John is going to Russia on the 26th and my friend Linda (Carter) is coming to stay with me. I went to high school with Linda but I was a few years ahead of her. I can't say that I actually remember her from high school but we ran into each other years later when we both lived in Virginia beach. Actually, I knew Linda's ex-husband far better than I knew Linda. In fact, I had a crush on him in high school. We went to the same church but he never showed any interest in me AT ALL.
So, I was pregnant with Jeff, and John and I were starting a Lamaze class. On the first day, I see Mark Carter in there with his wife, Linda. I speak to him and the 4 of us sat together and became fast friends. I think we may have gotten together out of Lamaze class maybe one or two times. It was Linda and I who had the real connection. We had both had troubled pregnancies with having to take hormones and we both wanted a baby so much. We would talk regularly and visit now and then. Little did I know that this woman would end up being my soul mate for life.
Her baby came first. He was 3 weeks before Jeff. My mom was in town waiting for Jeff to come and we went over to Lindas and saw her baby. I knew my time was gonna be soon. It was about this time that the doctor decided I had better not try natural delivery because of the position Jeff was in. They did xrays, and he was too big to turn. He was a transverse lie. The doctor said he couldn't come out this way and it would be too dangerous to try. So, we scheduled the C-section. Linda and I were both nursing and she was part of another group of women who were nursing and we all decided to start a play group for our babies (all boys). I think there were about 6 or 7 of us in the beginning. The boys were maybe a year old at that point, possibly younger. So, we would meet every Thursday morning...in the beginning it was at our church, in the nursery and we eventually progressed to McDonalds. These boys played together every Thursday. As the boys got older, we started taking field trips every Thursday. It would be to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth, or Putt Putt. We even went to a horse farm one time. We had a couple of people to go and a new person here and there, but basically we had a "core" of 4 or 5 ladies and their boys. When Jeff was 2-1/2 I became pregnant with Jenny and we kept up with the playgroup. I probably missed some weeks in there, but as soon as Jenny was portable, we started up again. Then another gal had a baby girl and the Linda had a baby girl. Everyone would stop and come back as needed with their baby girls but the group continued on. Believe it or not, this group stayed together for SEVEN years. Yes, Jeff was 7 years old when John got orders for us to move to Connecticut. This was the demise of the play group, but it wasn't the demise of my friendship with Linda. We had become so close by this time that there was no breaking us up. I told her everything in my life and she was a life saver many times. We were always there for each other through those 7 years. I knew I had found my best friend.
There have been many times that we were there for each other, but 2 instances stand out for me. The first one was when Jenny was about a month old, my mom had just moved to the nursing home and Jeff was 3 years old. Jeff started running a fever and had no other symptoms so I just kept an eye on him and would give him tylenol. Well, at some point in the night he started convulsing. I was a panicked wreck. I put my finger in his mouth to hold his tongue down cuz I was afraid he would swallow it. He was clamping down on my finger and I could not get it out. I ran to the phone, and didn't call 911....Linda is a Nurse and I knew she would know what to do. I called her. He told me to go into the shower with Jeff and let the water run on his head. She cautioned me for the water not to be too cold but just tepid. I did this and in the meantime, she called 911 and hoped in her car and came immediately to my house. Jenny was in her crib and I'm sure she was crying because everything happened so fast. I don't remember hearing her though. I was soaked to the bone and so was Jeff. It was in the shower that he let go of my finger which was bleading by then. I still have a scar on my
When her son was about 5 he got really sick and had to go to the hospital for about a week. I kept her baby girl, who was about 5 months old and I nursed her that entire week. I would visit Linda with the baby during the day at the hospital where Brett was, and she would give me breast milk to feed Ashley. We did this for a week. Linda didn't want to stop nursing Ashley and Ashley took right to my breast. In fact, she preferred it to the bottle with breast milk. It was a wonderful and loving experience for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment