Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Did You Get a Push Present?

This one looks about right.  

I want my push present.

I gave birth in about 6 hours, though I had been uncomfortable and had back pains all night the night before, so it'd be reasonable to say that I was actually in labor well before that. At 3:00 a.m. I convinced my then husband to take me to the hospital, despite a phone call to them and their "doubt" that I could actually be having true labor pains that close together already. They were wrong. The winter air was cold, the sky clear as glass, and I can still remember so clearly the mirror image of the near full moon on the still water as we crossed the bridge over the bay that winter morning.

I had been determined that I would give birth to this child naturally since the moment I found out I was pregnant. I did not have a single, solitary drug of any kind during labor or delivery. No pain medication. No epidural. Nothing. Nada. It was a painful few hours of my life, but I made it through it even with nurses trying to convince me that maybe a little "something" might help. After the fact they gave me something to "relax me" and that was welcomed!

After being knocked out for a few hours I woke up in a hospital room alone, not a soul there. My head foggy, I struggled to get my legs to the floor and boost my body up from the bed. My body was traumatized and I felt Every. Single. Muscle. in my body. I touched my stomach. Had I just had a baby? I was supposed to be in a special birthing room with my baby. Where was he?  Nobody would tell me. Nobody would let me see him.

Turns out during the labor process my baby had tried to breathe in the birth canal and had a lung collapse. While his lungs had recovered immediately on their own, they had whisked him away to the nursery to place him in an incubator to monitor him. When my physician showed up to make his rounds and found out, the hospital staff were directed to immediately take me to the nursery to see him. On top of the physical trauma, there was all this mental strain.

While I got divorced not long after that, and over the years my ex and I shared custody back and forth over the years, being a mother was never easy from that day forward and there were many sleepless nights of worry through those teen years especially.

Well, I have just learned that apparently there is a new trend among new mamas that they are to receive some kind of a "push present" - preferable diamonds of some kind - when they give birth.

It was more than 30 years ago, when I gave birth to my one and only baby, a son.  I am clearly far overdue for my push present.  So my dear ex-husband, I have one question for ya.

Where's my bling?

Photo: TheGoldJewelry.com
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2 comments:

  1. Hi Mary, it's been forever...hope all is well..I am out of the loop..with this push present thing...at least with bling...I am pushed daily by this teenage son...
    and the little one who follows....
    push...really..the hard work begins after the initial push...that is the real labor. Hoping all is well in your neck of the woods...take care, Faith

    ReplyDelete
  2. Boy ain't THAT the truth! My son gave me a run for my money from about 15/16 to oh I guess about 19 before he "straightened up." Thanks for coming by - I haven't had time to post much over here on this poor little ole blog with the food blog keeping me so busy. Not complaining! This is really my sorta "fun" blog anyway.

    ReplyDelete

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