5) A Brand New Baby
We moved, as I have already mentioned, into our new house one week before our baby was due, then I started waiting for the arrival. And I waited and waited and waited. Baby came three weeks late according to my doctor’s calculated date so I had a full month in Gardenia Street before his birth.
I got to meet my neighbours. Next door to us lived Patrick and Philippa White. Patrick was a boilermaker on the mine and Phil was a teacher but at that time she was a stay at home Mom with a little girl called Adrian who had just had her first birthday. Phil and I immediately got on well and became good friends. When she learnt that I had only one week left of my pregnancy she offered to lend me all sorts of things that I did not have for my baby. I had a cot, a pram, a baby bath and was planning to buy other things as we felt a need for them. Phil lent me a baby seat, a playpen and later a high chair. She lent me things as Adrian grew out of them and baby Jonathan used them for about a year and we added some other things ourselves, a walking ring, a baby bouncer and others then we passed them back over the fence for the use of Derrick, Phil’s next child born a year after Jonathan junior. When my second child, Dominic came along a year after that everything was passed back again. It worked very well and all our children were very well equipped.
It was not only baby things that we lent and borrowed. We would pop across and ask for all sorts of things, an extra potato, a cup of sugar or a packet of biscuits when an unexpected guest arrived. Our husbands thought we were terrible and teased us about it a great deal. Later on we were all going to a Burn’s Night dance together and as we were getting ready there was a knock on the door and I opened it to Patrick, he asked to speak to Jonny. He and Jonny went into the yard and had a little chat and then there was a bit of coming and going and a cloak of silence. Phil and I were completely puzzled and nagged to know what was going on. I don’t think they told us until the next day. Patrick had put on his dinner jacket and looked in his draw for a clean white handkerchief to fold into his top pocket but could not find one. He had come and asked Jonny for one but he felt rather embarrassed to admit that he needed to borrow after all the ragging we had been through. We also babysat each other’s children. If there was a film we wanted to see, Pat and Phil would go one night and we would go on another. On their night their children would be put to bed in our house and collected in the morning and on our night the reverse applied. The children were completely happy in either home and got on well together. But I am getting ahead of myself; baby had not been born yet.
During this time Jonny had put Saint on to a dog show in Kitwe. We decided that it was too far for me to go as the birth was so near so I spent the day with Cecilia and Derrick. When Jonny got through to the show he realised that he did not have Saint’s rabies certificate with him so he could not enter the show. He was told that if he could prove that Saint had had his injection he would be allowed to enter. He found out that the government vet that had actually given Saint the injection was living not far out of Kitwe and so decided to see if he could find him. After a bit of a search he drove up a long drive way to the vet’s house and the vet’s dog, a Great Dane put it’s head in at the car window to see who was coming to visit. Jonny said that it had the bluest eyes he had ever seen on a dog, they looked like human eyes and it was quite spooky. He found the vet and was given a letter that enabled him to join in the show and so Saint came home with a silver cup, “Best Doberman Pup on Show” I think it was but I also seem to recall that he was the only one there. I was very proud of my dog and my husband.
We were by now being given all sorts of remedies to bring on babies that looked as if they were never coming. A ride on a dirt road, long walks, hot baths, and others I can’t remember. We tried some of them but nothing worked. I am now convinced that babies come when they are good and ready to and not a moment before. At last on Wednesday 16th June at about midday I started having contractions, pretty light and fairly far apart. By the time Jonny got home from work things were really looking promising. I did not want to go into the hospital yet but spent the afternoon lying on my bed while Jonny was working on the car or something. At suppertime I went out to see what he was up to and to ask him if he wanted anything to eat. I certainly wasn’t hungry and I did not feel much like cooking for him. He told me not to bother to cook for him (I had visions of him cooking a meal for himself) just to make him ‘fried mince meat and fried eggs’. I was so amazed I just did it and he still likes this meal when I have been busy or am too tired to cook a proper meal for him. At about 7 o’clock my contractions were pretty regular so we decided to go into the hospital. I was put to bed and told everything had started but it would be a little while yet. Jonny stayed with me for as long as he was allowed. In those days fathers were not very welcome in the maternity wards. The nurses thought that they just got in the way. All through the night my pain continued, in the morning as soon as he was allowed to Jonny came and sat with me. I really appreciated that, as I knew he was not fond of hospitals. Eventually at about 6 o’clock in the evening it was decided that there was some kind of problem and I was to be given anaesthetic and assistance with the birth. They sent Jonny off home and wheeled me into the delivery room. Baby Jonathan was born at about 7.30pm on Thursday 17th June 1965. I remember when he was first put into my arms how scared I was that he was so dependent on me for everything now. I was still groggy from the anaesthetic and could not even hold my head up let alone look after my baby. Jonny had phoned and been told that he had a son so he was there like a shot and went into the nursery where he was allowed to see Jonathan for a few minutes. He told me later that his first thought were “imagine anyone taking that little thing, wrapping it in newspaper and throwing it into a garbage bin” (there had been a baby found in the garbage about that time and it had really played on him I suppose) He was very proud of his son and loved him so much right from the first moment he saw him. We thought he was the most beautiful baby in the whole world. He weighed 8lb. 4oz, had a pop of black hair, a screwed up little red face and scars where they had used the instruments but he was beautiful. The nurse who was on the ward, Sister Southgate said that he looked just like Edward G. Robinson. Edward G. was a famous film star of those days but he did not play the heroes, he played the crooks and gangsters and was defiantly not a hansom man. I was sure that all the other mothers must be very envious of my beautiful baby when theirs were all so ordinary. After a few days the scars healed and the redness faded and he was as beautiful as I had thought he was right from the start.
I got to meet my neighbours. Next door to us lived Patrick and Philippa White. Patrick was a boilermaker on the mine and Phil was a teacher but at that time she was a stay at home Mom with a little girl called Adrian who had just had her first birthday. Phil and I immediately got on well and became good friends. When she learnt that I had only one week left of my pregnancy she offered to lend me all sorts of things that I did not have for my baby. I had a cot, a pram, a baby bath and was planning to buy other things as we felt a need for them. Phil lent me a baby seat, a playpen and later a high chair. She lent me things as Adrian grew out of them and baby Jonathan used them for about a year and we added some other things ourselves, a walking ring, a baby bouncer and others then we passed them back over the fence for the use of Derrick, Phil’s next child born a year after Jonathan junior. When my second child, Dominic came along a year after that everything was passed back again. It worked very well and all our children were very well equipped.
It was not only baby things that we lent and borrowed. We would pop across and ask for all sorts of things, an extra potato, a cup of sugar or a packet of biscuits when an unexpected guest arrived. Our husbands thought we were terrible and teased us about it a great deal. Later on we were all going to a Burn’s Night dance together and as we were getting ready there was a knock on the door and I opened it to Patrick, he asked to speak to Jonny. He and Jonny went into the yard and had a little chat and then there was a bit of coming and going and a cloak of silence. Phil and I were completely puzzled and nagged to know what was going on. I don’t think they told us until the next day. Patrick had put on his dinner jacket and looked in his draw for a clean white handkerchief to fold into his top pocket but could not find one. He had come and asked Jonny for one but he felt rather embarrassed to admit that he needed to borrow after all the ragging we had been through. We also babysat each other’s children. If there was a film we wanted to see, Pat and Phil would go one night and we would go on another. On their night their children would be put to bed in our house and collected in the morning and on our night the reverse applied. The children were completely happy in either home and got on well together. But I am getting ahead of myself; baby had not been born yet.
During this time Jonny had put Saint on to a dog show in Kitwe. We decided that it was too far for me to go as the birth was so near so I spent the day with Cecilia and Derrick. When Jonny got through to the show he realised that he did not have Saint’s rabies certificate with him so he could not enter the show. He was told that if he could prove that Saint had had his injection he would be allowed to enter. He found out that the government vet that had actually given Saint the injection was living not far out of Kitwe and so decided to see if he could find him. After a bit of a search he drove up a long drive way to the vet’s house and the vet’s dog, a Great Dane put it’s head in at the car window to see who was coming to visit. Jonny said that it had the bluest eyes he had ever seen on a dog, they looked like human eyes and it was quite spooky. He found the vet and was given a letter that enabled him to join in the show and so Saint came home with a silver cup, “Best Doberman Pup on Show” I think it was but I also seem to recall that he was the only one there. I was very proud of my dog and my husband.
We were by now being given all sorts of remedies to bring on babies that looked as if they were never coming. A ride on a dirt road, long walks, hot baths, and others I can’t remember. We tried some of them but nothing worked. I am now convinced that babies come when they are good and ready to and not a moment before. At last on Wednesday 16th June at about midday I started having contractions, pretty light and fairly far apart. By the time Jonny got home from work things were really looking promising. I did not want to go into the hospital yet but spent the afternoon lying on my bed while Jonny was working on the car or something. At suppertime I went out to see what he was up to and to ask him if he wanted anything to eat. I certainly wasn’t hungry and I did not feel much like cooking for him. He told me not to bother to cook for him (I had visions of him cooking a meal for himself) just to make him ‘fried mince meat and fried eggs’. I was so amazed I just did it and he still likes this meal when I have been busy or am too tired to cook a proper meal for him. At about 7 o’clock my contractions were pretty regular so we decided to go into the hospital. I was put to bed and told everything had started but it would be a little while yet. Jonny stayed with me for as long as he was allowed. In those days fathers were not very welcome in the maternity wards. The nurses thought that they just got in the way. All through the night my pain continued, in the morning as soon as he was allowed to Jonny came and sat with me. I really appreciated that, as I knew he was not fond of hospitals. Eventually at about 6 o’clock in the evening it was decided that there was some kind of problem and I was to be given anaesthetic and assistance with the birth. They sent Jonny off home and wheeled me into the delivery room. Baby Jonathan was born at about 7.30pm on Thursday 17th June 1965. I remember when he was first put into my arms how scared I was that he was so dependent on me for everything now. I was still groggy from the anaesthetic and could not even hold my head up let alone look after my baby. Jonny had phoned and been told that he had a son so he was there like a shot and went into the nursery where he was allowed to see Jonathan for a few minutes. He told me later that his first thought were “imagine anyone taking that little thing, wrapping it in newspaper and throwing it into a garbage bin” (there had been a baby found in the garbage about that time and it had really played on him I suppose) He was very proud of his son and loved him so much right from the first moment he saw him. We thought he was the most beautiful baby in the whole world. He weighed 8lb. 4oz, had a pop of black hair, a screwed up little red face and scars where they had used the instruments but he was beautiful. The nurse who was on the ward, Sister Southgate said that he looked just like Edward G. Robinson. Edward G. was a famous film star of those days but he did not play the heroes, he played the crooks and gangsters and was defiantly not a hansom man. I was sure that all the other mothers must be very envious of my beautiful baby when theirs were all so ordinary. After a few days the scars healed and the redness faded and he was as beautiful as I had thought he was right from the start.
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