Dimples

My daughter's 40th birthday is fast approaching and her sisters, her oldest daughter and myself are all conspiring to give her a fabulous 40th surprise birthday party. She's hard to surprise so it's going to be a little tricky but I think we can pull it off.


I started thinking about when she was born. It was July 1969 and we were living in Prescott, Az. Big news at the time was Neil Armstrong being the first man on the moon and a massive manhunt was going on for an escapee from a Phoenix prison who was considered extremely dangerous and was known for his survival skills and elusiveness. There had been several sightings of him and it appeared he was headed for the Prescott area. He had been dubbed "The Desert Fox." He was captured at a ranch just outside Prescott. A gunfight ensued between the local law enforcement and the escapee. The escapee died in the battle. He had quite a crime spree throughout the manhunt, always being one step ahead of authorities. I had a special interest in this case as this animal had abducted and assaulted a fifteen year old girl I had gone to high school with. I was glued to the t.v. as I listened to the blow by blow accounts of authorities trying to capture him. Since I was about three weeks past my due date (they would NOT let that happen today) all this exciting news about the first man on the moon and the massive manhunt of the escapee helped distract me from my miseries.


I had put on quite a bit of weight that last month and my feet were so swollen I had to wear huge man size flip flops. They were even getting too tight. I could barely move! It was July and I was hot and miserable!


My sister had come up from Phoenix to help me out with my two other children. We had stayed up fairly late one night playing cards so when I finally went to bed that night I prayed that the baby would come very soon. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and had a very restless night. I awoke about eight o'clock in the morning feeling very puffy. As I began to move around and get breakfast on for the children I started to have contractions. Oh, glory be, I'm in labor! I checked my suitcase for the umpteenth time to make sure I had everything I needed. I then called my husband at work. It was about 11 o'clock and my husband was on his way! He was as anxious as I was to finally have this baby. For a month, every evening, we would go for rides over the bumpiest back roads he could find. The thinking being maybe we could get contractions started. It did not work. I don't know what gave us that idea. It seems so silly now. Anyway, we arrived at the hospital around 11:30 and she was born at 12:05 p.m. Things were happening way too fast!


I remember with my last push, as the baby was being born, hearing my doctor say, " Oh my goodness just look at those dimples. They should call her Dimples!" I remember thinking," How rude of him to make a comment about all the dimples on my thighs. Yes I know, I've gained a lot of weight but come on now I'm trying to have a baby here and he should just keep those kind of comments to himself! Of all the nerve!" Well I started having some complications and they quickly took my baby to the nursery. I didn't even get to see my baby. I did know I'd had a little girl. I had apparently lost a lot of blood and I began to fade away. The next thing I remember was being in my room with the foot of my bed elevated, iv's, and oxygen on. A nurse was checking my blood pressure. The nurse told me I had been asleep for awhile and that I'd had a pretty rough delivery. She said I was going to be ok and my baby girl was just fine. She also said she'd been in the delivery room with me. I told her I was pretty upset with my doctor because of the rude comments he had made about my dimples and I just felt that it was completely uncalled for. My feelings were really hurt.The nurse began to laugh.
At first just a soft chuckle and then a full blown, snickering,snorting, belly laugh. As soon as the nurse was able to contain herself somewhat, she said "Oh honey, the doctor wasn't referring to your dimples, he was talking about your baby's dimples!" She began laughing again.This time I was able to see the humor in all of it and joined in on the laughter. I told the nurse that I hadn't even seen my baby yet so I had not seen her dimples. The nurse left to see if she could bring my baby to me. After what seemed an eternity, she brought my beautiful baby girl to me along with some of the other nurses and my doctor of whom I accused of being so rude to me. The nurse had apparently told my doctor and anyone else within hearing range what I had said. Well, my baby did indeed have huge dimples, one on each cheek. Everytime she cried or made one of those cute baby faces those huge,
deep dimples would show up. We all had a really good laugh and I was no longer upset with my doctor. When the doctor asked me what I was going to name her I said "Well, it's not going to be Dimples!" We named her Tara Christine.
Happy Birthday Christy!