This is Boris Solis interviewing CP 150616-0028.
Have you read and agreed to the consent form? Yes, I have. OK, great.
We'll go ahead and get started. Can you tell me a little bit about
yourself? I was born and raised in Boston, Mass, and I moved here when I
was 18 years old. I've lived here for 44 years. I'm 62. I've been married
30 some odd years and I have two girls.
Could you maybe take me back to the time around when you were pregnant or
had were, you know, in the time of labor and delivery, anything that was
memorable that could kind of situate us for that time period, with the
weather, anything? Well, it was hot. I had two summer babies, so it was
very hot both times, um. My first baby, I woke up in the morning and I
felt strange. It wasn't a physical strange. It was a mental strange, and I
couldn't figure out what was wrong because she wasn't due for a couple of
weeks, but she was born on a blue moon, which made her come early. A blue
moon is 2 moons and 2 full moons in one month. And so, um, that day, I
started to feel very strange mentally and I couldn't shake it. And then a
short time later, I went into labor. So I labored for about 24 hours and
when she was born, it was really not only the fact that she was first born
, but she came like she had been here before. She reached up and touched
the doctor's face and. When they put her in Leon's arms.
She reached up and touched his face like she knew him. And I turned my, my
head and went to sleep because I had been awake for 24 hours. And I just,
I, it was hard for me to enjoy the moment because I had had minor
complications. I had a fever and And they were minor complications.
Um, Then she was only 2 hours old when we were in the room when my mother
came in and she said, Hi. And she was leaning on Leon's shoulder. And she
actually picked her head up and turned around to see who had said that. We
were really shocked that she had such phenomenal muscle control, and the
doctor came in saying that it was she was unbelievable, her her muscles
were unbelievably developed, well developed. So Um, You know, she went Uh
, labor and delivery, I, I guess for her first child went pretty. Pretty
normal. But you know my parents were aging and I was taking care of aging
parents and helping my husband in business and I really never thought of
my pregnancy. I gained 80 pounds because I wanted to eat what I wanted to
and um I didn't think of myself while I was working and taking care of my
parents. I mean I knew what the end result was going to be. So I just ate
and took it day by day and by the end of my pregnancy, I was so overweight
, um, I was uncomfortable in the heat. Uh, but the end result was really
wonderful. Now, Stephanie, on the other hand, she was born, Christina was
born August 15th. Stephanie was June 15th, 6 years later. And that was an
easier pregnancy, and I was almost 40 years old when I had her. So I don't
think age really made a difference with me. I think I may have been in a
better place as far as my parents were concerned and financially and our
business was going a lot smoother. So maybe that had something to do with
having a smoother pregnancy, but Stephanie, when she was born, I'll never
forget they plunked her beside me and it was, I'm here. And she was very
calm. Both kids were very calm, but Stephanie just knew what she was here
for. And um just looked right up at me and was just really sweet. Neither
one of them cried when they were born. But they were both very centered
and they were easy babies, very easy babies. So it was a lot of fun. The
first baby, it was, you know, financially, it was tough, but when is a
good time to have a baby? So I had them 6 years apart because I was only
going to have an only child. But Leon kept on telling me, he tricked me.
That an only child is a lonely child. And it made me feel bad, so I went
and had a second and I'm glad I did. Stephanie's uh a wonderful girl. Can
you elaborate a bit more on the actual labor and deliveries? Did you labor
at home and then Yeah, as a matter of fact with Christina.
I um I was vomiting a lot at home. Sorry to say that, but. And I didn't
know where Leon was. We had opened up an airport parking lot and he was in
Mesa somewhere picking up the buses and like I said, I wasn't due for
another two weeks and I couldn't get a hold of him. You know, we didn't
have cell phones like we did now. It wasn't wasn't easy to get a hold of
you. And so I called the doctor and they told me to get in right away that
I in fact was in labor. Because I'd already had a false alarm. And um So I
said that I would wait for my husband and 3 hours later they called me,
they said, we really want you to get in here, but I was afraid to go to
the hospital without him because I had no one to drive me and I didn't
want to get in a cab, and they said they'd send somebody to come pick me
up. So he finally came home and uh. Uh, He was so excited we went to the
doctor's office and. They told him to get the car to drive me across the
street to the hospital, and he got the car and he went to the other end of
the parking lot. And sat at the other end of the parking lot, and they
said, Where is he? And I looked out at the parking lot and there he was on
the way on the south end of the lot just sitting in the car. He didn't
know what to do. He drove all the way to the south end of the parking lot
, so the nurse turned to me and she said, Let me get a wheelchair and I'll
take you across the street because he had gone into shock. Mm. And so I
said, I felt bad and I went out to the parking lot and I started to wave
him over to me and he drove over and he was like a deer in the headlights.
It was really kind of scary looking, you know. So I got in the car and I
helped him get me to the hospital. And um He stayed with me through the
whole thing I mean I. I delivered, I think it was at 10 o'clock that night.
On a on a holy day of obligation.
And uh I usually go to church on holy days, but couldn't that day. And so
Leon was thrilled about that.
Um, It was just
It was a it was a wonderful birth because I had a wonderful doctor. And
that really does make a big difference. And he was very personable and he
liked us. He thought we'd make great parents. So he spent a lot of time
with us, time that he didn't have to spend with us. And of course, it
being my first baby, it was also foreign to me, but he, he made it. He
made it easy on me. My second birth, um. My first doctor retired, so I
took his partner and I loved him. And he was out of town on my 2nd birth.
And the doctor that delivered me was a doctor that used to stare at me
all the time when I was younger. And it was very uncomfortable for me. I
never told my husband. But it was just so uncomfortable.
And But I, I made it through and um.
That was it was uneventful. I was lucky because I had epidurals with both
babies. So it was a lot easier than I I would imagine going through hard
labor. And I was an older mother. Everybody would be screaming around me.
And even when my epidural wore off, the screaming just unnerved me.
Um,
But it was was uneventful. I mean, the end result was what I was looking
for. Nothing else mattered.
And that Thank God everything went normally.
I think that's good. Honestly, I mean it was boring. No, it wasn't boring.
There's nothing boring about that story at all. Oh, sorry.