Me and Jenny RebeccaI was looking forward to having my very own baby and my time was growing near. Back in the 70's we didn't have sonograms done very often, if at all. We were not sure of the sex of the baby until it had arrived. Of course, we did silly little tests like hanging a pen from a string over your belly. If it swayed one way it was a girl and the other it was a boy. I had done all of those things but it was exciting to not know until delivery.
Frank and I couldn't decide on a boy's name. I loved the name Michael but the baby would be Mike Fyke and he hated that name. I also liked the name Rusty or Andrew but Frank didn't like either one of those. We absolutely did not have a name picked for a boy. If it was a girl I always knew I would name her, Jenny Rebbeca. There was a Gerber baby food commercial that aired at that time and the baby's name was Jenny Rebecca. They also had the boy's name as Christopher Michael. I fell in love with the girl's name.
My due date was, Feb. 3rd, and that was the day she was born. I was laying in bed early that morning and I thought I had wet the bed. I sat upright, horrified. I called my sister Janet, who was a nurse and told her what had happened. She said, "My little sister is going to have a baby today"! All of a sudden it was real! I was going to have a baby. I had started attending birthing classes 3 weeks earlier. The class that night was going to be the one where we actually saw the labor and delivery rooms. I really was looking forward to that one. The funny thing is that when the class came to visit the delivery room, I was the mother waiting in the hall to delivery my baby! I had never even talked to another woman about what happens in delivery. I had only seen movies of women screaming in agony. I was scared.
I called my doctor's office and told them that my water had broken. I wasn't having any labor pains yet. They told me to come into the hospital. I decided I had better get something to eat because it might be along time before I would get to eat again. All we had to eat was a can of pork and beans, so I ate it, boy did I regret that. I also took a shower and shaved my legs. Not long after that, Kathryn, called and a told me I needed to go to the hospital right away. She told me the cord could get wrapped around the baby's neck and die! Yikes, what a thing to tell a scared young girl.
I checked into the hospital around noon. I was assigned to a labor room, that had a telephone, most of them don't. I got into bed and Frank got on the phone. He called everyone he knew and told them I was in labor. The pains started to get pretty intense and I started to scream and cry. Frank of course was on the phone the entire time. He was not next to me holding my hand or rubbing my back. Of course, I didn't want to bother him because a 'good wife' took care of themselves. We didn't have much for pain back then at all. I didn't know about Lamaze breathing or anything else. I spent the entire time holding on to the rails of the bed screaming. I know the people on the phone could hear me in the background. I hated that damned phone.
The doctors came in and checked me to see how dilated I was in the evening. He said it would be after midnight before I delivered. Frank asked me if it was okay if he went bowling since it was his league night. "Are you kidding me"?? is what my brain was shouting but my mouth said, "No, go ahead and go bowling". They checked me one more time before he was going to leave. They told me not to push but I did anyway. I didn't want him to go bowling but I didn't have the courage to tell him...so I pushed. When I pushed she came down the birth canal too fast and fractured my tailbone. They rushed me to the delivery room right away. They gave me gas to knock me out. I delivered my baby at 7:48 pm right when Frank's bowling was supposed to start! I had also torn my insides pretty badly and had to have lots and lots of stitches. It was very painful
Jennifer Rebecca, weighed 7lbs 8ozs and was the most beautiful baby I could ever imagine. She had lots of hair and was perfect in every way. I was so in love with her I just couldn't believe it. I didn't know that with each child God gives you a gift of love just for that one little being. Frank was crazy about her too. Back then they didn't let the fathers in the delivery room so he had to sit in a waiting room. He got to see her first because I was in so much pain. He wasn't allowed to hold her in the hospital back then. We were so very, very happy. She completed our little family. We were going to be good parents and we were going to have a happy life.
I was in the hospital with her for 7 days. I had done so much damage to my body that I couldn't walk or sit. My tailbone had to heal itself and it hurt for many years afterward. I couldn't walk to the nursery window to see her because I couldn't stand up very long. Frank spent all of his time in front of that nursery room window. I was able to hold her during feeding time. It wasn't 'cool' back than to breast feed so she was given formula (Similac) right away. I was given a pill to dry up my breast milk while I was still in the hospital.
We weren't allowed to unwrap our babies back then either. I would try to peek under the blankets when the nurses weren't looking. She had fur on her little ears and down the back of her neck. She looked like a little Indian papoose with her hair and her dark complexion. She looked just like Frank and nothing like me. I pulled her blanket back from her neck and and I noticed she had a black mole on her upper back. I called it a beauty mark but unfortunately it wasn't one. It had to be removed when she got older.
On my last day at the hospital I finally was able to go down to the nursery in a wheelchair. I had to balance myself on my arms because my bottom was so swollen. I know Jennifer was the prettiest baby in the nursery because I heard other people talking about her. They would say, look at that pretty baby over there and point right at her. I was so proud.
Frank picked us up at the front door of St Mary's Hospital to take us home. It was really cold and icy. I held Jennifer tight in my arms in the front seat...no baby carriers or car seats back then. We drove about half of a block from the hospital when Frank pulled over. I asked him what was wrong and he reached over to take Jennifer. That was the first time he ever held her. He looked into her little eyes and told her he loved her.
Frank was really smitten with Jennifer. He wanted to hold her all the time. He liked to feed her when it was time for her bottle. He never changed one single diaper the whole time we were married. He too finally had someone to love him, no matter what happened in life. She belonged to us. We were happy.
