After our honeymoon of two weeks was over, we went back to our jobs. It was different for me, because my new husband continued to tell me more and more about dealing with the people we worked with. They had to respect me more, because he was sitting right there in the same office. They couldn't stick their noses into our business any more. No more trips to the coffee room for Jack so they could tell him not to get involved with me. We continued as before, but my happiness was complete. I had someone to love and someone who loved me in return.
In March, I went in for a pregnancy test, but I already knew I was pregnant. The test came back positive and I was thrilled! A baby to love. As the pregnancy went on and I got bigger, I had to take a nap when we got home from work. Jack would let me sleep till around 7:00 p.m. and he would make us TV dinners and wake me up to eat. He was so sweet and considerate. He took good care of me and I flourished under his loving care and devotion. The doctor gave me pre-natal vitamins, and they also had me on water pills. In July I was 5 months along and one evening I developed severe back pains. I had to keep visiting the loo, and that night the pains got worse and Jack took me to Doctor's Hospital Emergency room. When we got there, there was a man taking wheel chairs into the hospital, and when he saw me he came running with a chair. They checked everthing out and determined I had a severe kidney and bladder infection. They gave me a prescription and released me. But while I was laying on the table in the emergency room, I suddenly started feeling better. I didn't know at the time, but Jack had gone just outside the room and was focusing all his love and care on me. He had told me a lot about the Tao, his religion, and how he was a lens, and able to focus this power to someone in need of help. I wouldn't have understood it, but I got better and was able to sleep that night after we got home. The next morning, Jack went and got my prescription filled. I was off work for a couple of days, but soon felt better and returned to work.
The boss harrassed me off and on, and when I had first got pregnant, I told him I needed to schedule maternity leave. He glared at me and asked me if I knew what I was talking about! I told him I had been a woman all my life, and knew very well what I was talking about! Just that sort of inane prattle was standared fare for me. They couldn't get past my diagnosis and apparently thought it meant I was mentally retarded or just plain stupid. But none the less, it soon became aparent that indeed I did know what I was talking about, and was indeed very pregnant! One day, he harrassed me so much I started bleeding and had to go to sick bay. They sent me home and told me to see my doctor. He told me I needed complete bed rest for a couple of days with my feet elevated. So I did just that. Not much changed at work. The only happy place for me was home, and our evenings together. We went for walks every night and Jack would tell me about the stars, and how everything was for me. We grew closer and closer. On the 4th of July we walked a few blocks away from the house and watched the fire works. I was so much in love with my new husband. I was happy for the first time in a very long while.
We went for all the doctor appointments, and I was doing really well. I wasn't gaining too much weight until November. I went in every week at that point and one week I had gained 10 lbs! The doctor said we should take some pictures to see just what was going on. Back then they didn't have ultrasound, so they did an X-ray. It was difficult to move around on the table, but after all the pictures were developed, they showed them to Jack and me. There were 2 babies! They had only been able to get one heart beat, but the pictures told the true story. I was so excited! But the only bad thing was that they were both in the breech position. The doctor said they would do a ceserean because breech birth would be too hard for me, as it was my first pregnancy.
That evening after we left the doctor office, we went to his Grandma Helen's house to tell them the news, but they wern't home. So we bought our TV dinners and went home. I couldn't eat. I was so excited. I took a walk down to the little market we shopped at and called my Mom's house. She wasn't there, but my brother was. I told him the news, but he had said earlier that I would probably have twin's because of how big I was getting. He was happy, and when my Mom came home and he told her about their being 2 babies, she didn't believe him because he had said that so often. I walked back home, and after we went to bed, I lay there wide awake and thinking about the prospect of 2 babies. It was 4:00 a.m. before I drifted off to sleep. At 5:00 a.m. I awoke with a start! It had felt like an earthquake in my stomach and my water broke! We hadn't even bought a bed yet for the baby, and here I was going into labor! Jack turned on the light, and was relieved that the ordeal would soon be over.
I went to the bathroom and changed clothes and put on his bathrobe and my slippers. My case for the hospital was already packed. I had been shopping and bought a pretty green nightgown and bathrobe and slippers, and had packed my makeup several weeks in advance. So we took my case, got in the car and headed for the hospital. We stopped at the market so Jack could alert my doctor, and then we left. The fiat had never ran so smoothly! I felt a pain just as we turned onto the freeway. When we got to the hospital, they had me put on a hospital gown and a little elderly man pushed me in a wheel chair to the lab where they took more pictures. I had wanted to have them naturally because back then they thought if you had one cesesarian, you couldn't have natural birth. My doctor had a specialist check me out, and he said I could have them naturally. So I decided to do just that.
Back then they didn't give you anything for the pain. You just had to suffer, and with 2 babies being born breech, the pain was excruciating. They gave me a cup of ice, and Jack stayed with me as long as they would let him. They would come in a check things out, and finally, after 8 hours of agony, one of the babies heart started slowing down and they decided to take me in and deliver the babies. Jack left at that point because they told him he would be in the way if something went wrong. He went to call my parents and his Mom and Grandma. It seemed like I was in the delivery room forever. They gave me a spinal, and there were several doctor's and a team of nurses there to take care of the babies. They delivered the first baby with forceps and disappeared with him. He was born bottom first, and the second baby was feet first. When they said they were both boys, I was thrilled. Most men want a son first and I had given Jack 2 sons! They held the second baby up for me to see, and I said "Hi, Baby! Don't cry!" I held up my hand to him and he grabbed my finger and stopped crying. Then they worked with me after the nurses left with the babies.
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