July 25th, 1969

The Birth of my daughter. 

But, we have to start from the day before.  I was not feeling that great.  Through the latter part  of my pregnancy I was having dizzy spells. I did tell the doctor who told me that is not unusual. I felt like something was wrong but hey, I am not a doctor.

Billy said, I'm going to the bar for a few hours. I was not happy. I am never happy when he goes to the bar but he knows I am nervous being close to having a baby.  He said I'll be home by 10pm.  That rarely happened. 

But it did happen that night.   He came in and started making spaghetti because he was hungry. He tried to get me to eat, but I was not hungry, thankgoodness!  ( If you ate  soon before going into labor, they would not give you drugs.) So he ate, left a big mess in the kitchen and went to bed. 

Some information about giving birth back in the stone age.  You were completely shaved. No one else was allowed in the delivery room. 
You  were strapped down, arms and legs, like an animal. 
But you were given drugs...good drugs :D. 

I woke  at around 3ish, with some pressure pain, and I was bleeding a little. I thought this might be labor.

I woke Billy and waited, the pressure pain continued, I called the doctor. He said, this is your first one, it will be awhile, just keep track of labor pain, you have a long way to go.

So, I laid there waiting. 

I have to explain, the only information I had about water breaking was from my mother. Women would say, my water broke and soon after labor started etc. But my mother said, when her water broke it was like a dripping faucet. So that is what I expected.

About 4am I hear a loud SNAP and liquid is gushing out of me!  I think I am bleeding to death because I was bleeding lightly earlier. I can't speak because I think I must have only seconds to live with that much blood pouring out of me! 

I hit Billy, who is also wet from this avalanche of water. He goes to turn on the nightstand light and gets a little zap from it and the light blows out and he jumps out of bed and turns on the over head light.

We are both a little shell shocked. 

He is looking  down at me and I must have this look of horror on my face and I finally look at my body and sheets  and only see sticky-ish water instead of a river of blood.

We both have to get out of our wet clothes  and  I get hit with a pain that lands me on the sofa.  The pains are pretty intense, I know I bit Billys leg at one point. We timed the pains and called the doctor again who said, again, you have plenty of time blah blah. 

We had no car, so the time I went into labor decided which father would be home from work, that we would call. Billy's father was home so he was called. 

The pain is getting worse, I am starting to push!

Billy called the local ambulance. He kept dialing the number wrong so he runs out to go down there and get them, about 6 blocks away,
......leaving me alone on the sofa in labor. 

I hear Pop come in and the smile soon leaves his face. I am on the sofa in great pain and his son is nowhere around. I tell him where he went.  

 Pop said, we need to get you out of here. So between pains I run downstairs and get in the backseat of his car.  
He starts up the car just as Billy arrives with the ambulance. 
They drag me out of Pops car and put me in the ambulance. I lost my slippers at that point.

I am tested to see how dilated I am,  I hear the usual, its a first one there is plenty of time.  

We get to the hospital and I am put in a small room, with a big clock on the wall.  It is 4:50am
I am now starting to push more!

Someone comes in and wheels me to an elevator, I am pushing more, she tells me to stop. She tells me to breathe fast when I feel the urge to push. I breathe fast and push. I tell her I can't stop the pushing!

There is a man in the elevator with us and he is not happy to be there, I am pushing all over the place. 

We get to the delivery room, A nurse with very thick glasses, dry shaves me. My arms and legs are strapped down and I don't like it! 
I am telling them to unstrap me! At least my hands, unstrap my hands! But no. I tell them I want drugs!

GIVE ME DRUGS! 

I finally get them as I feel, what feels like a  bowling ball is coming out of me...I am..out.

I seem to come up from a dark place because a  nurse is slapping my face, telling me to stop it.
"stop it Rita, stop it Rita, stop it Rita"...I think I said,"what am I doing??" 
But I think, oh, now they want me awake, this is not over! I am going back to sleep till it's over. 
And I do.

Around 9am ish, I wake up, still in the delivery room. I look down and I am surprised to see a flat stomach and a nurse pressing on it. I can feel something is coming out.  

She stops and tells me I had a girl. I knew it was going to be a girl.  5 lbs 6oz. 19"long, A+blood.
 I ask if she is ok, she said she is fine.

She says something about I have an irregular heartbeat but I am ok, they were just watching it. I wonder if that is why they tried to wake me earlier. 

So I arrived at the hospital at 4:50am and Agnes was born at 5:10am. 20 minutes later. 

I am pretty sure my doctor did not arrive in time because she was being born when I passed out and he was not there. He said he was.

Some other information. 

When we got to the hospital, Billy said he wanted coffee, the ambulance guys told him, go get coffee, you  have plenty of time to wait around, its her first one. 
When he got back he was told he had a baby girl.  Most Italians want a son, but Billy was not like that, he was happy having a girl.

During labor she turned. They called it a breech block. I think, I would have had her at home if she didn't turn. 

I did not see her till the next day.  Everyone said she was beautiful, they took me in a wheelchair to finally see her! I was dizzy and had told the nurse, but I guess that was a normal thing because nothing was done about, again.

 Back then, it was a 3 day stay after you had a baby.  On the second day I fainted. Peggy and Billy were there, thankgoodness because Billy caught me.  I fainted in front of everyone in the visiting room on our floor. sigh

I had to stay an extra day because they took tests.  I was NOT happy.   I was anemic, that's why I was dizzy.
  I went in the hospital about 130 lbs and came out 105.  I must have had 15 lbs of water. I would not doubt it! 

Peggy came to take us home. She brought two outfits for me, one to wear home because none of my clothes fit, so I wore a stripped short jumper.  Agnes wore a blue dress with red and white flowers around the collar her Nana bought for her.

We stopped at Nana's house, so they could run down to the car and see her. I asked everyone, who does she look like and they all said....Billy.  Pissed me off..

So, that was the first 4 days of the life of Agnes. 

When we got home, I found out her Uncle Johnny had a fight with Joann  and was staying at our tiny apartment, on the sofa.  Just wonderful...