From the start the doctors thought I had a bad case of the flu that everyone had. After four days in the hospital, they sent me home.
A few days later, I was sick again. My pregnancy test came back negative, so they took x-rays and discovered I was okay. Then they said I needed to talk to a psychiatrist. Our pastor said I didn’t need one.
After a change in doctors, they took a quick pregnancy test and found that I was pregnant after all. My husband and I were happy because we wanted to have a baby. Morning sickness lasted through my entire pregnancy.
I continued to work for six months—spending a lot of time in the bathroom. My husband’s work was transferred, so I no longer worked. The girls I worked with were so nice. They gave me a baby shower, but I think they were glad when I quit. I think I made them sick with my all day morning sickness.
For about two weeks at a time, I felt all right. I seemed to
gain weight easily when I could keep food down. During my sick
times, even my vitamins and morning sickness pill came up. One
week I went to the baby doctor, and he said I was starting to
gain too much. The next time I saw him, I had lost all my
weight. He said to call him if I got that sick again. A
couple of times I went to the hospital for intravenous feedings.
My due date was about six weeks away. I had just seen the doctor
a couple of days before and forgot to ask what labor pains would
be like. Oh, well, I would ask next time.
A couple of days later my husband had off, and we went for a tree drive to the mountains. I found that as long as I sipped on something cold to drink, I felt better. When we came home I cleaned house. That night my water broke around 11:00. I wasn’t really sure my water broke; I thought I might have just wet the bed! It felt as though my menstrual cycle was going to start. My back hurt. I got out a book that my husband had bought me on being pregnant to find out if I was having labor pains. Finally, about 7:00 in the morning after I’d been up all night, I said to my husband, "It feels like something is about to drop out." So, we went to a pay phone and the doctor said to bring me in.
I arrived at the hospital around 7:30 feeling sick to my stomach. My husband had to be at work at 8:00 and didn’t even think I was going to have the baby because it wasn’t due yet. He gave me a quarter to call him and left.
I was having my baby. The nurses were helping me. Finally the
doctor came in and said, "Why didn’t she call me earlier?" Then
I heard a healthy cry, and I just knew my baby would be okay.
They called my husband for me, and he had just arrived at work.
They told him he had a baby girl. He sounded so excited. She
was 4 pounds and 15 1/2 ounces; 15 1/2 inches long. Her name was Jeri Lee.
I finally got to bring Jeri home at 5 pounds. They wanted her to be 5 1/2 pounds. She couldn’t keep formula down, so her weight dropped to 3 1/2 pounds at one time. She was such a pretty baby. We would go every day and only be able to look at her through the window. What an exciting day when we were able to bring her home!!
Copyright 1997 Used by permission of my mom!!
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