17 Minutes to Launch

I begged my Mama to tell me my birth story over and over as I grew up.  She always told me the exact same story. 

On a wonderful, summer Thursday morning back in the 60’s, Mama and Daddy sat down to eat breakfast.  Well, Daddy sat and Mama worked; cooking the eggs, sausage, toast, and whatever else Daddy wanted.  Big brothers sat at the table to eat, too.  Daddy worked at the chemical company. He had to be there at 8:00 am.  The boys were nine and eleven. They were excited about Primary Pioneer Day Parade at 10:00 a.m. that day.  Mama had helped organize it this year.  She volunteered teaching the children at church.

I snuggled warmly in Mama’s belly.  You see, I wasn’t born, yet.

Mama had made Daddy his Postum.  He had joined the Mormon church a year and a half ago, so he quit coffee.  She started to pour him a cup and a sudden pain sharply crept around both sides of her belly. She froze as the Postum poured into the cup, overflowed, and onto Daddy’s lap!

“What ae you doing?” he cried.

“I’m having this baby!” she exclaimed.

The rushing and running began!  It was a wild trip to the Amarillo Osteopathic Hospital.  Mama and Daddy had not gone to visit the place, nor did they know where the emergency entrance was.  Daddy swerved up to the front, left the car running in the street, and ran around to help Mama out.  She waddled to the big steps going in and cried out with another pain as she tried to climb them.

Nurses ran out and down the steps to help her.  Mama couldn’t move because my head was being born.  I was in a hurry to see everything.  Daddy scooped her up in his arms, and carried her to the gurney inside.  Mama was screaming in pain, while the doctor, Maurice Mann D.O., was playing golf.

The nurses had called him to get there fast when Daddy let them know they were coming.  Seventeen minutes from the time Mama started up those steps, Dr. Mann D.O. ran into the room in plain clothes with no gloves and caught me! I was launched into this world!

The doctor joked, “Well, Della, were you hoping for a three stick Kite, or a two stick Kite?” Our last name was Kite, and he tried to make Mama guess my gender. “It’s a girl!” he shouted happily.

I weighed 6lbs. 12oz, and I was bald.  I was the smallest baby Mama ever had, and the one who gave her the most stitches; over one hundred! She had a long recovery process.

Before she knew she was pregnant, she had felt very sick.  She had never been so thin, and she vomited all day for a week.  Then, she started menstruating, and it was much heavier than normal with clots in it.  She went to the doctor to discover what was wrong.  He told her that she was pregnant, but that given her age and health, she would probably miscarry.  Mama pleaded for him to do something.  He explained there was nothing to do except for her to stay off her feet for a while.  He told her the risks, and explained that older woman do not fair well with pregnancy after nine years of not having a child. (It was a long time ago.)

He added playfully, “It’s probably just some Monstrosity nature is trying to sluff off.” That was the joke as long as my mother lived, that I was her Monstrosity.