Daughter

Today is our daughter Dawn’s birthday. I won’t say her age, as she might not like that I do that, but I will say she is in her 30’s and Mom and Dad can’t believe that she could be that age!

I remember how young I was when she was born and how scared I was about the upcoming birth. I was over 1,000 miles away from home, my Mother could not be here, and I think when you are facing your first pregnancy, you want your Mother to be near, at least I did. In those days, we did not have pre-natal classes to prepare the parents for childbirth. We really didn’t know anything about childbirth, other than the tales we heard from our Mother’s when they would talk with their friends, and you would overhear their conversations. It was enough to scare us girls!

I was over 2 weeks late, so the Doctor suggested I go in to be “induced”. I was not allowed to get out of bed all day, and nothing happened until around 1 am that night.

Father’s to be, did not sit by their wives during labor, like they do these days. They continued their life as usual, going to work and when it looked like the she would be going to the delivery room, then they were called to come to the hospital, and sat in the waiting room until a nurse would come out and tell them the delivery was over and if they had a boy or a girl. So… my husband was not there. I was very fortunate though, to have a Mother in Law, who couldn’t wait to become a Grandma. She took my Mother’s place, by being with me the day I was in labor. She ran back and forth from her job at Woolworth’s to the hospital, each time thinking that the baby was ready to come. I had back labor, and she would rub my back. Dolly’s co/workers were sure it was Dolly having that baby not me, they said it was all she talked about for months. They also assigned a student nurse (in those days, St. Luke’s Hospital had a nurses program), to be with me. I don’t know what I would have done without both of them. I was scared and very naïve. I thought the baby would come that morning, not realizing I had many more hours of labor to go through.

We had a name chosen if it was a girl, a name I loved all my life. But, we didn’t have a boy’s name. I wanted him named after my husband, but he didn’t. So I was searching for boy names in the name book when I was in my first hours of labor. Since I thought the baby would come in the am, I came across the name of Dawn, a name I had never heard before, but I really liked it. Short and sweet, and a “morning” name. If we used that name, I could have Elizabeth has the middle name, which would honor my Grandmother Elizabeth. So, that is how her name came about. When I told her what the original name would have been, she said she was really glad that I changed it to Dawn! I never did find a boys name that I liked, so guess it was good we had a girl!

I was so anxious for the baby to come, I remember, how I kept saying “when can I go to the delivery room?”…I said that for hours! After delivering our beautiful baby girl, who looked exactly like her Italian Dad, my husband was called and then he came and joined me in celebrating the birth of our daughter.

Our beautiful daughter grew up to be a beautiful woman who gave us two grandchildren. I was so thankful that I was able to be by her side through her labor when she had her first child. Since I didn’t have my Mother, I wanted her to have her Mother at her side. I also took time off of work so that I could travel to the hospital in the cities to be with her for her second child.

We are thankful for our first born, beautiful, dark curly haired daughter, and the woman she has become.