SPECIAL DAY

Forty-eight years ago today our oldest child was born. YIKES!! How did she get so OLD? How did I? How did the genius? It all just flew by, but I remember the day very well still.

We were living in Lawton, OK, while the genius served his two years in the Army at Fort Sill. It was a chilly morning on the 17th when he drove me to the hospital after I had been in hard (?) labor all night. I was sure I would deliver soon. But it was not to be! I had dilated only ONE centimeter, and I had to reach TEN before things really happened. I began to get an inkling about what I was in for.

But finally, after REALLY being in hard labor throughout the next night, Ashley made her appearance about 8:oo in the morning. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. She had a little fuzz of red hair and I immediately could see my sister MA in her face. I could also see why she took so long to arrive because she weighed in at 8 pounds and 13 and a half ounces!! She looked 3 months old!!

I told the hospital I wanted "rooming in" which meant I got a private room with her in the same room with me. Biiig mistake. I spent most of my time trying to feed her and she just wouldn't fill up. I went home from the hospital much more exhausted than I would have been if I had left her in the nursery. After three days, we paid our bill of $7.35 (cost of my food), and I went home with the genius.

Of course, we had no clue about what to do as parents. Again, I spent most of my time feeding her, not knowing if she were getting enough to eat since I was breast feeding her. (At her six weeks check-up, she had gained four pounds, so she was getting enough!) This routine went on for a week until the day after Christmas when my mother arrived. I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life!! The genius could go back to work and Mother, one of the most efficient people I've ever known, took over.

She stayed until Ashley was three weeks old and we both flew back to Nashville where the genius joined us a couple of weeks later. I had a good rest except for getting up every two hours at night feeding her. I'm happy to report that at six weeks she settled into a routine and from then on I had a good night's sleep. As you know, that's always important to me.

And you know the rest of the story: She grew up, married a wonderful man, with whom she had four children, and now has her first grandchild on the way.

To quote a line from the poem "Forgotten Language" by Shel Silverstein, "How did it go? How did it go?"