On the day I was born, my mother, Norma Jean was picking up her mother, Rhea Pulsipher from work at the Student Standards Office at Brigham Young University. My mother was staying with her mother as my Dad, Scott, had just started a job in Southern California. My mom was to move down after my birth. That day my mom brought my Grandma’s two cocker spaniels to go along to pick up my grandma. As my Grandma walked out of the building, the dogs were so excited that they jumped right on top of my mom’s 8 month pregnant belly! The force of two full grown dogs caused little me to turn all the way around in my mom’s uterus. Now this is no feat for a fully-grown baby or a large pregnant woman. My mom had to get out of the car because it hurt her so much. As she was hollowing in pain, the dogs began to lap up her water, which had broken as I was practicing belly gymnastics.
My mom was rushed to the hospital, as she was super worried about me! From there they called my dad! The poor man was not expecting his first child to be born for two more weeks, so he and my mom felt comfortable with him leaving for a few days. So he hurried to get to Provo from Los Angeles.
At this point, I was turned completely around in my mother’s womb. Instead of being head first, I was ready to be born feet first! This is really dangerous, and they discovered that I had the umbilical cord wrapped around my small neck. So my mom had a C-section. My Dad missed it too! He drove to Vegas then flew to Salt Lake City, where my Uncle picked him up.
One of my earliest memories was my brother Taylor’s birth. He was born on May 13, 1992. Our mother has birthed a child in three ways, I was a C-section, our sister Emily, with drugs, and Taylor was born naturally. At this point my family was living in Long Beach California. All throughout Taylor’s pregnancy the doctor said that he would be born normally, that is not a C-section like I was. Then, as my mom is situated in the hospital, water broken, ready to go, the doctor changed his mind and wanted my mom to have a C-section. His logic was based on his passed experience, where women from Mexico had C-sections then tried to come up and have regular births, and their stomachs broke open due to poor stitching. My parents were very upset, as well as my Grandma Sue McHale. She was an RN at that hospital and had recommended this doctor to my mom. She insisted that he was mistaken and that my mom would be fine. The doctor refused to comply with my family’s wishes, and refused to give my mom an epidural for the pain. She was in so much pain, she almost caved in to the doctor, but my Dad talked her out of it, as it was not what she really wanted. So my brother was born naturally and was perfectly healthy! What I remember from this day is that I got to eat chocolate pudding, and everyone seemed pretty upset. But, mostly I remember the chocolate pudding.
While we lived in Long Beach we made a lot of good friends, who we have maintained friendships with. I met Melinda Wilkins and her family when I was just two years old, as well as the Kirby family. We are still great friends, after several moves and big changes.
The Long Beach house was great, and I remember a bit about it. My parents redid their master bathroom when I was about 3. At that point, they both slept in my bed, and I was on the floor! I didn’t like that! One night there was a huge earthquake. It was a good thing they were in there, as shelving and other things fell over! My parents were able to grab both my brother and I, and we were all just fine!
I remember that we had really nice neighbors named the Wilsons. My little brother and I loved swimming at their pool! We both learned when we were really small. We loved being little fish. My little brother looked just like Dennis the Mennis with his bowl cut and overalls, and without prompting he would run over there yelling, “Mr. Wilson!!!”
We lived really close to my dad’s family and would get to see them often. I remember that my Grandpa Charlie would take me on bike rides, with me strapped into the back on this special seat. He would take me to get ice cream. He would order me a cone, even though I always needed help. I remember I would get so mad, because he would eat half of it to help me stop it from dripping! But I didn’t want grandpa to eat all my ice cream. He would even take me golfing, which was his favorite pass time. I had my own little club that I would use. I loved visiting grandpa!
When I’d spend time with grandma, I remember I would get up early with her and she’d be watching the shopping channel and knitting. I also liked to watch her sew and help her make peanut butter cookies. She is a huge packrat and has tons of knick-knacks that I was never allowed to touch. Even at 21 they are still tempting to play with.
We didn’t see them as much when we moved from Long Beach to San Diego. We moved to San Diego when I was about four years old.
No comments:
Post a Comment