Twenty-four years ago, my mom-in-law took me to the hospital at 4:00 P.M. for a stress test to check how Cam was progressing during my pregnancy. I had a difficult pregnancy; morning sickness all day, gallstones, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia, but through it all John and I were ecstatic most of the time. I remember him laughing so hard once when he had to pull the car over to let me throw up on the side of the road. I wanted to throttle him for laughing at me and my discomfort. It’s a funny memory now.
John and I tried four years to have a baby. The first two years, we just thought we had bad timing, but eventually, we decided to go in for testing to see why we were having so much trouble conceiving. We had gotten pregnant before, but had it had ended in a miscarriage. Testing completed, we started rounds of fertility drugs. Three months on and three months off of drugs. All I can say as we increased the dosage, I was a bear sometimes and I blame it all on hormones. I faithfully took my morning temperature as an indicator of the ‘perfect’ time.
I had gone through many false ‘hopes’ and the lows of not being a mom that whenever, I’d say to John, “I’m a little late.” or “My temperature hasn’t dropped yet, I think I’ll go for a blood test to double check.” that we’d try to keep it normal. It was August and my temperature hadn’t dropped yet, which indicated that pregnancy was a possibility.
I went in before work and had a blood test at the lab. It was our three months off of the fertility drugs. We had just spent a week tent camping in Arkansas. It had rained every night, but it was lovely spending time doing nothing.
That afternoon, I called to check on my results and for the first time I got the answer that I hadn’t really expected. I think I jumped and skipped all the way down the hall half crying and half laughing. I was pregnant! We were having a baby!
It was 1989 and baby diapers could be bought in colors of pink, blue, or white. Since I worked at Applewood Daycare. I borrowed one pink and one blue and took them to the mall. John worked at KG Men’s Store, so I parked in the back and pushed the bell where deliveries were made. I can’t remember who let me in, but I strolled into the office area where he was and asked as I held up the diapers, “Would you rather like to use pink or blue?”
Tears, hugs, laughter, and a little disbelief. We went through all the emotions. Dr. Gor’s office worked us in for an appointment early in the week. Dr. Gor made such a huge difference in our life. I was barely six weeks pregnant and it was so hard to believe that I had a life growing inside me. He took us in for a sonogram right then and showed us our baby’s heartbeat. He knew we needed to see that proof of life.
It was simply a tiny light beating rapidly in my womb, but it was our baby. He was too small to see anything else….only the pulse of his heart. I held John’s hand and we saw our future. God’s miracle and God’s perfect timing. I’m smiling now as I write this. At that time, we couldn’t stop smiling either.
We were going to be parents!
April at the hospital, I watched the paper on the stress test peak and then fall. About 8:00, Dr. Gor came in and looked at the strips of paper from the machine connected to bands on my stomach, where the peaks and valleys were telling their own story. He said, “Looks like we’re having a baby tonight.” I was one month and one day from my due date. I started crying. Ann had to call John for me and say, “Son, looks like your going to be a daddy tonight.” Sweet mom that she was, as soon as he got to the hospital, she took him to eat some dinner while the nurses prepped me for delivery. Labor had started.
In the wee hours of the morning of Good Friday, April 13th, John and I welcomed Cam into the world. He weighed 6 pounds and 12 ounces. Eighteen and three-fourth inches long.
Mom and Dad were our new names and we were instantly in love. After almost eight years of marriage, we weren’t a couple anymore, we had become a family.
Life Continues 