WEBVTT

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 This is Boris Solis interviewing CP 150616-0028.

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Have you read and agreed to the
consent form? Yes, I have. OK, great.

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We'll go ahead and get started. Can
you tell me a little bit about

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yourself? I was born and raised in
Boston, Mass, and I moved here when I

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was 18 years old. I've lived here for
44 years. I'm 62. I've been married

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30 some odd years and I have two
girls.

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Could you maybe take me back to the
time around when you were pregnant or

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had were, you know, in the time of
labor and delivery, anything that was

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memorable that could kind of situate
us for that time period, with the

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weather, anything? Well, it was hot. I
had two summer babies, so it was

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very hot both times, um. My first
baby, I woke up in the morning and I

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felt strange. It wasn't a physical
strange. It was a mental strange, and I

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couldn't figure out what was wrong
because she wasn't due for a couple of

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weeks, but she was born on a blue
moon, which made her come early. A blue

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moon is 2 moons and 2 full moons in
one month. And so, um, that day, I

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started to feel very strange mentally
and I couldn't shake it. And then a

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short time later, I went into labor.
So I labored for about 24 hours and

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when she was born, it was really not
only the fact that she was first born

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, but she came like she had been here
before. She reached up and touched

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the doctor's face and. When they put
her in Leon's arms.

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She reached up and touched his face
like she knew him. And I turned my, my

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head and went to sleep because I had
been awake for 24 hours. And I just,

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I, it was hard for me to enjoy the
moment because I had had minor

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complications. I had a fever and And
they were minor complications.

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Um, Then she was only 2 hours old when
we were in the room when my mother

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came in and she said, Hi. And she was
leaning on Leon's shoulder. And she

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actually picked her head up and turned
around to see who had said that. We

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were really shocked that she had such
phenomenal muscle control, and the

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doctor came in saying that it was she
was unbelievable, her her muscles

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were unbelievably developed, well
developed. So Um, You know, she went Uh

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, labor and delivery, I, I guess for
her first child went pretty. Pretty

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normal. But you know my parents were
aging and I was taking care of aging

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parents and helping my husband in
business and I really never thought of

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my pregnancy. I gained 80 pounds
because I wanted to eat what I wanted to

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and um I didn't think of myself while
I was working and taking care of my

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parents. I mean I knew what the end
result was going to be. So I just ate

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and took it day by day and by the end
of my pregnancy, I was so overweight

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, um, I was uncomfortable in the heat.
Uh, but the end result was really

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wonderful. Now, Stephanie, on the
other hand, she was born, Christina was

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born August 15th. Stephanie was June
15th, 6 years later. And that was an

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easier pregnancy, and I was almost 40
years old when I had her. So I don't

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think age really made a difference
with me. I think I may have been in a

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better place as far as my parents were
concerned and financially and our

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business was going a lot smoother. So
maybe that had something to do with

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having a smoother pregnancy, but
Stephanie, when she was born, I'll never

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forget they plunked her beside me and
it was, I'm here. And she was very

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calm. Both kids were very calm, but
Stephanie just knew what she was here

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for. And um just looked right up at me
and was just really sweet. Neither

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one of them cried when they were born.
But they were both very centered

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and they were easy babies, very easy
babies. So it was a lot of fun. The

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first baby, it was, you know,
financially, it was tough, but when is a

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good time to have a baby? So I had
them 6 years apart because I was only

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going to have an only child. But Leon
kept on telling me, he tricked me.

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That an only child is a lonely child.
And it made me feel bad, so I went

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and had a second and I'm glad I did.
Stephanie's uh a wonderful girl. Can

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you elaborate a bit more on the actual
labor and deliveries? Did you labor

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at home and then Yeah, as a matter of
fact with Christina.

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I um I was vomiting a lot at home.
Sorry to say that, but. And I didn't

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know where Leon was. We had opened up
an airport parking lot and he was in

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Mesa somewhere picking up the buses
and like I said, I wasn't due for

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another two weeks and I couldn't get a
hold of him. You know, we didn't

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have cell phones like we did now. It
wasn't wasn't easy to get a hold of

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you. And so I called the doctor and
they told me to get in right away that

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I in fact was in labor. Because I'd
already had a false alarm. And um So I

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said that I would wait for my husband
and 3 hours later they called me,

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they said, we really want you to get
in here, but I was afraid to go to

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the hospital without him because I had
no one to drive me and I didn't

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want to get in a cab, and they said
they'd send somebody to come pick me

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up. So he finally came home and uh.
Uh, He was so excited we went to the

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doctor's office and. They told him to
get the car to drive me across the

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street to the hospital, and he got the
car and he went to the other end of

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the parking lot. And sat at the other
end of the parking lot, and they

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said, Where is he? And I looked out at
the parking lot and there he was on

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the way on the south end of the lot
just sitting in the car. He didn't

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know what to do. He drove all the way
to the south end of the parking lot

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, so the nurse turned to me and she
said, Let me get a wheelchair and I'll

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take you across the street because he
had gone into shock. Mm. And so I

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said, I felt bad and I went out to the
parking lot and I started to wave

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him over to me and he drove over and
he was like a deer in the headlights.

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It was really kind of scary looking,
you know. So I got in the car and I

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helped him get me to the hospital. And
um He stayed with me through the

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whole thing I mean I. I delivered, I
think it was at 10 o'clock that night.

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 On a on a holy day of obligation.

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And uh I usually go to church on holy
days, but couldn't that day. And so

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Leon was thrilled about that.

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Um, It was just

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It was a it was a wonderful birth
because I had a wonderful doctor. And

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that really does make a big
difference. And he was very personable and he

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liked us. He thought we'd make great
parents. So he spent a lot of time

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with us, time that he didn't have to
spend with us. And of course, it

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being my first baby, it was also
foreign to me, but he, he made it. He

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made it easy on me. My second birth,
um. My first doctor retired, so I

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took his partner and I loved him. And
he was out of town on my 2nd birth.

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And the doctor that delivered me was a
doctor that used to stare at me

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all the time when I was younger. And
it was very uncomfortable for me. I

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never told my husband. But it was just
so uncomfortable.

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And But I, I made it through and um.

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That was it was uneventful. I was
lucky because I had epidurals with both

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babies. So it was a lot easier than I
I would imagine going through hard

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labor. And I was an older mother.
Everybody would be screaming around me.

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And even when my epidural wore off,
the screaming just unnerved me.

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Um,

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But it was was uneventful. I mean, the
end result was what I was looking

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for. Nothing else mattered.

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And that Thank God everything went
normally.

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I think that's good. Honestly, I mean
it was boring. No, it wasn't boring.

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There's nothing boring about that
story at all. Oh, sorry.