From the Words of my Mother

September 1981... My Birth Story

From the words of my mother........

We were living in the duplex on Meriau Ln. at the time I was expecting miss Charisse. It had been a pretty good pregnancy except for a bad flu and some sinus headaches, and the motorcyclist that died on the lawn on the other side of the duplex when I was about 6 months along. But at the very end my body started to give out again. I started getting some of the same old bad symptoms and felt pretty ill. I was saying beseeching prayers asking for help to go through this, and the midwife was worried that I was carrying a verrry small baby. I was such a neat little package and less than the normal belly measurements at full term. She thought the baby was under 5 lbs and may have to be hospitalized upon birth, (they won't release you unless the baby is at least 5 lbs). I went into labor somewhere in the middle of the night. The contractions woke me out of a deep sleep. I laid there calmly timing them. At my last check up I had already been at 2 centimeters dilated and was sooo thrilled. I woke Robert up and told him I was in labor and the contractions were steady. We called the midwife and Lynn(This is my aunt to me, Charisse). An assistant midwife came to our home to check and make sure I was truly in labor. She said absolutely and that I was at a stretchy 3 centimeters. I marveled and was thrilled!!! We headed down to Cottage Grove where my clinic was. About a half hour drive south of Eugene. I was so hoping I would not have major contractions while cooped up in the car. I had exactly one! I was rather worried that maybe my labor had stopped, but we got there and my real midwife checked me immediately and said I was at 6 centimeters already! OH WOW!!!!!!!! UNREAL!!!!!!!!!! So I paced around in the living room of the clinic and joked and laughed with everyone. After an hour or so the midwife checked again and I was at about 8 centimeters and doing great! I can't tell you how ecstatic I was! But she detected that the baby was at a slight angle. about a 45 instead of backbone straight up. So, she had me get on all fours, kneeling and go through several contractions that way so the gravity and pressure would straighten the baby out. OK, then it DID get uncomfortable! Up to that point the pain was like nothing I had had with Lorrell(Charisse's sister). Not even close in the intensity. It was like day and night sooo much less painful!. Soon she let me up to walk again. For about an hour or so at the end the pain was pretty intense again but I worked through it. There was a gentle rain outside during my whole labor which was very soothing. I liked it. At 8 something a.m I brought miss Heather Charisse, all 6 lbs. 10 ozs of her(which shocked the midwife! HA!), into the world as the sun broke through the clouds and streamed through the windows in brilliant rays. Miss Charisse was wide eyed and bushy tailed. Looking all around happily. I let Lynn hold her on our trip back to Eugene as my gift to her which she yet thanks me for. Charisse still did not sleep as most newborns do, but looked all around in rapt attention the whole trip. When we arrived downtown Eugene we stopped at a crosswalk by the Hult Center and a woman walking two big dogs crossed the street in front of us, totally topless, and calm as you please! ha! I heard later she was picked up by the police. Anyhow, we made it home and I marvel yet at what a *miracle* her birth was. (In my mothers words written for a good friend of hers and mine Mr. King. I just added a few things in brackets for you, the readers.

My words....

And yes, I just turned a big whopping 27 today. Please no Happy Birthday comments, as I don't celebrate birthdays. I just thought to share you this story of my birth.