HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENNA!!!!!!

Today is my first baby's birthday! Her Dad and I were 20 years old when I decided that we wanted to have a baby! It never occurred to either of us that maybe we were a little too young because after all Rob was born when his mom was 18 and at 20 we had been married 2 years!! Ignorance is bliss[Ha]! The first pregnancy test was negative and I was disappointed! I had a friend that worked in a free clinic so she offered to take a sample for me and get a free pregnancy test-no running to the store to get a pregnancy test in the 70's! She called me while she was there and told me that it was positive and since Roe vs. Wade was pretty new she had to ask the question[ a DR. was standing beside her] " Was I going to continue the pregnancy?" I was shocked and so I think I stuttered "yes"! They were doing abortions in the free clinic and I had never even considered that I might be asked that question. I told Rob the pregnancy test was positive after I got off the phone, but he was watching some western on tv and I think He said OK without taking his eyes off the tv!!! It was a week or 2 before I could get into the Dr. and I don't remember talking about it until after I had been to the DR. and had it confirmed that I really was pregnant that he finally said "Are you sure? Ok lets not get too excited you've got along time to go!!" It wasn't until I finally started showing at about 5 months was it ok to talk about the possibility of having a baby!! It was strange to me that I when I went home to Kansas that my Mom and Rob's mom thought it was awful of me to mention that I felt the baby kicking or to even mention that I had a fetus on board! When My Mother was pregnant with me she stayed in the house and did not ever talk about being pregnant because that subject was taboo in those ancient times! I had the very first pregnancy sonogram in the city of Denver. Another friend was a radiologist and the hospital had just gotten the first sonogram machine in the state and she wanted to practice on a pregnant person . It was very exciting to see a picture of the baby. They were not advanced enough to be able to tell the sex of the baby. The day I was in labor was no different than any days that I had had for the 3 weeks before, except that I was so miserably more tired. I did laundry that day climbing 2 floors with every load and I was so dumb, that I Just did it,never considering that my husband who was sitting on the sofa watching football could've gotten up and helped me!! The woman's movement hadn't caught up with me yet!!! It didn't occur to him either! I had been having contractions for 3 weeks some of them getting to five minutes apart after a few hours but then stopping. I called my Dr. about 6 pm and left a message about how miserable I was and how the contractions would come and go. We were having an ice storm that had started maybe an hour before I called. The after hours operator called the Dr. on call [not from my Dr.s practice] and told him that I had been in labor all day and that my contractions were 2 min. apart-not what I had said at all! The Dr. on call's wife called me and said that her husband had already left for the hospital and that I should go immediately. I asked her why? And she told me what the operator had told him. I told her that I called but not because I had regular labor but because I was so tired and hadn't been able to sleep and I felt miserable! Her reply was "Oh." and she said well, go to the hospital anyway because her husband had gone and he could check me anyway. No cell phones! So I told Rob and he was furious with me because he just knew that I wasn't in labor and that they would just send us back home and besides there was an ice storm going on and he didn't want to drive the 2 1/2 blocks to the hospital. Well, it turned out that I was in labor and was already dilated. [So there, Mr. Grouch!!] 17 hours later and no fetal monitor and no drugs of any kind until I went to the OR, Brenna was born by emergency c-section. I was muttering every curse word I had ever heard [women didn't use those words or at least my family and my Mormon friends didn't!] and one of the nurses heard me and said oh, Honey you don't mean that. HA, I Did Too!!! I Brenna h for a second before they took her to the nursery or maybe NICU, I can't remember and I did'nt see her again until evening! OH and Rob just reminded me that when I first got to the hospital. the nurse told me that they were sending someone from the lab to draw blood. I said I hope it's not the guy I had here at the hospital when I was first pregnant, he was awful-it had been his first week and he had been very nervous and had to stick me 12 times before he could draw blood. He also was crazy looking ,dressed like a hippy with really long hair with feathers in it and some kind of funky leather vest with low cut hippy pants and he also had severe physical deformities. He and I both were sweaty and exhausted by the time he finished! Well, guess who showed up on Sunday evening to draw blood? Hippy Dude! and there was no one else to do it when I told the nurse that I wanted someone else. I only had to endure about 7 sticks before he got it. My Mormon friend Susan had a c-section a few days before and so she was still there. Rob had n0 money with him because he just knew we were going to be sent back home and had left it in our apt. He was afraid to go home because they telling us that the baby would be here anytime. Kent, my friends husband bought him a piece of pie before he left for the night. So. Brenna you were born on Monday morning! We stayed in the hospital only 5 days[the norm for a c-section was at least a week] because our insurance hadn't started when I got pregnant. My mom came for 5 days to drive me a little crazy, because every time I tried to lay down she would say,Are you going to sleep your life away? I had only heard that about a million times as a teenager because farm people don't ever sleep in and never, ever, lay on the bed during daylight hours! Only, maybe, when you were so sick that you might die standing up! But she did cook and clean!! We thought you were the cutest little thing we had ever seen!!!About 2 days before my mom left you woke up with a blister on the inside of your arm. I called the Dr. every day for about 3 days with the nurse acting like I was crazy and neurotic,about the first blister and then you got the second blister and the 4th day the Dr. answered the phone and told me to bring you in immediately. He treated you for 5 weeks and never told us what it was. We had to take you to the pediatricians off ice every day including Thanksgiving Day for 5 whole weeks with him dodging whenever we tried to find out what was wrong. After you were completely well [and looking like an Ethopian starved infant] he finally admitted that you had staph infection from the hospital. WOW,we knew something was wrong! But you know in spite of you being so sick and your parents being young and ignorant,we took good care of you and were thrilled to have you!! The one thing that saved you was that I did every single thing the pediatrician told me and did not question him.!!!! We thought you were the most beautiful and brilliant child ever born!! Other children were ugly and not smart at all compared to the Beautiful and smart Brenna!! You were a fun child that spent all the time with her mother and endured many moves with a salesman father. I thoroughly enjoyed you as a teenager[I know we were strict] and I have really liked you as an a adult and I love you now! Happy Birthday! I"ve always loved you!! I have always been proud of you!