

I had my daughter without the benefit of medicine, too, since I was late getting to the hospital as well - I was driven all the way from Louisville to Fort Knox, having labor pains - in retrospect, if I had really thought I was in labor, I would have gone to a nearby hospital.  But you know how it is, no way could I have been in labor since I wasn't due for two more weeks!

Anonymous said...

This is a beautiful story, well told.  Happy Birthday too both of you!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful story, Mary.  Happy birthday to your "bundle of joy!"  She is a pretty little thing!  Lisa  :-]

Anonymous said...

Great story...and lovely daughter.

Anonymous said...

very sweet, thank you for sharing!

Anonymous said...

aww, Mary.  Your stories always give me the warm fuzzies.  
Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Oh, that was lovely and Bridget is a beauty ~ happy birthday (to both of you!)   :)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful story! Happy Belated Birthday to Bridget and you. I never realized until now how much she looks like you -- beautiful. :-) ---Robbie

Anonymous said...

 Belated Happy Birthday wishes to Bridget!   I apologize for not responding sooner to your thoughtful comment on my Journal, and it's been a rough week.
Sounds like your week is going well, but your life is one big wonderful  adventure and I mean that in a sincere way!

Best wishes,
Debi