Happy Birthday Jennifer!

This time, 28 years ago, I was in labor with my first baby, Jennifer. I was 2 day past my due date and woke up at 2:00 a.m. with pains. I worked in Medical Records at the hospital (not the hospital I was delivering at). I went to work at 5:00 a.m., so I decided to go ahead and go to work. I didn't just want to sit at home all day and wait. I figured if I stayed busy, the day would go faster.

Every morning, I would call Pops up at 7:00 to wake him up. When I called him, I told him I was in labor. His response was, "Should I stay home from work?" I told him since I was at work, I was sure he could go to work also.

I left at noon, my usual time and went home to try to take a nap and watch my afternoon TV shows. By 5:00 the pains were getting pretty strong. When a contraction would start, I would walk around in a circle in the living room. Finally at 6:00, I called the Dr. and his response was, "Well, if you think your in labor then go to the hospital."

One the way, we stopped at Jackson's (7-11 type store) to cash a check do we would have money for the pay phone to call everyone. Pops was scared and I was really scared about how bad the pain would be because on the tour of the delivery room, people were screaming. I vowed at that time to bite a whole in my lip before I would scream like that.

When they came in and said it was time to go to the delivery room, I said, "You're kidding, I thought it was going to be much worse than that." She was face up instead of face down, so they used forceps to pull her out. That made me a little nervous.

Our first bundle of joy was born at 11:45 p.m. weighing 8 lbs 14 ozs and she was absolutely adorable. They handed her to Pops and I was scared for him because that was the first baby he had ever held.

I was on such a high, I didn't sleep all night long. I was so excited. The hospital was so crowded that I stayed in a labor room for the next day because there were not any regular beds and they had babies in disposable cardboard box cribs. Pops thought he was an expert by that time because he would walk back through the labor area and now understood what all the notes on the labor boards meant.

We are every bit as proud of her today as the minute she was born. She is a great wife, teacher and mother.