Happy 39th Birthday, Benji Boy!
They still have snow where he lives, which is a fitting reminder of the day I birthed him. It was a balmy 70* when I checked into Nashville's Baptist Hospital. I had been for my check-up and Dr. Jones ordered me straight to the hospital. I was dialating, but my water had not broken. The contractions I felt were no worse than a bad case of cramps. On my way to the hospital, I took time to get Ricky's tricycle out of the repair shop, then go by Barge,Waggoner, and Sumner Engineering to pick up Richard. That I was driving around while in labor sounds a little strange, but I swear it happened this way.
"When is your baby due?" the young woman at the bike shop asked.
"This afternoon," I replied, "I'm on my way to the hospital."
Needless to say, I did not have to wait my turn for service. Everybody in the shop was suddenly in fast motion.
By the time we got to the hospital, the contractions were close. They barely had enough time to prep me, get the needle in my spine, and break the water bag, before his head, full of black hair, began to emerge. He was so beautiful, all 8 lbs and 4 oz. of him. And he was jaundiced the first day, some problem with the rh factor they explained, but I was much too foggy to comprehend. I knew he was in good hands, so I went to sleep. His first few days were spent in the special light therapy incubator.
He was born around 2:00 on a Tuesday afternoon. I slept until the next morning, and woke up when I heard my parents, who were looking out the window in my hospital room, talking about the snow. "It's a good thing we drove up here yesterday," my dad said, "we may be here longer than we planned. There's already 5 inches of snow on the ground and it's still snowing. Clayton and Marguerite will have to wait to make their trip, too."
The plan was for Mom and Dad to get 3 yr. old Ricky and take him back to Mississippi with them, while Daddy Cate and Mama Rita, as Ricky had dubbed them, were coming to help us after we left the hospital. Luckily, in those days, it was not unusual to be hospitalized for a week following childbirth. By the time, I was discharged, the snow had melted, my parents had returned to Plantersville with Ricky, and my in-laws were at our house to help.
I marvel at women today who give birth one day and go home the next. How do they do it? And without nearly as much family support. It must be very difficult. We were blessed to have both sets of grandparents pitching in and helping out.
Joseph Benjamin Borden was named for his grandfathers, Clayton Benjamin Borden and Joseph Silas Johnson. Would we call him Joe Ben or Benji? I decided on Benji, from the movie The Graduate, which I had seen shortly before he was born. "Benji Boy" was such a pretty baby with dark curls and big brown eyes, he was often mistaken for a girl. Maybe that's why we called him "Benji Boy" as long as we did. I wish I had a good baby picture to post, but they're all in his album, which is at his house. (Why is it that we make so many more pictures of the firstborn than the secondborn?)
They still have snow where he lives, which is a fitting reminder of the day I birthed him. It was a balmy 70* when I checked into Nashville's Baptist Hospital. I had been for my check-up and Dr. Jones ordered me straight to the hospital. I was dialating, but my water had not broken. The contractions I felt were no worse than a bad case of cramps. On my way to the hospital, I took time to get Ricky's tricycle out of the repair shop, then go by Barge,Waggoner, and Sumner Engineering to pick up Richard. That I was driving around while in labor sounds a little strange, but I swear it happened this way.
"When is your baby due?" the young woman at the bike shop asked.
"This afternoon," I replied, "I'm on my way to the hospital."
Needless to say, I did not have to wait my turn for service. Everybody in the shop was suddenly in fast motion.
By the time we got to the hospital, the contractions were close. They barely had enough time to prep me, get the needle in my spine, and break the water bag, before his head, full of black hair, began to emerge. He was so beautiful, all 8 lbs and 4 oz. of him. And he was jaundiced the first day, some problem with the rh factor they explained, but I was much too foggy to comprehend. I knew he was in good hands, so I went to sleep. His first few days were spent in the special light therapy incubator.
He was born around 2:00 on a Tuesday afternoon. I slept until the next morning, and woke up when I heard my parents, who were looking out the window in my hospital room, talking about the snow. "It's a good thing we drove up here yesterday," my dad said, "we may be here longer than we planned. There's already 5 inches of snow on the ground and it's still snowing. Clayton and Marguerite will have to wait to make their trip, too."
The plan was for Mom and Dad to get 3 yr. old Ricky and take him back to Mississippi with them, while Daddy Cate and Mama Rita, as Ricky had dubbed them, were coming to help us after we left the hospital. Luckily, in those days, it was not unusual to be hospitalized for a week following childbirth. By the time, I was discharged, the snow had melted, my parents had returned to Plantersville with Ricky, and my in-laws were at our house to help.
I marvel at women today who give birth one day and go home the next. How do they do it? And without nearly as much family support. It must be very difficult. We were blessed to have both sets of grandparents pitching in and helping out.
Joseph Benjamin Borden was named for his grandfathers, Clayton Benjamin Borden and Joseph Silas Johnson. Would we call him Joe Ben or Benji? I decided on Benji, from the movie The Graduate, which I had seen shortly before he was born. "Benji Boy" was such a pretty baby with dark curls and big brown eyes, he was often mistaken for a girl. Maybe that's why we called him "Benji Boy" as long as we did. I wish I had a good baby picture to post, but they're all in his album, which is at his house. (Why is it that we make so many more pictures of the firstborn than the secondborn?)
1 comment:
Aww, thanks Mom! That was such a sweet remembrance of my birth (and more details than I think you've ever given me before). I don't know how Karen did it, either (had Pip at 8:00 p.m. and left the hospital the next day), but she's quite the trooper. I'll ever forget the way Pip used to cry when he was a newborn--it was so sweet. Just a soft, gentle "Allah, allah, allah." Hopefully y'all got more sleep than we did that first night (we finally begged the nurses to take him away because he kept coughing up amniotic fluid). Thanks for choosing life! ;-) Love you, Benji Boy
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