My birthday

I was born on January 11, 1965 when my parents were 29 years old.  My father was developing and operating a chain of Health Clubs acorss the east coast in Wilmington, Delaware and Phildelphia, Pittsburg.  After 3 sons mom and dad were hoping for a girl.  In the first trimester of mom's pregnancy with me, my brother Christian, 7 at the time picked up the rubella virus at school.  Mom was exposed to it.  Knowing this virus could be dangerous to the fetus, she consulted with her doctor.  He suggested Gamma Globulin injections with the hope to weaken the virus.  There was no guarantee that there would not be any damage, but it was worth a try.  To this day my mother believes the injections did help a great deal or I could have been born with many other serious birth defects as well.  Consequently, I have 45% hearing loss in the right ear which would be my good ear that I use to wear my hearing aid.  The left ear is profoundly deaf.  The night I was born my parents had invited their closest friends Jeannie and Artie over for dinner.  A huge winter storm came up and Jeannie commented, "Rae, you better not have that baby tonight.  We are having a blizzard out there."  Well, I came anyway!  My parents made it to the hospital in time regardless.  It's a 20 minute drive to get to the hospital but due to the road conditions it took 30 to 40 minutes.  Sadly, mother's experience at the hospital was not a pleasant one.  The workers at the hospital were distant, cold and uncaring.  The births of my 3 brothers' years before were warm, positive and comfortable as possible.  When my parents finally arrived at Delaware Memorial Hospital the nurses told my father to stay and sign all the admittance paperwork and wheeled my mother into the elevator and up to the labor and delivery floor.  They did not tell him or her that they would not allow my dad on the labor and delivery floor.  My dad did not even have a chance to kiss my mother goodbye.  So, my dad wrote a note to my mother and bribed a nurse to take it up to her.  The nurse was hesitant and didn't even want to do that because she could get in trouble.  My dad gave this nurse $10.00 just to deliver his note to my mother.  Mother held onto that piece of paper all through labor and delivery.  She hid his note in the palm of her hand afraid that the workers would take it away from her.  She still has that paper today and you can see the sweat and crinkles from holding onto it.  The note said, "Honey, I did not know that I was not going to see you again before they took you up.  I did not even get a chance to kiss you nice and hold you tight before you went and when I said have a girl that was not my final say my heart is with you honey. I love you XXXXXXOO".  How sweet of my father!  The labor took 6 hours.  Since mother had already experienced giving birth 3 times she knew the birth would be intense and she asked for something for pain.  They told her not yet and continued not to pay attention to her.  She was by herself and what was she to do?  The workers were cold, inattentive and uncaring.  It wasn't a pleasant experience.  She wanted so much to have her husband by her at this special time in their life.  My dad wasn't allowed to even be on the labor and delivery floor.  They told him to go home.  My dad had to wait for a phone call to tell him I was born.  Another terrible experience she had at this hospital was when she was nursing me.  Previously when she nursed her three sons, on the 3rd day of breastfeeding her body would run a slight temperature due to stress of the milk coming in.  The hospital wouldn't allow her to breastfeed because they claimed that she was either sick or the milk was infected and it would pass through to me.  They would not listen to my mother as she tried to explain that this situation was normal for her body.  Her mother experienced the same problem.  There was never anything wrong with the breast milk.  They made her pump her breast and they would throw it away.  It was perfectly good milk.  Mom was so disturbed at this point she asked to be released to go home and feed her baby.  Her experience there made her feel like a prisoner.  She had to sign her own release papers to get out of there.  They told her they will not be responsible for anything that happens.  She knew nothing was wrong and nothing would happen.  She wanted her baby to have the breast milk especially the first few days after my birth and she was concerned that her breast milk would start to dry up due to the stress.  I was the smallest baby Mom and Dad had.  Six pounds and 2 ounces about 17 to 18 inches long.  Compare that to the baby they had 7 years earlier my brother Chris who weighed at 10 pounds!  Mom said I felt so tiny she was afraid I would break.  My parents did not suspect that I had some type of hearing problem until about 9 months old.  I started to wearing hearing aids at the age of 3, but that's another story to be told at another time.  Then my life's journey began.