Yesterday was my elderst daughters birthday and the busy day past with little thought of her special day. She was 37. This morning I woke (at feed time) with a special message in my head for her.
I love you Rachael as much today as I did the first time I saw you on 10 October 1974.
37 years ago today at 5am I woke up from an awful anesthetic to see for the second time my wee baby girl. I had seen her in a very groggy state 5 hours before when I got a wee cuddle before the drugs took me back into the cruel world of forced sleep. At midnight she was 3hours old andI was woken by doctors and nurses to meet her..... and there she was in her Daddys arms. A perfect human being who was so beautiful the memory still makes me cry at the joy. She was born by Cesarean section (general anesthetic- jeepers we have come a long way in medicine in those 37 years)
I was 17 1/2 with this little doll. So young but so happy and capable. NO WORDS can describe the love and devotion I had instinctively for her, even at a dreadful drug induced moment. I am sure every mother feels the same - I dont think I am unique although I knew she was the most perfect baby in the whole wide world.
I wanted so badly to see my Mum but in those days she wasn't allowed to visit until 2pm that afternoon. It was a long wait from 5am! Ian wasn't allowed to visit us until 2pm either - how bizarre they were then! I guess we knew we had these rules and we just worked with them. The good part , if there is a bright side to not seeing your husband and Mum, was we had so much attention by nurses, I felt as if there were dozens of them always attending to us both. They made me feel as though they loved our baby the most out of all the babies in the ward. haha. They were such loving caring people and the ward "Sister"was a very special and loving woman "Sister Grant" :-)... such a memory!
The baby was kept in the nursery and bought out at feed times and between feeds I slept those blessed drugs off. Mum, Nanna Mae (my grandmother) and and Ian arrived at 2pm with flowers, presents and real joy at the safe arrival of our wee darling. I have never wanted to see anyone as much as I wanted to see those three that day. They were allowed to see the baby through the glass window at 2.30pm when the bell was rung and the babies in the nursery were all paraded for the visitors. I wasn't allowed to walk at that stage because of the cesarean, so I can only imagine how their first look at this wee treasure was for them. That night Ian visited me and I saw different man. He was so emotional and loving to us both - its a stolen moment but one we both share and will as long as we live. I had never felt closer to anyone than I did to Ian that night. He was adoring of us both. He wanted to see his Mum ( we were both babies he was only 20) so after visiting he drove from Wanganui to Palmerston North to see them. I can imagine that having to leave us and go home alone was too tough.
Ian bought his Mum to see me at 2pm the next day and I remember him saying how he just wanted to get back to Wanganui to see his girls. We were two very young people, in love, and now parents to the worlds most beautiful baby. Rachael Suzanne Baker.
