My Son

Being married so young wasn't easy. But being married and having a baby was even harder. We had our first child, when I was 17. Donald Ray Jr was born Sept 13th weighing in at 7lbs 12oz and was 19in long. He was born breech. And if he hadn't been, he would have been born in the back seat of his papaw's brand new car! Which by the way, had white velvet seats! We had taken dry runs to the hospital a few times, but they had shut down the road from our town to the town the hospital was in that weekend. My dad was having a fit and yelling at my mom to hold my legs together and not let the baby out!! It was very funny after it was all over, but not so at the time. He finally flagged a cop down after running a red light and told him he had a girl in the back seat ready to pop! The cop radio it in, and they were waiting for me. They started undressing me in the elevator, HOW EMBARRASSING! Since he was on his way out, they didn't have time to give me any thing for pain, & 40 years ago, you didn't have your babies natural, like you do today. You also didn't know what sex your baby was.
The Dr. was talking to me, asking what I wanted. I told him a boy. He said, "well, if it's a girl, it has something funny between it's legs." I sat up, and said, "What's wrong with my baby?" He said, "lay down, nothing, it's a boy." Then they couldn't get him to cry. They were talking to him, saying come on little one, and hitting him on his feet, and bottom. I was flipping out!! They kept telling me to lay down. Finally, Don Don opened his eyes and looked around. He still hadn't cried. The nurses took him, and the Dr started working on me again. They weighed him and all that, and then laid him on me. As they were taking us out of the delivery room, my mom looked at the baby and said, "Oh, a rotten Boy" and he started screaming. The Dr started laughing and told her they needed her in the delivery room.
A few hours later I went into convolutions, that lasted for 3 days because of high blood pressure. The baby also had problems. They didn't think either of us would make it. They had called the family in, but by the Grace of God, we both pulled through.
Donnie did every thing early. He was 3 months old when he cut his 2 top teeth. 6months old when my dad came up the stairs to my apt. and Donnie said, "see papaw" It was like the child was born talking! He could make all kinds of animal sounds by the time he was 11 months old. He spent the weekend with ma maw and Pap and they went "riding" to show him all the farm animals from the time he was newborn. Ma maw would make pap stop and she would get out of the car and show him the animals and make the sounds they made. So any time you went by a cow, sheep, horse... and ask him what they were he would make their sounds.
One morning when he was about 11 months old he had slept late. I walked over to his crib and he was blue. I started screaming. I couldn't touch him, and what went through my mind was: do I go get a wet washrag, or run next door to  the funeral home. (We lived behind a funeral home at that time.) My husband and brother was home because it was a Saturday morning. Don came running in and he couldn't grab him up either. My brother grabbed Donnie up and took his fist and hit him in the middle of the back. Donnie open his eyes and looked at me, and said, "hi mommy," I passed out. Later when I thought about it, Charles could have broke Donnie's back. But by the grace of God, He seen fit to let my baby live, and not let anything be wrong with him.
That was one of the scariest moments in my life. I thought I lost my baby boy. I was also about 8 months pregnant with my  2nd child at the time.