When I wrote our son’s birth story in December our daughter, who is the older of the two, casually inquired why her birth story had not appeared on the blog for her birthday last August. I started blogging in July of 2018, but the idea to record their birth stories never occurred to me at the time. I figure I better get her story done for her birthday this year to keep the peace. I don't want to give one sibling more press than the other...
Shortly before Christmas of 1984, I suspected I was with child. We had been married for four years and decided it was time to start our family. I booked a doctor’s appointment in Prince Albert and The Hubs and I made plans to head into the city the following Friday. A few days later he proceeded to tell me he had invited another couple along. This development made me anxious as I didn't want anyone to know I was seeing the doctor for a pregnancy test.
Luckily, my doctor's office was next to the shopping mall where we went. I said I was going shopping and made a beeline for the clinic instead. The doctor confirmed my suspicions and I went back to the mall with my little secret and we carried on with our evening. The Hubs kept giving me an inquiring look, so I indicated to him that the bun was in the oven. Even though we were planning for a baby, I think we were both in a bit of shock that night.
When we felt the time was right, we told our family and friends about our impending parenthood. An ultrasound confirmed we were going to have a little girl and we started calling her by the name we had chosen. It was like waiting for someone you had known for a long time to come for a visit. With our first child, we found out the gender of the baby, but didn't for the second. Gender reveal parties weren’t a thing yet in the eighties. I decided that because there are so few true surprises in life not knowing was the better way for me.
Four days before my August due date I awoke at seven in the morning in the early stages of labour. This went on all day. We tried to keep busy in the August heat by going to my parent’s farm for a visit. We were invited to my cousin's wedding but for obvious reasons backed out. Mom and Dad went to the wedding and The Hubs and I and a family friend had supper at the farm.
By 7:30 that evening my contractions were getting stronger, so we made the hour-long drive to Prince Albert to the Holy Family Hospital. I had never had a baby before, and I naively assumed that those strong twinges I was having were as bad as it would get. I laboured on at that level through the night, the next morning and into the afternoon but wasn't making much progress. Finally, the doctor came and decided things needed to speed up and our daughter was born at 2:14 p.m.
The first time I looked at her little face she had her thumb shoved skillfully in her mouth. It was obvious she had been sucking that thumb for a while before she made her entrance into the world. She went hard sucking that poor thumb for years. She weighed in at seven pounds five and a half ounces and was twenty and three-quarters inches long. Our little girl had blue eyes, which later turned green, milky white skin like her paternal grandmother and a skiff of fair hair that eventually grew into long, thick ringlets that tumbled down her back.
The Hubs was in the delivery room for both our children’s births, calm and cool. After she was born, he phoned our parents to tell them our little girl had arrived. That evening he went to his Mom’s farm and a group of friends and family gathered to celebrate the birth of the first grandchild in The Hubs’ family.
I chose her name based on an eighties soap opera character - Brittany. My dad could never quite pronounce it correctly.
We brought our little girl home after four days in the hospital. It is always hard to settle in the first few nights with a new baby in the house. You are on high alert. The Hubs had softball playoffs out of town that weekend, so my mother-in-law got called up to fill in and came to stay with the baby and me.
Over the years our little girl grew into an intelligent and feisty young lady. She loved school, her friends, animals and sports.
One year old
I had no idea then the incredible person she would turn out to be and the support and friendship she would gift me with.
2019