Your Father's Big Day - March 4, 1959
It was time to go to the hospital. The big moment was arriving when our first child was to be born. Were we ready for it??? The labor pains were coming pretty often now. The doc had told me to come to the hospital when the pains were every 4 or 5 minutes or so.
Ah-oooowww! Hurry up! Let's go! Let's go! Call the doc! Call Oma and Opa!
Off we drove to Richmond Memorial Hospital from Regina Road in Sandston. Of course, by the time we had gotten to the hospital, the labor pains had slowed down again... We registered and all that stuff and waited.
Your Dad said, "...it's no sense for me to stay here at the hospital. Looks like it will be awhile. I'll go home, shave and then come back to wait."
In those days, the father-to-be was not allowed anywhere near his wife once he had checked her in at the hospital. He never saw the activity that took place where his wife was unceremoniously asked to remove her clothes, given a shapeless garment to cover up with, told to climb up on the delivery table, given an epidural needle into her spinal column to dull the pain, put her legs in a tortuous position in some stirrups and made to slide down to the end of the table so that the doc could "catch the baby"!!!!!!!!! And of course, we never knew what sex this baby was going to be. By that time, we no longer cared! I just wanted the pain to stop and to get it over with! Fortunately, the epidural worked for the most part, but of course it also slowed down the labor pains...
Anyway, all of a sudden, it was over! Our baby was an 8 lb. 1 1/2 oz. boy!!! WOW, will that Dad be proud! The nurse wheeled me to the corridor and there was a wall phone for me to call your Dad. I asked the nurse to dial the number...
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In the meantime, your Dad had gone home and was in the midst of shaving. He had his face bubbling over with his favorite shave cream. The telephone rang!!
Your Dad rushed to the phone. He never thought to wipe his face! He told me later that the phone was covered with shave cream!!! But who cares!
He was a FATHER!!! He was the father of a BOY!!! He was the father of Thomas James Allen!!!
Ah-oooowww! Hurry up! Let's go! Let's go! Call the doc! Call Oma and Opa!
Off we drove to Richmond Memorial Hospital from Regina Road in Sandston. Of course, by the time we had gotten to the hospital, the labor pains had slowed down again... We registered and all that stuff and waited.
Your Dad said, "...it's no sense for me to stay here at the hospital. Looks like it will be awhile. I'll go home, shave and then come back to wait."
In those days, the father-to-be was not allowed anywhere near his wife once he had checked her in at the hospital. He never saw the activity that took place where his wife was unceremoniously asked to remove her clothes, given a shapeless garment to cover up with, told to climb up on the delivery table, given an epidural needle into her spinal column to dull the pain, put her legs in a tortuous position in some stirrups and made to slide down to the end of the table so that the doc could "catch the baby"!!!!!!!!! And of course, we never knew what sex this baby was going to be. By that time, we no longer cared! I just wanted the pain to stop and to get it over with! Fortunately, the epidural worked for the most part, but of course it also slowed down the labor pains...
Anyway, all of a sudden, it was over! Our baby was an 8 lb. 1 1/2 oz. boy!!! WOW, will that Dad be proud! The nurse wheeled me to the corridor and there was a wall phone for me to call your Dad. I asked the nurse to dial the number...
---------
In the meantime, your Dad had gone home and was in the midst of shaving. He had his face bubbling over with his favorite shave cream. The telephone rang!!
Your Dad rushed to the phone. He never thought to wipe his face! He told me later that the phone was covered with shave cream!!! But who cares!
He was a FATHER!!! He was the father of a BOY!!! He was the father of Thomas James Allen!!!
posted by mary ann at 10:08 AM
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