Birth #3

On Wednesday, I attended our Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, Board meeting and Jens, a newly elected member of the SLN,C was complaining about the slowness of getting his and Emily's living arrangements ready for occupancy. I asked how Emily , his pregnant wife and the Chairperson of the SLNC Beautification committe, was doing and Jens said she was having a hard time because of how slowly things were happening. I said I think Emily is trying to nest and she can't. I said I had a story about the birth of my daughter Midge, I thought they would enjoy and I'd like to share it with them. The dancers are Midge and her Dad. Here's the story:


HALLOWEEN BABY

“Don’t walk in here!” I shouted. “Get out, all of you. I’m washing the floor and when I finish we can go. Go sit in the car and take the dog with you. I won’t be long
Jack said, “Stop it. You’re hysterical. I’ll finish it. You go sit in the car and wait.” I was 8 ½ months pregnant and we had plans to go to my folk’s house in Inglewood and bring the children and the dog. We were invited to a Halloween party that night and my mother was going to baby-sit. Jana was almost six, Cory was two and three months and we were having another baby. The car was packed but I was in “nesting mode” and I needed our house to be beautiful when we came back home. Jack backed out of the house so as not to make footprints on the wet floor. The house was ready.
“We have too much driving to do today. We have to go through the hills to your folk’s and then back up to Hollywood to the party and then back to the folk’s. Yuck. If I didn’t like driving I’d say let’s not go to the party.” Jack said.
“Come on Jack. It’ll be a long time before we can take the kids to Mom’s. Besides we have those great costumes to wear.”
We had bride and groom costumes, with the bride very pregnant, that we thought were very funny. I had spent hours putting them together and they would only be funny while I was pregnant. We needed to go to this party. The party was given by my old City College art classmates and their entertaining was fun and a little wild.
We deposited the kids at my folks, put our costumes on and got back in the car. This was going to be another long drive. This was 1953 and there were no freeways to take. We went through the Sepulveda Hills to get to my folks and then back up Sepulveda Blvd. to get to Hollywood. We were driving in the Chevy that my dad bought us when we got married. “Jack, it’s too bad we are not having the baby tonight. The hospital is just up the street from Ruth’s house. Oh well better luck next time”
“Very funny! There isn’t going to be a next time.” Jack answered.
It was dark by the time we got to the party. “Ruth you look gorgeous!” Jack said. Ruth Pitt was an older woman, probably thirty or so, who was prematurely grey haired and beautiful. She was a weaver and always wore rich textured and brightly colored, dramatic clothing. This evening she wore a regal costume of sparkling purple cloth.
I was so glad we went to the party. There was Donald dressed as a huge orange pumpkin. He looked really ridiculous and made me laugh out loud. His head was tiny perched on top of the pumpkin which covered his whole body, from his ankles to his shoulders. I didn’t know how he came in through the door. Everyone was friendly, thought our costumes were very funny and admired my big stomach. “When are you due” Ruth asked?
“I’m due in two weeks” I replied “I wish it was right now, though. The hospital is right down the street and I’m ready” We partied until midnight and then said goodnight, got back in the car and started the trek back to Inglewood.
“Keep your eyes open” I said, staring at Jack’s face as he drove. “Don’t fall asleep.” Jack had had a regular day of teaching, got home and washed the floor, got in the car drove to Inglewood, back to Hollywood, and now back to Inglewood. He was exhausted. Every once in a while I’d pinch him. Not too hard.
We made it back to my parents. Crept into the house, not to wake anyone and got into bed. I closed my eyes and suddenly felt a contraction. “No!” I thought. “I’m too tired.” A few minutes later another contraction. And so it started. Labor pains. It was really beginning. I waited a while, hoping it would stop but finally I woke Jack.
Jack mumbled, “Are you sure?”
“Yes I am. We better let the folks know and get going. We don’t want to have the baby here, do we”? The other two children were born two weeks early so it sure was possible for me to have the baby now.
My mother hugged me. “Oy, Mamale. Yoncle, just be careful how you drive, Don’t worry about anything. I’ll take care of the kinder and the hunt. Just be careful”. Daddy hugged me and kissed me and didn’t say anything.
Back in the car we went. This time I didn’t have to keep an eye on Jack. He was fully awake! I was timing contractions while he drove. I counted and thought, “This is ridiculous. Why couldn’t I start at the party? Wouldn’t that have been fun. Everyone would have thought it was a Halloween joke. I hope we make it on time. I sure don’t want to have the baby in the car. Poor Jack, He’s exhausted. Oh well at least the house is clean. ”
When we got to the hospital, I was taken into the labor room. I was shaved, checked for dilation and told I was ready to go into the delivery room. “It looks like you made it just in time.” the nurse said. The nurse told Jack to wait outside. “Be patient. It won’t be long” the nurse told him.
“We were lucky! We made it just in time or we’d be telling people how you delivered your baby in the car”! I groaned as I was rolling along and Jack followed right up to the delivery room door. He bent down and kissed me and went back to wait with the other fathers to be.
The baby was born. She slithered out and was held up by her feet for me to see. She was tiny. She had a blue mark on the bottom of her back. “That’s called a Mongolian Spot” the doctor said “but it goes away in a while. Look at that head of hair! What a cutie”.
“She weighs 5lbs, 4oz. Let’s clean her up and show her to her dad.” She was cleaned, while I strained to watch and then she was put into an incubator. “Don’t worry. She’s fine. We put all the babies in the incubator just to help them along for a bit.” The nurse told me. It still worried me.
After a while, I was cleaned up and moved onto a rolling bed and the baby was laid next to me. We came out of the Delivery Room and there was Jack waiting for us. “Look at that baby! She’s sucking her thumb and winking at me”! Sure enough, there she was, thumb in her mouth, full head of hair and one eye open and one eye closed. That’s the way the Halloween Baby was always remembered by her daddy and how he always described her when talking about her birth. “She winked at me from the time she was born.” he told everyone.