A few days ago, I found myself pondering the day Curtis was born. No reason in particular for the trip down memory lane but his birthday is next month. When the boys were younger, I used to take part of their birthday day to tell them the story of the day they were born. It was the 4 best days of my life! Here is the story of the day Curtis was born.
I was about a week or so away from my due date to have my 4th baby boy in 5 1/2 years. Morgan had just started Kindergarten and was gone in the afternoon to school. Clayton was not quite 3 and Harris was 16 1/2 months old and had just started walking. I was just thinking about getting Morgan ready for the bus and about 9:15 my water broke. Side note here: Morgan rode the bus to and from school each day but Hollis did not like this at all. I convinced him that I would not be able to take and pick up Morgan every day with 3 little ones at home and he relented on the sole condition that Morgan be picked up and dropped off right in front of the house. The first few days of school, he had been dropped off at the corner and Hollis insisted that I call NEISD transportation and have this corrected. That morning, I called and the person I talked to asked if I could please watch the drop off that day and make sure that he was safely crossing the street. I told this person that I would be happy to do that but that I had just gone into labor and would probably not be at home that day when the bus arrived. Morgan was picked up and dropped off right in front of the house for the rest of the school year. Nothing like a well-timed request to get what you need.
I called Hollis, who at that time, was working all the way over on the other side of San Antonio. He asked me if he had time to attend a 9:30 meeting before coming home to get me and I told him to go to the meeting but not dawdle afterwards. I then called my friend Donna to come hang out with me until Hollis got home and to stay with the boys until my mother-in-law could come stay with them. Donna chased the boys and yelled at me every time I got off the sofa because she was certain this baby would fall right out of me if I stood up. Hollis came home, we grabbed my suitcase and left for the 3 minute ride to the hospital. It was the hospital where I had had Clayton 3 years earlier (he was the 13th baby born there when it had just opened but that story will have to wait) and I really was looking forward to this birth for several reasons. We got all checked in about 10:45 and my doctor came in to check my progress. He said "You're only 7 centimeters!" I said "I'll work on that!" By 11:45 I was pushing and at 12:18, my last little boy was born. He weighed 8 lbs 4 ozs which made him the runt of the 4 by just a few ounces. Dr. Curtis Ryder had just delivered three of my 4 babies so we named Curtis after him. He was quite overwhelmed when we told him that he had just delivered Curtis Leland Wooldridge. Although Dr. Ryder and I both knew from an ultrasound at 20 weeks that I was having boy #4, I hadn't told Hollis that this was the case. I sort of took the time to get used to the idea and be ready for another boy. It was a good idea.
One of the reasons I was looking forward to this delivery was that this hospital was a pioneer in having a birthing suite. I was on a full sized bed and they never took Curtis out of the room. All of the other 3 had to spend time in the nursery but not this guy. After he was born, Hollis put his feet up in the recliner in the room and went to sleep. I just sat in that bed and could not stop staring at my new little angel. You would think that by kid #4, I would be over it but I wasn't. He was amazing and I just sat there staring and falling in love. I didn't know where I was going to get the energy to nurse him, and chase his brothers, and accomplish all the other stuff my full life had me doing, but I was deeply in love.
All the way back when I had Morgan, I had wanted to be in the hospital as short a time as possible after delivery. My mom was wonderful at taking care of me after a baby and I just wanted to be at home. With Curtis, they released me 6 hours after he was born. At that time, Jeopardy was on every evening after the news so I have always told people that he was born at 12:18 lunch time and I was home before Jeopardy was over that day. Hollis and I did have the steak dinner that they offered new parents but we hit the trail right after that. When we arrived home, my neighbor across the street was just getting home too. I asked her if she wanted to meet her newest neighbor and she came right over. She asked when he was born and I told her. I will never forget her next words. She said "I suppose you picked Morgan up after school too!" I would have if I could have but as you know, he rode the bus.
Recovery from this delivery was not the smoothest and I wound up back in the hospital 6 weeks later hemorraging but it was a quick overnight stay and all was fine after that. I was blessed to find some super duper vitamins that insured my milk supply was what it needed to be and I nursed him for a year.
A few years ago when Clayton was in college and Harris was in the Army, I declared a rating scale. If I talked to 2 of my boys in one day, it was a good day. If I talked to 3, it was a great day and if I talked to all 4 of them, I called it a perfect day. September 8, 1988 was my first perfect day. There have been many, many since but I am kinda glad I know when my first one was. . . Happy Birthday next month Son. Thanks for a great arrival story!
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