30 Years of Memories: The First Child (1987)

After we got out of college, Mike went into the Army. He had branched Field Artillery, so we made our way to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for the Officer Basic Course in the Summer of 1986.   It felt like we had won the lottery, because the Army seemed to be giving him all kinds of money...He got money for uniforms, money for travel, money for being married, money for housing...After being poor college students for the last four years, we felt incredibly rich and went and celebrated our good fortune by buying a new television and a V.C.R (that is a video cassette recorder for you young people.)   Mike also went and bought a brown Mazda B210 LX Convenience Package.  He made a point to tell me to say "convenience package" when I was telling our family members about the truck on the phone.   We were very excited about our new stuff :).

We were only at Fort Sill for 5 months.  I had gotten a job at Dody's Hallmark Store because it was summer time and I knew I wouldn't be there for long once the school year started.  I went home a little early to take the National Teacher Exam.  My parents and sister were very sick with some stomach virus while I was home, but I managed to avoid it.   Mike was supposed to go straight from Fort Sill to Fort Benning to attend Airborne School...but he missed me and decided to come and get me and take me with him to Fort Benning.   He was only at my folks house for one night, which was apparently enough to get the stomach bug...and he arrived deathly ill at his first formation...at the very last minute, because we hadn't taken into account the time change from central to eastern time.   He was so sick, that we ended up bunking in his buddies room in a twin bed because he couldn't arrange a place for us to stay.   The next day he got us settled in the Bachelor Officer Quarters...but I had to drag everything from the truck up the three flights of stairs to our temporary room   I was super exhausted, and kind of nauseous...so I assumed that I was getting the stomach bug that everyone else had gotten.   Only mine was kind of mild while theirs was violent.  Mine was hanging on and on for the next two weeks, and theirs was kind of a two day illness and they were better.   

Me at Chuck and Deb' house...sick, and unaware that I am pregnant.

Mike's birthday rolled around, and we decided to go to a steak house to celebrate.   I was so hungry...finally feeling better and I went through the line and picked a nice meal of steak and fries.   I ate one french fry and my stomach just rebelled.   I ran to the bathroom and threw up so hard it bounced back in my hair.   I was totally grossed out on top of being sick.   When I cleaned myself up and made my way back to the table, Mike looked at me and said "You're pregnant."  I said "No, I'm not!".....but then started to wonder if it could possibly be?   We stopped by the PX on the way back to our temporary home, and bought a pregnancy test.   Back then, there were no easy plus and minus signs.   You had to remember the color and if it changed slightly that meant you were pregnant.   So I took the test....and then we questioned whether we were really "remembering" the color correctly. :).   Back to the PX we went for another kind of pregnancy test....which also seemed to say "Yes, you are pregnant."   I was scared and excited.and sick as a dog....,no turning back now!  Mike graduated from Airborne School and we made our way to Fort Bragg for his first assignment in Charlie Battery 5/8 FA.  Go Centaurs!   

I substitute taught a little bit, but I was so morning sick, and so overwhelmed by all of the changes...being away from home, scared to death of doctors, needles, etc...and having to deal with it anyway....that I mostly stayed home in the bed watching soap operas and growing huge.   

9+ months pregnant...and feeling like
there was no more room in the Inn.  

Remember the truck that Mike was so proud of that we had just bought in Oklahoma....well here it is one year later and we realize that my car had no AC which was not going to work for this Mama and baby in the heat of North Carolina....and the truck only had bucket seats...no room for baby.   We traded it in on a new car that just had started being manufactured in the States....a four door Hyundai. We bought it on the 4th of July...my due date....but still no baby.   

Mike added the lemon because in one year's time we had four
engine's replaced in this car.  The first one was only one month
after we bought the car.   They wouldn't do anything for us to make
it right.   We ended up taking a $2000 dollar loss on this car to get rid
of it, and will NEVER own another Hyundai   

July 11, 1987, Mike was home from the field and had a good night sleep.  I woke up early and went into the bathroom and my water broke conveniently on the toilet.   I'm organized that way. :).  I wasn't feeling any contractions at all...but Mike sped to the hospital anyway.   About an hour after we got the hospital my contractions started and they were about three minutes apart.   At first I thought they weren't that bad....but every three minutes for the next thirteen hours...and I was pretty worn out. It was so busy in the labor rooms that they started doubling up with two women in each room.   A lady would come in, labor a while, and they would take her out.....and I still kept on with my every three minute deal.   Mike was trying to be supportive by rubbing my leg...but I was in shut down mode and not wanting to talk or be touched. After a while, Mike was looking at me like "Come on! let's get this show on the road!"  He was eating Pecan Sandies Cookies which to this day makes my mouth as dry as dust when I think of it.   I was so stinkin' thirsty and they wouldn't let me have anything to drink....but Mike kept running and getting me ice chips until they finally said I couldn't have any more.     Finally, the baby started having signs of distress and his heart rate was dropping off.  They were really hurting me when they were trying to attach a monitor to the baby's head and not waiting for my contraction to be over with. The doctor decided to take me in for a c-section because to that point...thirteen hours later, the baby had not dropped at all, and I had not dilated more than .5 centimeters in spite of all of my contractions.   I was ready for them to do something....anything...by that point!   I just wanted them to knock me out!  And they did!  

I woke up in extreme pain and foggy from the meds.   They were telling me that I had a little boy...but I was having trouble remembering that I had even been pregnant :).   Mike was off somewhere with the baby and I fell back asleep.   Mike was in the recovery room with me, and I asked him a bunch of questions, but couldn't seem to remember the answers...and I was back asleep. They wheeled my bed into my hospital room.   I was still in a lot of pain and they were offering me a shot....still no water ...no ice chips...PLEASE GIVE ME SOME LIQUID!!!   Sleep.    Mike was there with the baby.  He was remarkably comfortable with him already... He asked me "Do you want to hold him?"   I was shaking....so cold....so thirsty...so weak....so overwhelmed.  I don't know if I can be a mom.   "Not right now."  I answered and felt ashamed. I asked Mike the same questions I had asked him before, and he told me again.  It wasn't long before I asked to hold the baby   Love!   Sleep.   Pain....Okay give me a shot.   PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ICE CHIPS! Ask Mike the same questions,  Sleep.   A nurse came in with ice chips for the other girl sharing a room with me and accidentally gave them to me.   I knew I wasn't supposed to have them.....but I savored them anyway :).  

Michael Daniel Wood
born July 11, 1987
7 lbs 5 oz
21 inches long
blond hair, blue eyes 

worn out, drugged up, confused new Mama

My first little bundle of love.   

Our home was not very well furnished.   We had nice bedroom furniture and a washer and dryer that we were making payments on,  and an old castoff couch of my mother-in-laws that looked like it came straight out of the Brady Bunch's house....and the tv and vcr  I mentioned earlier.  I had a wooden rocker that Mike had bought me for my birthday.   We ate on a card table with two rickety chairs (actually collapsed under a guest one day)   I had a second hand baby bed given to me by my parents, and some mattresses that Mike's parents had given us on the floor in the babies room.  Mike had a desk and shelves made of cinder blocks and boards.  It was early American marriage at it's finest.   We now had rent and utilities, another car payment, and a baby.....so we no longer felt rich. The extra money seemed to dry up after we got to our permanent duty station, and we were living paycheck to paycheck.

Pa feeds the baby and sings "Boop boop Diddum Daddum Why don't you?"  

First visits with Grandpa and MeeMa

First visits with Oma and Pa

Michael (2 1/2 weeks) meets his cousin Chucky (4 days)

First fit :)  

Michael meets his Great Grandmother

Pa wan't him to be a Harley boy

Getting scrubbed up by Oma.  Michael is about 3 months in this picture

First Halloween

Playing with Daddy "balancing" and scaring Mommy to death.

Mad at Daddy :(

learning to sit up...in front of the chair that my parents had bought us
when they came up when Michael was born because there was no comfortable
place to sit in my house :).  

We love our carrots!

Loved his swing, and loved his thumb  

Mama is cherishing every moment and trying to print it in my
memories forever.   I loved this little boy!  Still do!

I always had him in shoes and the Doc kept asking me if he had
"found his feet."  I was introducing him to his feet :)

Michael's favorite stuffed animal.  He slept with Snoopy for years

First Santa experience

Yes,,,,I decorated his swing for Christmas.   We called our
decorations tacky Kmart Christmas for years :).  

Reaching for those ornaments!