She woke at 4:30 on a cold January morning with the first labor pain. She did not wake her husband right away because she didn’t want to go to the hospital to soon. She lay there thinking about the last 5 years and how they had wanted a baby.
She had been pregnant three times but lost them early in the pregnancy, but this time it was meant to be because she had even fallen down a flight of stairs and had not lost this child. They were so happy that she had carried this one to full term.
Her husband wanted a boy but she would be happy with either a boy or girl because she had waited so long to finally have a baby. So she lay in the dark of that January morning and savored the first pains of labor, because their dream was about to come true.
At 6:00 she woke her husband up and told him it was time. He was as excited as all fathers and a little flustered as he got himself dressed. He put on his coat and grabbed the suitcase to put it in the car.
When he went outside to get the car warmed up, while she was getting ready, it was snowing hard and there was already 6 inches of snow on the ground. This did not worry him at all, because was the local ambulance driver he was used to driving in all kinds of weather.
He went back and helped her walk through the snow and tucked her into the front seat of the car. He sped all the way up main and then west on Stolp to her Mother’s house to get her up. She didn’t have a phone at the time so they had to wait on her to get dressed so they could go to the hospital.
In a short time she was ready and he helped his Mother-in-law to the car and into the back seat. Then they started the drive to the hospital. He drove north on the highway out of Medicine Lodge.
The snow didn’t bother him because he was now in ambulance driver state of mind not expectant father. They flew up the hills and around the curves of the road between Medicine Lodge and Sawyer.
In Sawyer they turned east and it was just a short distance to Nashville but it had snowed another inch by then and it was getting deep and slick. Once they arrived in Nashville he turned on Main Street and drove to the house that served as the hospital and the doctor’s clinic.
They arrived at the hospital by 8:00 in the morning and she was still in the first stages of labor. He was sent to the waiting room by the doctor. There he waited not so patiently for the coming event that he was hopeful would bring a son. By 1:00 PM nothing was happening so the doctor told her Mother to walk her. That was a problem because there was only a 12 foot hallway in the old house and not enough space to walk properly.
Her Mother bundled her up in her coat, boots and scarf and they prepared to go outside and walk. When he jumped to his feet to join them on the walk his Mother-in-law gave him a stern look and told him to sit back down; they didn’t need his help and as they stepped out onto the porch she shut the door in his face. He gladly settled back down to wait.
It was still snowing when they stepped onto the sidewalk and the snow was now about 8 inches deep. They walked down the 20 feet of the sidewalk of the hospital and then turned onto the sidewalk by the street. No one had been on the sidewalk but the three of them early that morning so the two women had to blaze a trail in the deep snow.
They walked to the end of the block and back. This went on for an hour and then they went in to check on her progress. She was still not ready, so after warming up a little they dressed again and at 3:00 PM they went back out in the snow.
It was still snowing and there was now 10 inches on the ground. Not very many people had been up and down the sidewalk so they had to break the trail again as the first one was covering over again.
At 4:00 they went back into the hospital and the doctor told them that she should be ready to deliver in about an hour. So they went back out and walked some more in the continuing snow storm.
When they went back in at 4:30 the doctor said that she could stay in bed. One hour later a little girl only 6 lbs. and 21 inches long was born. She was blue in color because the mother was O positive and the father was O negative. But they didn’t have anything to help the baby and she was on her own to survive. In a few days she was doing fine and a week later they both went home.
When I was old enough to learn about the circumstance of my birth, Mother told me about being so blue when I was born and the reason. When she finished her story I told Mother, “It wasn’t the O positive or negative factor; it was because I was almost frozen in the blizzard. That was why it took so long for me to be born. It was the cold welcome I received.” To this day I still hate the cold and snow. To contact Sandy: [email protected]
