Is it recording? OK. So this is Boris Solis interviewing Connie Battier
on May 23rd at 1:45 for the Creative Push project. All right, so we'll get
started. Can you take us back as far back as the conception? Yeah, yeah.
Um
It was January or so of 1977.
And I, um, we, my husband and I had taken my parents to uh Mexico for a,
um, uh, for a visit. And they had never been And um. It is said in the
family that the baby was conceived during that during that time when we
were in Mexico. It sort of meant something because we're Latinos and my
husband's Mexican-American. I'm from Puerto Rico.
Um, And um. Soon thereafter. Uh, my husband and I had started, we were
living in Dallas, uh, Dallas, Texas, where he was a professor at SMU.
And we had started jogging.
And I
I in jogging, you know, my breasts hurt. So I said, I bet I have to go buy
a sports bra. So I did, and but they still hurt. And then I got
constipated. So I called, uh, you know, there were no cell phones then.
And I called my mom and uh and we talked and I said, gosh, I'm constipated.
I don't know what what's going on.
So she didn't say anything and next thing I knew I got a letter from my
uncle in Puerto Rico telling me to drink prune juice. So I said, OK, but
in the meantime, my sister, um who was living in Philadelphia at the time
called and when I described my symptoms, she said, oh, you're pregnant. I
said, how do you know that? She said, well, you know, those are pregnant
symptoms of pregnancy, so I got on the phone and tried to make an
appointment and um and I got an appointment with the second doctor that I
called because the first one was very popular. Um, and of course I, I will
forever be sorry that that happened that way.
Um, I I I was nervous because it was not a a planned pregnancy, but I'd
always, I always knew that I was going to have a child. I, I, it wasn't, I
wasn't preventing a pregnancy at the time, but I had never been pregnant
before. Um, So my, so it was a bit of a surprise.
But then I got nervous because my husband is visually impaired and at that
time. His vision wasn't as bad as it is now, but I didn't know what, you
know, why he was visually impaired, so I thought, oh my God, my child
could be blind. I, you know, I got very nervous. So I, when I went to see
this doctor, I, I asked him if he performed abortions and um. And he said
no, but he, you know, that was my first visit with him and he gave me the
test and as soon as and I that was in the morning and I went to lunch with
my husband and we talked about it. Now my husband had been married before
and he had two daughters, so it didn't make much of a difference to him
whether I was pregnant or not. Um, and, uh, and I said, well, I'm gonna go
back and find out what the, what happened to the, what was it, the rabbit
or something. Uh, so I I did and the minute the doctor, the doctor told me
that I was pregnant, I just, you know, I left his office and I was just
elated and I, I fell in love at that very moment so driving back home, um
, you know, there was no doubt that this baby was gonna be born. And um
And I called my mother.
This is gonna be hard. And she said.
Now you'll know how much I love you.
And she was right.
So the pregnancy went fairly well, um, that was Trying to think now
whether it was. Late February March um I quickly went out and bought books
and then the book that was available was Doctor Spock. And I don't, I only
remember in Doctor Spock a little uh reading a little bit about the
pregnancy, but I didn't have like they have now, you know, books that tell
you so much more about what the woman is going through what's happening in
the womb, and so on and so forth. So there were just mostly books about
how to raise a child or a baby, how to, you know, how to deal with a baby
, so. I, uh, I, we went on this trip to my, we were living in Dallas,
Texas, and we, I went on this trip, uh, on this car trip, um, down to the
border where my husband's family lived, uh, we had planned this visit for
a long time and everybody was happy that I was pregnant and I just read
and read and read. Um, soon after that, I caught a cold.
And I, I was about 3 or 4 months pregnant. I caught a cold. It was
terrible. It lasted for 3 to 4 weeks and I had a different symptom every
week. It's like once there was uh well the one I'll never forget is when I
couldn't um I had laryngitis.
And of course the doctor had told me you can't, you can't take any
medications. And my husband was used to travel a lot. And I was just
lonely in Dallas. I had no friends, no family in Dallas, so I called my
mother, and when I got on the phone I couldn't speak and I'm going.
And she hung up on me, she thought it was. A prank or something and um I
did that twice and finally you know I just gave up but it was a very
difficult time. For me and then um and then another week it was coughing
all the time. Um, There were several different symptoms and I even had a,
I even had a, I had a friend who was into the, I don't know, the spiritual
, I guess, and she said that she had a friend who was a um I think a
chiropractor, she said he'll come to your house and he'll he'll he'll do
some work on you. I said, Oh great, anything, and he did. He came to the
house, he set up this, you know, portable bed. I laid on it, he said,
close your eyes and he, you know, did his magic. And I felt so much better.
I felt a lot better.
Um, There were
I was getting bigger and it seemed as if I was getting bigger than most
people or most women um at 4 or 5 months pregnant, but. Um, I didn't know
anything about pregnancy, I mean, other than what I'd read. I, you know,
some families, the women get pregnant and everybody knows what's going on
and what's happening, but I didn't grow up in that kind of family, so I
knew nothing. I was really, really.
Naive and Ignorant of any of that stuff.
So, um, it was a it was one of the hottest summers in Dallas. And I had a
real hard time just, you know, getting any. Pulling together any energy.
There were several things that happened.
Um During that summer, I, I had, I before the summer I was working. And uh
one day after I've been sick for those Weeks, 3 or 4 weeks. I was feeling
better because this guy had, you know, done whatever he did, and. I I got
up, I was hungry. I had a cantaloupe. And my coffee, I think. And I went
out To the car and I threw up all over the grass. I just threw up and I
just went around in circles in the grass. I never forget that, um, and, um.
And of course you know after you throw up you feel better, so that was
that. I did not eat cantaloupe for I can't tell you how many years after
that. It um, it was, it was more like 20 years before I ate cantaloupe
again. So,
I um Oh, I forgot to tell you something. There was one symptom that I had.
This is before I knew I was pregnant. I Uh, my husband complained that I
was that I was very moody and that I was not being friendly to people
because we, we used to go to a lot of conferences and things and he said,
oh boy, you're such a sourpuss and so on and I had no idea why that was. I
soon learned later that a lot of it was because of what was going on in my
body. But um you know, you sort of get blamed for a lot of that stuff that
happens um and you don't know what it's about but neither do they but it's
easier to blame you. So, um,
I
I mentioned earlier that that was a real hot, hot summer, and it, it was
Dallas, so it was humid. It was like, oh you went out and you you could
feel the humidity just, I mean, it just fell over you.
It was like a cloud of water, but not anything you could really drink. It
just kind of stuck to your skin. It was oh it was horrible. And My husband
wanted me to walk in the evenings with him in the neighborhood. I was in
no mood to do it and it was so fucking hot that I just couldn't stand it.
In the meantime, we were looking for a place to live because we were
renting at the time near the university. We had to live close to the
university because he was visually impaired and it was easier for him to
like walk to the university then because he couldn't drive. So we were
looking for a house, but the neighborhood we lived in was like one of the
richest neighborhoods in Dallas and we could never afford a house there so
we went um we, we went outside of that neighborhood and every afternoon
I'd have to drive in the car in the meantime I'm like this big and I'm and
it's hot and I'm uncomfortable and we're looking at homes and. It was, it
was not fun. It's not fun at all. And my husband was pissed at me because
I was not in a good mood.
I didn't have any symptoms like I couldn't feel anything. I did, you know
, uh there was a time when there was some movement and that was it. I was
feeling good and I would go to the heart to the doctor and I would, you
know, and the checkups were fine one day the doctor, um, at that time they
used something they call a fetoscope. Uh, because there was no ultrasound.
And so they put it over your belly and they could hear the baby's
heartbeat.
So I'm lying there and I said, well, as he's doing this, I said, Well, how
, how will I know if I'm if I'm going to have twins? How would I know if
that? He said, Well, you can't know because if both hearts are beating
simultaneously, you can't tell. I said, oh, OK, so all right, that was one
question. And then I um.
I was, I was lying down at home by this time I've left my job and I'm
lying in bed. And I see these two.
It's like footballs moving across my stomach. Just like that, 1 to 1 side
and one toward the other. And my thought, my immediate thought was, oh,
this is his head and this is his, you know, this is his, his, his, his
rear end and he's moving.
You know, I later found out that there were 2 of them in there. Um And I
told my husband, and we laughed about it and all that, but.
That made me think about twins and I didn't, I know on my mother's side
there were no twins, and I only knew of one set of twins on my father's
side.
I didn't know at that time that my mother-in-law had had twins.
And both of them had died.
She said That she. Gave birth
She was, she laid in bed and she, this was a home birth. She laid in bed
and she could hear them crying.
And once they stopped crying, she knew they were dead.
So I um I had this feeling about it, but I didn't know for sure. And one
day I'm into my 7th or 8th month. And my And I, I had um.
I asked the doctor. Um, I told the doctor that I had read that if you
start to have diarrhea. Then that may be, there may be a problem. But he
just pooh-poohed it and he just said, oh, you know, I don't know where you
get that information.
So You know, naive Connie, I did nothing about it.
And then finally, and then I did have I did have diarrhea.
And, but I thought that's me because I'm eating a lot of fruit because,
you know, I, I also had, you know, a heartburn.
So again I thought, well, the doctor said not a problem.
And Um, and one day we had, we had bought a house and one day we're at the
house and I was lying on the. On the uh carpet in the living room of the
house.
And I felt a twinge. And I said, I thought, oh, and so I just, you know,
moved. And then I just called my husband, uh, who was in the back of the
house and I said, you know, something's not right you better go. And he
was hungry and when my husband's hungry, that's it nothing can get in the
way of of of food. And so he said, well, let's stop at a what is it, uh.
Wendy's. Let's stop and so I can get something to eat. I said fine. I get
in the car and I'm feeling this pain. Uh, on either side.
Stop at Wendy's. And we go in And he gets food and I'm sitting there
watching him eat and all of a sudden I just had to get up. So I have to
get up. I got up
Walked out. He came after me. I got in the car and I started to drive and
I just couldn't, I, I had to keep pulling over to the side of the road
because I was having these contractions that were really, really painful.
And all I wanted to do was get home. That's all I wanted. I said if I
could just get home.
Well, We didn't get home because I'm in my neighborhood which again is a
very ritzy neighborhood. I'm in my neighborhood my husband is in his in
his in his jeans with paint splattered all over them from having done work
in the house. And I'm ready. I stopped the car and I said I'm gonna lie
down on the street. I just, I can't. I'm gonna lie down on the street and
he said no no you can't. I said, Well, get me some help. So he knocks on
the door and this young woman answers and she. And he told her what was
wrong and she said, oh, you know, get her in here. So they get me inside
the house and they looked like they were 14, but she had on this.
gown is sort of like a nightgown. And he and he had on like a smoking
jacket.
And they they were very nice. They said lie down here and I thought, oh my
God, they look so young so I was on the sofa and my husband called the
doctor and the doctor, the doctor said well she can't be pregnant now and
I was, I just lost it. I said tell him to get the fuck over to the
hospital. I was so angry. Um, it was like, you know, here he is telling me
again that you know what you're feeling isn't what's the way it's supposed
to be, but I'm feeling it. So he said you can't be in labor. Yeah, he said
, you can't be in labor that well, I was feeling it. So how far along were
you? I was, um, uh, 8 months, um, 8 months, yeah, so I was. I, I, I just.
They called the ambulance.
I had to walk out of the house because I couldn't get the the the
stretcher inside and then I'm lying in the ambulance and this and this kid
who was again all of 15 says, Well, spread your legs uh uh I, I, I, we can
deliver the baby here and I thought, oh dear God, no please, no, no this
can't be. And it was uh it was a real bumpy ride and I said no, no, no,
I'll wait, I'll wait, I'll wait and real bumpy ride to the hospital. I get
there and.
They just, you know, attach me to these machines, but then the machines
are not. There something's wrong with the machines. They're not, you know
how they're supposed to sort of monitor your contractions.
And the nurse kept coming into the room in the meantime, my husband, you
know, is trying to make me feel better and I'm saying leave me alone,
don't touch me. And he's saying, well, I'm supposed, I'm supposed to, I'm
supposed to touch, um.
I'm supposed to, I'm supposed to touch you to make you feel better. No,
get away.
And then at one point, the nurse comes in and she says, I'm gonna have to
call the doctor.
He comes in and. She says to him. I think there are 2 babies in there. And
my first thought, 00 my god, I only have one. I only have one crib. You
know, Um,
So the doctor checked and he said, yes, so we'll have to take you in. And
Um, And we had planned for my husband to be with me, and they wouldn't let
him in.
So I went in, uh, into this, you know, it's like a, it felt like the
biggest operating room with all these machines and monitors on a wall, and
it was very, very cold. And I'm half naked and. The doctor said, you know
, we have to give you an epidural, and I'm afraid of needles. I went, oh
my God, no, you know, can you do something else? No, you know, bend over,
how could I bend over my stomach was in the way. So finally they. They got
me to bend over and.
He gave me the epidural and I laid back and as I looked to my left, I
could see on a monitor, I could see the my womb and I could see two babies.
And um
And then I was. You know, I guess he just, you know, slip my stomach and.