Before I knew...
Before I found out I was actually carrying you, a small undeveloped baby boy, inside of my body, I thought I was developing a stomach ulcer. I had sick feelings, and the only things that remedied them were glasses of milk and baked potatoes. Pieces of dry toast, bland cereals, and other basically boring foods helped, too, as long as I ate them often throughout the days. With all this nick-knacking I was doing, albeit bland, I was gaining weight. My digestive system began malfunctioning. What, oh what, could be the matter with me?? Duh!
The Tell
I went to the doctor to see what ailed me. The doctor was Dr. Ed O'Rear, and he came into the exam room with a lighted cigarette hanging from his lips. Okay...it's his office. It was March of 1982. I told him what all was going on with me, and he just told me that if I keep eating like that I will get fat. I was already on my way. The nurse then told me I was expecting a baby. Although the thought had occurred to me, I was dumbfounded and happy at the same time. I was referred to another doctor, one who was big on caring for pregnant moms and for delivering babies. That would be Dr. N. Tom Camp, still the best doc ever, and I stuck with him for your development duration.
Your Influence on My Taste Buds
Stomach maladies quickly subsided, and I began to crave watermelon with a vengeance. And salt. And yeah, some cantaloupe. Watermelon, cantaloupe, and salt everyday. And green plums, and sour apples, and more salt. Frank and Martha Noles, our neighbors across the street, were kind enough to say "yes" when I asked if I could pick some of their green plums off the tree beside their pond. Poor Mr. and Mrs. Noles never got a chance at their own plums that year, because I picked them all within a couple weeks' time.
We Grow
By three months, I was already "showing". What did I expect, since I was eating all the time? Your dad and I were at a funeral, and a neighbor of ours, Ruth Naramore, walked over to me and whispered to my ear, "are you pregnant?" I told her "yes", and apologetically said I was only about three months along--I felt a little guilty for having already gained enough weight to "show". Your dad told Ruth he would have been afraid to ask a woman if she was pregnant, in case she was just plain fat. Oh well. I figured that, from that time onto your arrival, I would just eat whatever, since I was "eating for two".
How the Days Passed for We Two, at Home
The Television
Your dad would go to work, I would stay home and eat, and swell. I watched a lot of television, and we had basic local TV at the time. It was at pre-VHS and satellite ownership time. A new Birmingham station had just started--WTTO Channel 21-- and it had some old and little-known movies and shows on it.
It also had one commercial/public service announcement that it ran over and over; a commercial I likewise loved to watch. It was sponsored by the Church of Latter Day Saints, and it ran to the song Julie Through the Glass by Carly Simon. It was about a young mother's visions and hopes for her newborn baby, and it was played out on a stirring-to-pregnant-moms video. The film showed the mom viewing her baby through the maternity ward glass window. I really liked that commercial, and I have never forgotten how good it always made me feel to watch it.
You can see the video and hear the song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax4EGaR-BYQ
Books About You
I bought a "baby's name" book and began thinking about the choices I had. I thought and studied and thought. Your dad pretty much was leaving all that to me. I decided that if you were a boy, you would be Christopher Charles Lee, and if you were a girl, you'd be Carmen Sofia Lee. Here's the "why" for those choices. I wanted a "saint's" name, since I was trying to follow Catholicism norms. Hence the "Christopher" and the "Sofia". I chose "Charles" because of my love for my grandfather Charles "Pop" James Copelin. The girl's "Carmen" part was just because I really loved the name--always have, and still do.
Incidentally, I liked the actor Christopher Lee, who just happened to have a striking resemblance to my own father John (J.C.) Calvin Reno. So, I figured that Christopher would be a good choice. Anthony and I pretty much agreed that we wouldn't let anybody call you "Chuck" or "Chris". Oh well. "Chris" I learned to deal with and even to use occasionally.
About the boy and girl issue: One thing your dad was adamant about was that if you turned out to be a girl, there would be NO ear piercing until you were old enough to decide. I was firm on the opposite, and it WAS going to happen if you were a girl. Good thing we didn't have to come to that standoff!
I also bought a book with "instructions" for bringing up baby. It was a paperback that I am pretty sure was Dr. Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care. I so wish I still had that book to give to you now, so you'd know where I got some of my child-rearing ideas.
I found out that I should be reading aloud to my unborn child. So, on many nice spring and summer days, I sat outside in the yard in Rose Hill, Alabama, and read to you. I first read excerpts from Plato's Apology of Socrates. That didn't go over well, with me anyway. So after a few days I switched to Two Years Before the Mast, by R. H. Dana, Jr. It was definitely more interesting, and I still have the book--both of the books--which you should read "again" one day.
As you developed, I continued to read, but I decided you probably didn't care what the book content was, so I read anything I could get hold of. I liked to read, always had, and I wanted you to like it, too.
Rounding Out the Summer
Food, Fat, Pains, and Projects
By five-months time, I was very plump. Dr. Camp reprimanded me over the weight gain. He said "your baby will only be 7-8 pounds, so you'll have all that other to lose." His nurses, Brenda (Brenda Arnold is now a very good friend of mine) and Judy (Dr. Camp's wife and another great friend) both "fussed" and instructed me on the fact that I can't eat a whole box of Vanilla Wafers in one sitting, and that I am not really to take the saying "eating for two" literally.
I kept on snacking. And gaining. And consequently developed a backache all the time. I had to get an "okay" from Dr. Camp to go see the chiropractor. That was a relief, and the pain alleviation gave me leeway to eat more goodies. To my sorrow, I discovered during that month that my favorite food in the world, pizza, could not be eaten. What used to be my savory friend now gave me extremely painful cramps and severe diarrhea. That's what you want to hear!
That was also the month, July, that your dad had the concrete truck arrive to pour his two dog kennels. It was hot, and your dad had no help. I normally would have been out there helping him spread the mixture as the man poured it, but I couldn't because I had been having too many pains; so many that I worried I might be in labor. The concrete man, who only poured and wasn't permitted to help spread, asked me if I was alright, as I stood bent over on the back porch. I was watching Anthony run, red-faced and breathless, from one kennel to the other to get the stuff worked and leveled. I was worried about my situation that day, but I was way more worried about your dad. I felt so helpless while he raced frantically back and forth. He was bound and determined to get his dog kennels in, and he succeeded, and when the day was done, we were all okay.
Whew! I was ready for you to get here! I had done the sonar viewing, and we knew by now that you were going to be a boy. And we knew your estimated time of arrival would be November 17th. Hmm...
At Seven Months
September, I was with your Grandmother Shirley Lee, her friends Ann and Buck Brown, your Great Grandmother OZY, and your Uncle Dennis and Aunt Kelly. We had gone on a trip to Panama City. Your dad didn't go because we couldn't afford for him to miss any work, and besides, he had to stay and take care of all our animals.
On that trip at the hotel is when and where I received a call from my father's wife Barbara. I had never talked to her before, and I hadn't seen my dad since 1969, although we all had corresponded by mail a little bit. Barbara had tracked me down to tell me of my father's death. He had been killed, the story goes, by a car striking him as he walked down the road. That had happened in September of 1981. She hadn't known where to find me up until then, which I understood since we had lost contact over the previous two or three years. She told me he was buried next to his parents in Maryville, TN. I was seven-months pregnant with you in 1982 when I heard of my dad's death.
November 1982
The 10th
The night I started having labor pains, I remembered the rule of "nothing to eat" once the labor started. I obeyed, that is, until it dragged on for hours. We went to the hospital to have you, your grandmother Shirley met us there, all excited, and...nothing. We were sent home; me in tears for not having produced the long-awaited "package". I sat in the living room on the sectional sofa and labored all night. I also cheated and ate Tootsie-Pops, one after the other.
The 11th
Towards the last couple of hours, as we knew for sure it was time to go back to the hospital, I had Anthony run and get me a pizza. I didn't care what ill effect it was going to have at this point. I was in pain anyway, and I was going to the hospital anyway. For gosh sakes, get me the pizza!
Labor lasted altogether 36 hours. When it was all said and done, and time for you to arrive, I had gained 48 pounds. Forty-eight pounds to make a 7-pound infant.
But you were so worth it. As you were being born, Dr. Camp had a look on his face as if you were the first child he had ever brought into the world. The look of sheer joy at new life was glowing from his face, and with all my fear and pain and anxiety, I treasure that moment. When you were fully present, Dr. Camp said, "looks like you've got a girl." "Whaaaat?" I could not believe it--I was expecting a boy, and a boy is what I wanted! Dr. Camp was just teasing me to lighten the moment, since he of course knew what I had been expecting all along.
Right then, before the nurses' team got you, or anybody else got hold of you for the usual cleaning and measuring, he placed you onto my abdomen in the delivery room. There you were, lying helpless and crying, while I was trying to absorb the whole idea that I had just had a baby.
The crazy and funny tales of labor and delivery are a dime a dozen. Although having a baby is as old as life, and nothing is biologically unique about it, you, Christopher Charles Lee are a unique gift to me from God that I treasure more than any words can say. I am grateful and proud that I have you as my son, and I will always love you.
From your mom.
 | ||
| Christening Day on December 19, 1982, Christopher Charles Lee, born on November 11, 1982 |
###
No comments:
Post a Comment