(Shayne is 4 months old in this photo.)I received a surprise comment from the Marketing Department at Overlake Hospital because I mentioned Overlake on my June 8 blog when I mentioned Shayne's 43rd birthday.
The lady who contacted me wanted to know the story of our experience there, as they are preparing for the 50th anniversary celebration of the hospital. So - I wrote and told her the following:
We arrived at the hospital between 11 and 11:30 a m that morning, as I recall, and when I went up to the desk, the gal took one look at me and said, "I'm sorry. We are very busy today. Could you please come back another day for your tour?"
In those days, they encouraged parents-to-be to come in for a pre-visit, just to see the maternity wing and get a feeling for where they would be coming.... She presumed that was why I was there. For some reason, I was very 'compact' with that first pregnancy. I went into the hospital weighing 132, came out weighing +-117, and in a week was down to 110! I never achieved that record again!
So - - I calmly told her, "No, I'm not here for the tour. I'm here to have the baby. My contractions are about 3 minutes apart." She was stunned, but directed us to where we needed to be. It was definitely a birthing boom day! I was pre-registered, so all of that went smoothly.
Back in those days, of course, we didn't have the luxury of choosing whether to learn the baby's gender prior to birth. You got what you got! There was lots of yellow purchased for going home outfits - suitable for boys or girls!
I remember the birth very clearly. I had a caudal 1/2 hour before baby was born, but up to that point got to experience all of it. I remember their having to snap my tailbone - which had been broken a couple of years earlier in Mexico City bouncing down a flight of cement stairs. It had healed turned inward and was going to hurt the baby. The blessing was that after it healed that time, it didn't hurt any longer - and never gave me any further trouble. There were some other incidentals common to birth experiences in those days that I don't think I want to mention on a blog!
However, I do recall that having the caudal meant I had to lay absolutely still for many hours afterward until it wore off. I didn't ever do that again, since I knew that once I got to the point of 'ready for this to be over' it would only be about 1/2 hour longer.... So - my 3 girls were born pretty naturally - - with only a drip to speed up labor in a couple of cases. But with the first one there was no way to know how fast that part of dilation and birth would progress, so it seemed to be the right thing to do at the time.
My care at Overlake was wonderful. I never had any better care with any subsequent pregnancy. I remember the nurse coming in every 15 minutes or so to massage the uterus - something I did myself for the the 3 later full-term pregnancies, without the amazing attentive care at Overlake, since I no longer lived in that area.... (I lived in Montesano when my 3 girls were born.) I was in the hospital for a few days at Overlake - something else that changed with subsequent deliveries.
At the end of my note to her I stated:
Because Northwest University (College in those days) in Kirkland had several students whose babies were born at Overlake, you might find that a good resource for connecting with other parents in that era. Perhaps even some of the first babies born there could be tracked down that way....
If you are a Northwest alum who had a child at Overlake, write to me at yoandpa@hotmail.com and I will send you the address to write to - - or just refer to the comment on my June 8 blog entry and reply to the address given.... There should be several! It would be super cool if some born in 1960 could be located through our alumni connections!
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