John is going to Russia next week and my girlfriend, Linda Carter, is coming to stay with me. She lives in Virginia Beach. We actually went to high school together, but I didn't know her in high school. She was a few grades behind me. Her ex husband and I were the same age, and I knew him better than her. It was in 1978 and John and I went to our first Lamaze class when I was pregnant with Jeff. And there across the room, I saw Mark Carter and his pregnant wife. I sort of recognized her but didn't know her name. I spoke to Mark and we were all surprised to see someone from our home town. We were in Norfolk, Virginia at the time where John was stationed in the Navy, and Mark owned the local Western Sizzlin restaurant. Linda and I became fast friends talking about our pregnancies and how much we wanted a baby, etc. Her baby was born 3 weeks before Jeff.
We were both nursing and there were several other ladies that she knew who were all nursing and so we decided to get together every Thursday morning and just talk about our baby boys and nursing and all the things we had in common. As the boys grew, we continued meeting on Thursdays every week. We would meet at different places, sometimes at our church nursery and as the boys grew, we began to meet at the McDonald's playground. Then when the boys grew and needed more stimulation, we started going on outings to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth, VA and to play putt putt. Once we went to a horse farm. The amazing thing about this group of 4 or 5 ladies is that a few of us had little girls after a few years and we would stop going for a little while but we would always start back up and then our little girls were playing together. This group stayed together until our boys were 7 years old. That was when John got orders for us to move to Connecticut and he was going to be Commanding Officer of the USS ALBUQUERQUE. Linda told me that the group would get together occasionally after that, but it was never a regular thing after that.
Through all these years, Linda and I began to rely on each other more and more, and she has without a doubt, become the best friend a person could ever have and she is truly my soul-mate. I treasure her friendship. We have been through hardships together and comforted each other through all sorts of things.
When her son was about 5 or 6 years old, her baby girl was about 5 months old. Linda wanted to stay at the hospital with Brett, but she didn't want to stop nursing Ashley. I kept Ashley and let her nurse me every night and every day. I would take Ashley to the hospital to meet Linda downstairs and they would bond and Linda would give me breastmilk for the evenings. Once Brett was all better, Ashley was still nursing just like before. I even had milk starting to come in. It was quite an experience.
When Jeff was 3 and Jenny was only about a month old, he started running a fever in the night. No other symptoms, just the fever. I was giving him tylenol regularly and at some point in the night, he started convulsing....OMG...I was scared to death. I had always heard that someone could swallow their tongue and die during an episode like this, so I stuck my fingers in his mouth to hopefully stop that from happening. Jeff just clamped down on my fingers and I could not get my hand out. I was in such a panic....but my first thought was to call Linda, who is a Registered Nurse. She told me to take him into the shower immediately and let the tepid water run over his head to bring the fever down. I did this and all the time, my finger was still clinched in his mouth. FINALLY, he let go. In the meantime, Linda had called 911 and they were at the door...minutes later, Linda came in. They were putting Jeff in the ambulance and I was able to go with him because Linda grabbed Jenny and followed us the the hospital. She would bring Jenny back to me in the emergency room and I would nurse her. We were at the hospital most of the night. It turned out that Jeff just had a febrile reaction...He never had another convulsion but he was always prone to very high fevers and strep throat. That was what this turned out to be. Linda was there for me and I'll always be greatful to her for that.
Now 27 years later, she is coming again to stay with me while John is gone. I am walking pretty well and I think I'll be just fine, but I surely am looking forward to her visit and our catching up.
oh snap, wonder woman is going to be taking care of you? watch out for her lasso of truth!
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed...she is WONDER WOMAN...you have no idea...
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