A November to Remember

November 5 - Cherished Memory #5

Always associated with the number 5 (one of my favorite numbers) is our daughter, Amanda, who was born on August 5.  I wrote a post about her for an April Love prompt last year.  You can read that here.

Amanda (although we didn't have her name picked out yet and we didn't know whether she was going to be a boy or a girl) was supposed to be born around the third week of July.  She was late.  By the beginning of August I was getting tired of waiting.  Our obstetrician said that we could induce if there was no baby within a few days so we picked August 5 as the date.  I thought 8/5/86 would be an easy date to remember.  (I suppose 8/6/86 would have been even easier, but I think the doctor had a day off on the 6th and I really liked my obstetrician).

At any rate, there was no spontaneous action happening so my husband took me to the hospital and we got all checked in and settled in the room.  It was about 8 o'clock in the morning.  They had suggested that I get something to focus on during delivery and my husband knows my fondness for Koala bears so he got this for me to look at:




Dr. Marquette came in to say hello and gave the order for the pitocin to be started.  This is a medicine they give you to help start the labor process.  And then we waited.  I watched TV.  My husband had a friend come over to wait with him.  We waited some more.  They let me get up and walk around.  We waited.  The doctor came in around noon to check to see if I had started dilating.  He said it was starting, but not enough.  We waited some more.  We talked about names because we still hadn't picked one.  Matthew was one of the ones we liked if it was a boy.  Tiffany or Michelle were a couple we thought of for a girl.

Finally, I started to feel some contractions.  They were not too bad, but the nurse came in and asked me if I wanted an epidural.  I could handle the pain at that point so I said no, not yet.  No one told me there was a "point of no return."  Soon the pain was getting more frequent and harder.  My back started to hurt a little as well so I asked for the epidural.  "Sorry, you're too far along now" was the response.  WHAT?  I need it now but can't have it?  Not fair.

Then the contractions started coming fast and furious.  "Push now!" they said.  I stared at the Koala and squeezed my husband's hand and then, there she was.  Our beautiful little girl.

We were so happy.  It took us a little bit but by the time they came around with the birth certificate for me to sign we had picked her name, Amanda Jo.

Note the 5 exclamation marks

I'm really glad we didn't pick Tiffany or Michelle.  There are a lot of those around but there aren't that many Amanda's.  She likes the fact that there is a song with her name.  This year she turned 30, but I can still remember that August 5th as if it was yesterday.

Hope you are enjoying my Cherished Memories.  How about you?  Got a special memory that happens on the 5th?