Our First Baby

We were married at the start of my junior year in college and my husband's third year of vet school, so we both had two years to finish our degrees.  In our Sunday school class at church of young couples, one couple had a new baby.  We all oohed and aahed over this precious little one and started thinking about starting a family of our own.  However, sage advice from my dad offered strong encouragement to wait until we were finished with school, and I have always been glad that we did wait.

Following our graduation on June 1, we left town to interview for a mixed vet practice in western Kansas.  John took the job and we moved shortly thereafter to begin "real" life.  He began to learn the ropes and roads of the country practice and I substitute taught in the local school.  Now that we were getting settled in, we decided that we were ready to start a family.  Four months later I suspected that I was pregnant and after several more months I went to the doctor.  The small community we lived in had a six room hospital and a wonderful family practice doctor.  He confirmed that we were expecting a baby due May 24.  We were thrilled; this child would be the first grandchild for both of our parents and first great-grandchild for my dad's parents.  Needless to say we were all quite excited.  I experienced some morning sickness, but generally, I felt great.

I often would either go with John on his vet calls out in the country or assist with c-sections on cows at the clinic.  Donning his coveralls when I helped to keep from getting too dirty, I gradually could not zip the coveralls up any more.  After one particularly late and stressful night, I had some early labor pains, so my days of vet assistant were over.  John would bring his stethoscope home so we could listen to the heartbeat and offer insights on the similarities of human and animal pregnancies.

Monthly checkups went well.  A nurse in the community taught childbirth classes which was surprising in light of it being in a rural area and the idea being relatively new. We gladly attended classes later in the pregnancy eager to learn all we could to better prepare for the birth.  These classes helped me understand what would happen and how to work with the labor process.

A week past my due date, the doctor found that my blood pressure had gone up causing some concern.  Being over-due and now the blood pressure issue discouraged me, nine months pregnant in the Kansas summer heat.  The baby had missed the due date, my mother-in-law's birthday and now it was John's birthday.  We invited friends over for strawberry short cake to celebrate his birthday and take our minds off our troubles. After our friends left and we had gone to bed, I began to feel what I anticipated were labor pains.  Sure enough, as the night wore on it was clear I was in labor, but my veterinary husband who had been called out many times in the middle of the night wanted to wait until morning to go to the hospital. 

We waited until after 8 am to go to the hospital.  My doctor was out of town, but his son who had just completed his residency in obstetrics was there for the delivery.  John was in the delivery room and the two guys discussed the similarities and differences of the deliveries they had done.  The doctor decided he needed to use forceps and this prompted a discussion of how many pounds of pressure applied with jack when pulling a calf!  Soon our first child was born, an 8 lb. 6 oz. baby girl 20 1/2 inches long.  We named her Jennifer Ann. Her head was covered with peach fuzz, her tiny ears scrunched to her head and a tiny rosebud mouth. She chose her own birthday, missing her dad's by one day.   One year after our college graduation, we were now parents. How blessed we were!