WEBVTT 00:00:01.768 --> 00:00:07.407 Is it recording? OK. So this is Boris Solis interviewing Connie Battier 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:14.347 on May 23rd at 1:45 for the Creative Push project. All right, so we'll get 00:00:14.380 --> 00:00:21.375 started. Can you take us back as far back as the conception? Yeah, yeah. 00:00:21.408 --> 00:00:23.506 Um 00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:29.977 It was January or so of 1977. 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:38.010 And I, um, we, my husband and I had taken my parents to uh Mexico for a, 00:00:38.509 --> 00:00:46.509 um, uh, for a visit. And they had never been And um. It is said in the 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:51.646 family that the baby was conceived during that during that time when we 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:56.557 were in Mexico. It sort of meant something because we're Latinos and my 00:00:56.590 --> 00:01:01.085 husband's Mexican-American. I'm from Puerto Rico. 00:01:01.118 --> 00:01:08.656 Um, And um. Soon thereafter. Uh, my husband and I had started, we were 00:01:08.689 --> 00:01:14.736 living in Dallas, uh, Dallas, Texas, where he was a professor at SMU. 00:01:14.769 --> 00:01:19.355 And we had started jogging. 00:01:19.388 --> 00:01:22.397 And I 00:01:22.430 --> 00:01:27.766 I in jogging, you know, my breasts hurt. So I said, I bet I have to go buy 00:01:27.799 --> 00:01:34.406 a sports bra. So I did, and but they still hurt. And then I got 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:40.025 constipated. So I called, uh, you know, there were no cell phones then. 00:01:40.058 --> 00:01:44.956 And I called my mom and uh and we talked and I said, gosh, I'm constipated. 00:01:44.989 --> 00:01:48.376 I don't know what what's going on. 00:01:48.409 --> 00:01:52.456 So she didn't say anything and next thing I knew I got a letter from my 00:01:52.489 --> 00:01:59.456 uncle in Puerto Rico telling me to drink prune juice. So I said, OK, but 00:01:59.489 --> 00:02:05.727 in the meantime, my sister, um who was living in Philadelphia at the time 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:12.316 called and when I described my symptoms, she said, oh, you're pregnant. I 00:02:12.349 --> 00:02:16.237 said, how do you know that? She said, well, you know, those are pregnant 00:02:16.270 --> 00:02:22.856 symptoms of pregnancy, so I got on the phone and tried to make an 00:02:22.889 --> 00:02:27.775 appointment and um and I got an appointment with the second doctor that I 00:02:27.808 --> 00:02:32.646 called because the first one was very popular. Um, and of course I, I will 00:02:32.679 --> 00:02:36.797 forever be sorry that that happened that way. 00:02:36.830 --> 00:02:43.255 Um, I I I was nervous because it was not a a planned pregnancy, but I'd 00:02:43.288 --> 00:02:47.936 always, I always knew that I was going to have a child. I, I, it wasn't, I 00:02:47.969 --> 00:02:52.606 wasn't preventing a pregnancy at the time, but I had never been pregnant 00:02:52.639 --> 00:03:00.639 before. Um, So my, so it was a bit of a surprise. 00:03:00.778 --> 00:03:04.906 But then I got nervous because my husband is visually impaired and at that 00:03:04.939 --> 00:03:10.305 time. His vision wasn't as bad as it is now, but I didn't know what, you 00:03:10.338 --> 00:03:15.906 know, why he was visually impaired, so I thought, oh my God, my child 00:03:15.939 --> 00:03:21.707 could be blind. I, you know, I got very nervous. So I, when I went to see 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:28.606 this doctor, I, I asked him if he performed abortions and um. And he said 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:32.166 no, but he, you know, that was my first visit with him and he gave me the 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:38.525 test and as soon as and I that was in the morning and I went to lunch with 00:03:38.558 --> 00:03:42.327 my husband and we talked about it. Now my husband had been married before 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:45.805 and he had two daughters, so it didn't make much of a difference to him 00:03:45.838 --> 00:03:51.775 whether I was pregnant or not. Um, and, uh, and I said, well, I'm gonna go 00:03:51.808 --> 00:03:55.856 back and find out what the, what happened to the, what was it, the rabbit 00:03:55.889 --> 00:04:01.717 or something. Uh, so I I did and the minute the doctor, the doctor told me 00:04:01.750 --> 00:04:06.717 that I was pregnant, I just, you know, I left his office and I was just 00:04:06.750 --> 00:04:14.475 elated and I, I fell in love at that very moment so driving back home, um 00:04:14.508 --> 00:04:22.508 , you know, there was no doubt that this baby was gonna be born. And um 00:04:22.869 --> 00:04:26.515 And I called my mother. 00:04:26.548 --> 00:04:32.937 This is gonna be hard. And she said. 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:38.805 Now you'll know how much I love you. 00:04:38.838 --> 00:04:41.697 And she was right. 00:04:41.730 --> 00:04:49.286 So the pregnancy went fairly well, um, that was Trying to think now 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:57.319 whether it was. Late February March um I quickly went out and bought books 00:04:57.559 --> 00:05:03.906 and then the book that was available was Doctor Spock. And I don't, I only 00:05:03.939 --> 00:05:08.305 remember in Doctor Spock a little uh reading a little bit about the 00:05:08.338 --> 00:05:12.546 pregnancy, but I didn't have like they have now, you know, books that tell 00:05:12.579 --> 00:05:16.786 you so much more about what the woman is going through what's happening in 00:05:16.819 --> 00:05:21.387 the womb, and so on and so forth. So there were just mostly books about 00:05:21.420 --> 00:05:24.947 how to raise a child or a baby, how to, you know, how to deal with a baby 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:31.967 , so. I, uh, I, we went on this trip to my, we were living in Dallas, 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:37.846 Texas, and we, I went on this trip, uh, on this car trip, um, down to the 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:42.926 border where my husband's family lived, uh, we had planned this visit for 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:46.726 a long time and everybody was happy that I was pregnant and I just read 00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:54.759 and read and read. Um, soon after that, I caught a cold. 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:59.245 And I, I was about 3 or 4 months pregnant. I caught a cold. It was 00:05:59.278 --> 00:06:07.278 terrible. It lasted for 3 to 4 weeks and I had a different symptom every 00:06:07.869 --> 00:06:13.067 week. It's like once there was uh well the one I'll never forget is when I 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:17.067 couldn't um I had laryngitis. 00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:20.515 And of course the doctor had told me you can't, you can't take any 00:06:20.548 --> 00:06:26.567 medications. And my husband was used to travel a lot. And I was just 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:31.507 lonely in Dallas. I had no friends, no family in Dallas, so I called my 00:06:31.540 --> 00:06:37.467 mother, and when I got on the phone I couldn't speak and I'm going. 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:43.145 And she hung up on me, she thought it was. A prank or something and um I 00:06:43.178 --> 00:06:47.906 did that twice and finally you know I just gave up but it was a very 00:06:47.939 --> 00:06:55.236 difficult time. For me and then um and then another week it was coughing 00:06:55.269 --> 00:07:02.046 all the time. Um, There were several different symptoms and I even had a, 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:07.007 I even had a, I had a friend who was into the, I don't know, the spiritual 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:13.986 , I guess, and she said that she had a friend who was a um I think a 00:07:14.019 --> 00:07:18.226 chiropractor, she said he'll come to your house and he'll he'll he'll do 00:07:18.259 --> 00:07:22.906 some work on you. I said, Oh great, anything, and he did. He came to the 00:07:22.939 --> 00:07:28.906 house, he set up this, you know, portable bed. I laid on it, he said, 00:07:28.939 --> 00:07:34.705 close your eyes and he, you know, did his magic. And I felt so much better. 00:07:34.738 --> 00:07:37.555 I felt a lot better. 00:07:37.588 --> 00:07:41.486 Um, There were 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:46.166 I was getting bigger and it seemed as if I was getting bigger than most 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:54.199 people or most women um at 4 or 5 months pregnant, but. Um, I didn't know 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:58.606 anything about pregnancy, I mean, other than what I'd read. I, you know, 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:02.036 some families, the women get pregnant and everybody knows what's going on 00:08:02.069 --> 00:08:05.166 and what's happening, but I didn't grow up in that kind of family, so I 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:08.697 knew nothing. I was really, really. 00:08:08.730 --> 00:08:14.637 Naive and Ignorant of any of that stuff. 00:08:14.670 --> 00:08:20.596 So, um, it was a it was one of the hottest summers in Dallas. And I had a 00:08:20.629 --> 00:08:28.019 real hard time just, you know, getting any. Pulling together any energy. 00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:30.139 There were several things that happened. 00:08:31.649 --> 00:08:39.649 Um During that summer, I, I had, I before the summer I was working. And uh 00:08:40.178 --> 00:08:48.178 one day after I've been sick for those Weeks, 3 or 4 weeks. I was feeling 00:08:48.629 --> 00:08:55.717 better because this guy had, you know, done whatever he did, and. I I got 00:08:55.750 --> 00:09:03.750 up, I was hungry. I had a cantaloupe. And my coffee, I think. And I went 00:09:04.668 --> 00:09:12.668 out To the car and I threw up all over the grass. I just threw up and I 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:21.058 just went around in circles in the grass. I never forget that, um, and, um. 00:09:22.210 --> 00:09:24.210 And of course you know after you throw up you feel better, so that was 00:09:25.269 --> 00:09:29.486 that. I did not eat cantaloupe for I can't tell you how many years after 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:34.736 that. It um, it was, it was more like 20 years before I ate cantaloupe 00:09:34.769 --> 00:09:38.407 again. So, 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:45.177 I um Oh, I forgot to tell you something. There was one symptom that I had. 00:09:45.210 --> 00:09:53.210 This is before I knew I was pregnant. I Uh, my husband complained that I 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:59.005 was that I was very moody and that I was not being friendly to people 00:09:59.038 --> 00:10:02.446 because we, we used to go to a lot of conferences and things and he said, 00:10:02.479 --> 00:10:07.246 oh boy, you're such a sourpuss and so on and I had no idea why that was. I 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:11.686 soon learned later that a lot of it was because of what was going on in my 00:10:11.719 --> 00:10:16.927 body. But um you know, you sort of get blamed for a lot of that stuff that 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:22.005 happens um and you don't know what it's about but neither do they but it's 00:10:22.038 --> 00:10:27.866 easier to blame you. So, um, 00:10:27.899 --> 00:10:31.086 I 00:10:31.119 --> 00:10:37.275 I mentioned earlier that that was a real hot, hot summer, and it, it was 00:10:37.308 --> 00:10:41.996 Dallas, so it was humid. It was like, oh you went out and you you could 00:10:42.029 --> 00:10:48.307 feel the humidity just, I mean, it just fell over you. 00:10:48.340 --> 00:10:55.726 It was like a cloud of water, but not anything you could really drink. It 00:10:55.759 --> 00:11:02.015 just kind of stuck to your skin. It was oh it was horrible. And My husband 00:11:02.048 --> 00:11:07.967 wanted me to walk in the evenings with him in the neighborhood. I was in 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:13.696 no mood to do it and it was so fucking hot that I just couldn't stand it. 00:11:13.729 --> 00:11:18.057 In the meantime, we were looking for a place to live because we were 00:11:18.090 --> 00:11:21.936 renting at the time near the university. We had to live close to the 00:11:21.969 --> 00:11:24.936 university because he was visually impaired and it was easier for him to 00:11:24.969 --> 00:11:29.946 like walk to the university then because he couldn't drive. So we were 00:11:29.979 --> 00:11:32.907 looking for a house, but the neighborhood we lived in was like one of the 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:38.467 richest neighborhoods in Dallas and we could never afford a house there so 00:11:38.500 --> 00:11:44.467 we went um we, we went outside of that neighborhood and every afternoon 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:48.787 I'd have to drive in the car in the meantime I'm like this big and I'm and 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:54.005 it's hot and I'm uncomfortable and we're looking at homes and. It was, it 00:11:54.038 --> 00:11:59.356 was not fun. It's not fun at all. And my husband was pissed at me because 00:11:59.389 --> 00:12:02.917 I was not in a good mood. 00:12:02.950 --> 00:12:08.787 I didn't have any symptoms like I couldn't feel anything. I did, you know 00:12:08.820 --> 00:12:12.787 , uh there was a time when there was some movement and that was it. I was 00:12:12.820 --> 00:12:16.586 feeling good and I would go to the heart to the doctor and I would, you 00:12:16.619 --> 00:12:22.467 know, and the checkups were fine one day the doctor, um, at that time they 00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:28.037 used something they call a fetoscope. Uh, because there was no ultrasound. 00:12:28.070 --> 00:12:32.616 And so they put it over your belly and they could hear the baby's 00:12:32.649 --> 00:12:34.846 heartbeat. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:38.726 So I'm lying there and I said, well, as he's doing this, I said, Well, how 00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:42.765 , how will I know if I'm if I'm going to have twins? How would I know if 00:12:42.798 --> 00:12:46.885 that? He said, Well, you can't know because if both hearts are beating 00:12:46.918 --> 00:12:53.645 simultaneously, you can't tell. I said, oh, OK, so all right, that was one 00:12:53.678 --> 00:12:59.547 question. And then I um. 00:12:59.580 --> 00:13:07.057 I was, I was lying down at home by this time I've left my job and I'm 00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:13.167 lying in bed. And I see these two. 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:21.200 It's like footballs moving across my stomach. Just like that, 1 to 1 side 00:13:21.830 --> 00:13:26.476 and one toward the other. And my thought, my immediate thought was, oh, 00:13:26.509 --> 00:13:30.505 this is his head and this is his, you know, this is his, his, his, his 00:13:30.538 --> 00:13:36.667 rear end and he's moving. 00:13:36.700 --> 00:13:41.967 You know, I later found out that there were 2 of them in there. Um And I 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:46.967 told my husband, and we laughed about it and all that, but. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:52.967 That made me think about twins and I didn't, I know on my mother's side 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:57.967 there were no twins, and I only knew of one set of twins on my father's 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:00.875 side. 00:14:00.908 --> 00:14:08.908 I didn't know at that time that my mother-in-law had had twins. 00:14:10.099 --> 00:14:13.936 And both of them had died. 00:14:13.969 --> 00:14:21.196 She said That she. Gave birth 00:14:21.229 --> 00:14:26.807 She was, she laid in bed and she, this was a home birth. She laid in bed 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:30.287 and she could hear them crying. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:37.226 And once they stopped crying, she knew they were dead. 00:14:37.259 --> 00:14:45.259 So I um I had this feeling about it, but I didn't know for sure. And one 00:14:47.149 --> 00:14:55.149 day I'm into my 7th or 8th month. And my And I, I had um. 00:14:58.979 --> 00:15:05.145 I asked the doctor. Um, I told the doctor that I had read that if you 00:15:05.178 --> 00:15:12.677 start to have diarrhea. Then that may be, there may be a problem. But he 00:15:12.710 --> 00:15:16.537 just pooh-poohed it and he just said, oh, you know, I don't know where you 00:15:16.570 --> 00:15:19.557 get that information. 00:15:19.590 --> 00:15:26.657 So You know, naive Connie, I did nothing about it. 00:15:26.690 --> 00:15:33.385 And then finally, and then I did have I did have diarrhea. 00:15:33.418 --> 00:15:37.446 And, but I thought that's me because I'm eating a lot of fruit because, 00:15:37.479 --> 00:15:43.375 you know, I, I also had, you know, a heartburn. 00:15:43.408 --> 00:15:49.265 So again I thought, well, the doctor said not a problem. 00:15:49.298 --> 00:15:55.576 And Um, and one day we had, we had bought a house and one day we're at the 00:15:55.609 --> 00:16:01.936 house and I was lying on the. On the uh carpet in the living room of the 00:16:01.969 --> 00:16:04.927 house. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:11.917 And I felt a twinge. And I said, I thought, oh, and so I just, you know, 00:16:11.950 --> 00:16:17.167 moved. And then I just called my husband, uh, who was in the back of the 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:22.775 house and I said, you know, something's not right you better go. And he 00:16:22.808 --> 00:16:28.096 was hungry and when my husband's hungry, that's it nothing can get in the 00:16:28.129 --> 00:16:35.826 way of of of food. And so he said, well, let's stop at a what is it, uh. 00:16:35.859 --> 00:16:41.586 Wendy's. Let's stop and so I can get something to eat. I said fine. I get 00:16:41.619 --> 00:16:49.125 in the car and I'm feeling this pain. Uh, on either side. 00:16:49.158 --> 00:16:56.547 Stop at Wendy's. And we go in And he gets food and I'm sitting there 00:16:56.580 --> 00:17:01.476 watching him eat and all of a sudden I just had to get up. So I have to 00:17:01.509 --> 00:17:05.415 get up. I got up 00:17:05.448 --> 00:17:11.015 Walked out. He came after me. I got in the car and I started to drive and 00:17:11.048 --> 00:17:15.696 I just couldn't, I, I had to keep pulling over to the side of the road 00:17:15.729 --> 00:17:21.064 because I was having these contractions that were really, really painful. 00:17:21.097 --> 00:17:25.095 And all I wanted to do was get home. That's all I wanted. I said if I 00:17:25.128 --> 00:17:27.916 could just get home. 00:17:27.949 --> 00:17:34.196 Well, We didn't get home because I'm in my neighborhood which again is a 00:17:34.229 --> 00:17:39.397 very ritzy neighborhood. I'm in my neighborhood my husband is in his in 00:17:39.430 --> 00:17:43.906 his in his jeans with paint splattered all over them from having done work 00:17:43.939 --> 00:17:49.246 in the house. And I'm ready. I stopped the car and I said I'm gonna lie 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:52.726 down on the street. I just, I can't. I'm gonna lie down on the street and 00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:58.085 he said no no you can't. I said, Well, get me some help. So he knocks on 00:17:58.118 --> 00:18:04.347 the door and this young woman answers and she. And he told her what was 00:18:04.380 --> 00:18:08.387 wrong and she said, oh, you know, get her in here. So they get me inside 00:18:08.420 --> 00:18:16.420 the house and they looked like they were 14, but she had on this. 00:18:17.930 --> 00:18:25.347 gown is sort of like a nightgown. And he and he had on like a smoking 00:18:25.380 --> 00:18:28.065 jacket. 00:18:28.098 --> 00:18:32.285 And they they were very nice. They said lie down here and I thought, oh my 00:18:32.318 --> 00:18:37.045 God, they look so young so I was on the sofa and my husband called the 00:18:37.078 --> 00:18:40.766 doctor and the doctor, the doctor said well she can't be pregnant now and 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:44.887 I was, I just lost it. I said tell him to get the fuck over to the 00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:50.526 hospital. I was so angry. Um, it was like, you know, here he is telling me 00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:55.486 again that you know what you're feeling isn't what's the way it's supposed 00:18:55.519 --> 00:19:01.325 to be, but I'm feeling it. So he said you can't be in labor. Yeah, he said 00:19:01.358 --> 00:19:07.736 , you can't be in labor that well, I was feeling it. So how far along were 00:19:07.769 --> 00:19:15.769 you? I was, um, uh, 8 months, um, 8 months, yeah, so I was. I, I, I just. 00:19:21.108 --> 00:19:25.236 They called the ambulance. 00:19:25.269 --> 00:19:28.226 I had to walk out of the house because I couldn't get the the the 00:19:28.259 --> 00:19:32.887 stretcher inside and then I'm lying in the ambulance and this and this kid 00:19:32.920 --> 00:19:39.867 who was again all of 15 says, Well, spread your legs uh uh I, I, I, we can 00:19:39.900 --> 00:19:44.416 deliver the baby here and I thought, oh dear God, no please, no, no this 00:19:44.449 --> 00:19:48.976 can't be. And it was uh it was a real bumpy ride and I said no, no, no, 00:19:49.009 --> 00:19:52.967 I'll wait, I'll wait, I'll wait and real bumpy ride to the hospital. I get 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:57.035 there and. 00:19:57.068 --> 00:20:01.295 They just, you know, attach me to these machines, but then the machines 00:20:01.328 --> 00:20:06.085 are not. There something's wrong with the machines. They're not, you know 00:20:06.118 --> 00:20:10.196 how they're supposed to sort of monitor your contractions. 00:20:10.229 --> 00:20:14.456 And the nurse kept coming into the room in the meantime, my husband, you 00:20:14.489 --> 00:20:18.496 know, is trying to make me feel better and I'm saying leave me alone, 00:20:18.529 --> 00:20:24.367 don't touch me. And he's saying, well, I'm supposed, I'm supposed to, I'm 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:28.575 supposed to touch, um. 00:20:28.608 --> 00:20:32.127 I'm supposed to, I'm supposed to touch you to make you feel better. No, 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:35.367 get away. 00:20:35.400 --> 00:20:39.107 And then at one point, the nurse comes in and she says, I'm gonna have to 00:20:39.140 --> 00:20:42.926 call the doctor. 00:20:42.959 --> 00:20:50.959 He comes in and. She says to him. I think there are 2 babies in there. And 00:20:51.709 --> 00:20:58.717 my first thought, 00 my god, I only have one. I only have one crib. You 00:20:58.750 --> 00:21:03.065 know, Um, 00:21:03.098 --> 00:21:09.897 So the doctor checked and he said, yes, so we'll have to take you in. And 00:21:09.930 --> 00:21:14.617 Um, And we had planned for my husband to be with me, and they wouldn't let 00:21:14.650 --> 00:21:17.857 him in. 00:21:17.890 --> 00:21:22.656 So I went in, uh, into this, you know, it's like a, it felt like the 00:21:22.689 --> 00:21:30.097 biggest operating room with all these machines and monitors on a wall, and 00:21:30.130 --> 00:21:37.285 it was very, very cold. And I'm half naked and. The doctor said, you know 00:21:37.318 --> 00:21:42.206 , we have to give you an epidural, and I'm afraid of needles. I went, oh 00:21:42.239 --> 00:21:46.127 my God, no, you know, can you do something else? No, you know, bend over, 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:52.877 how could I bend over my stomach was in the way. So finally they. They got 00:21:52.910 --> 00:21:57.295 me to bend over and. 00:21:57.328 --> 00:22:02.217 He gave me the epidural and I laid back and as I looked to my left, I 00:22:02.250 --> 00:22:10.250 could see on a monitor, I could see the my womb and I could see two babies. 00:22:23.660 --> 00:22:25.660 And um 00:22:29.358 --> 00:22:36.328 And then I was. You know, I guess he just, you know, slip my stomach and.