Book Entry 79: 1969 First Baby on the Way

 

I found out in March I was pregnant.  It is impossible to put into words the feelings I had.  How exciting to think Larry and I were going to have a child.  This baby would be a combination of him and me?  It boggled my mind.  All thoughts shifted from fixing our home and yards for ourselves to getting ready for a baby and getting ready to be a mom.

I remember someone making the comment that the two of us would make a pretty baby.  It hit me as soon as I heard those words, even though this baby was growing inside of me, I had very little to do with “making it.” 

Larry bought me my first sewing machine from Mr. Angel at the Singer Shop in Turlock.  He was a nice man but I don’t remember anything about him but his name.  He gave me a beginners sewing book as a gift.  I bought a pattern, some thread, and some fabric.  I opened the pattern when I got home and began to teach myself to sew.

It’s a good thing we lived far in the country.  My first attempts at making smocks, to cover my growing belly, were pretty bad.  As puckered as they were they could not be fixed, but they could not be wasted, so I wore them but only while I was at home.  

In those days there was no test to determine boy or girl.  We painted our second bedroom yellow to be safe.  In July I was given a baby shower by our church and another by Larry’s aunts.  We had everything we needed from diaper pins (no disposable diapers then) to pajamas.  Almost everything was green or yellow.

August 26^th I had a regular checkup with Dr. Bigelow.  While he was listening to my tummy he got a huge grin on his face.  “You’ve gotten quite a bit bigger since your last visit, and there is a strange sound in there,” he said pointing at my tummy.

I didn’t have an idea what he was talking about.  When I asked him what kind of strange sound he grinned again and said, “Your baby has a brother or sister, you are having twins!”  I could hardly believe it!  Dr. Bigelow was smiling.  He called Mary, his nurse, into the office to tell her.  Once she heard she opened the door and called to the nurse at the front desk telling her! 

When I left the doctors office I was so excited.  I drove straight home to the field where Larry was irrigating.  When I told him our news his face beamed for a second, looked like he went into shock, them beamed again.

He checked the water, said he had thirty minutes, enough time to drive to his parents house to tell them our wonderful news.  They were excited too.  Alpha told me one of her sisters had twins and another sister had triplets. I told them my dad is a twin.  We all laughed and hugged. 

Del said I wasn’t having a baby I was having a litter.  We laughed again.  Alpha had promised to buy us a crib for our baby.  She laughed and said now she would have to buy two.  She giggled and said, “We will need two of everything!”

Larry drove us back to the place he was irrigating.  I didn’t want to tell my mom on the phone so I headed for Hughson to tell her and my grandmother the wonderful news.

I knew mom was at grandma’s house so that is where I went.  My aunt Kathleen happened to be there too.  When I blurted out the news all three of the women started starring at my tummy.  They all agreed I was awfully big for six months and laughed.  Grandma asked to see my tummy.  When she pulled up my smock she gasped at the stretch marks.  “Wow, I’ve never seen that many and they go all the way around you.  You must be growing very fast to stretch like that.” 

I think mom was in shock.  I don’t know why it was so shocking.  After a few minutes when she could speak she was happy too.  I didn’t stay long.  I wanted to go home and be with Larry.

 Mom left when I did to tell dad.  Dad kept saying it was because of him, because he was a twin, that I would be having twins.  He called me on the phone that evening saying how happy he was.  He said he was going shopping on the following Saturday.  He was going to buy two little pink dresses and two little blue outfits.  He was ready to be a grandpa.