Twenty Years ago, today.....

Well, let's start with yesterday, actually...
December 28th, 1988.. Mom and Peggy came to visit me, and hopefully be with me when I had my first baby. Ryan was just a few months old (a little over 4mos.) and they took the trip from Idaho to California through some pretty treacherous weather, much to my brother-in-law's chagrin. They actually arrive in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Tuesday, December 27th, and we had a good time talking, catching up. Paul (James' younger brother, 14yrs old at the time) really enjoyed playing with "RT", and it was fun watching them play.

On Wednesday, I had a Dr.'s appointment all the way at Moffett Air Force Base. You have to realize that the base was AT LEAST an hour away, in good traffic. We loaded up in the car, Mom, Peggy, Ryan, Paul and I, and headed out for my appointment. The baby dropped while I was in the exam room, and I lost my plug at that time also (didn't know that at the time, but I do now.) I wasn't dilated, no contractions, so we decided to go to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. We walked around for a bit, went across the Golden Gate bridge and then headed to Hamilton Air Force base to see our old house.. I started having contractions, but nothing heavy. By the time we got to Hamilton and walked around the old school, it was looking like MAYBE it was time to head over to Oakland to get things checked out.

We got to the hospital a good bit later (did I mention that we had to go through Bay Area traffic?) and come to find out, I really wasn’t dilated very much. The doctors thought it would be a good idea for me to walk a bit to see if we could get things moving. I remember walking the halls with Mom and Peggy switching off. Paul was happily (?) ensconced in the waiting room playing with Ryan and being a good sport. I remember discussing names picked out for my future child, and not feeling too happy about the girl’s name. Mom and I walked and walked, talking about names. We started talking about a couple that lived down the street from us, that went to church with us, Mike and Tansy. Tansy was from England, a delicate woman, beautiful. We figured that would be an awesome first name.

Well, unfortunately, I wasn’t progressing, so they sent me home…. home being Santa Cruz, about a 2 hour drive from Oakland. We were hungry, so we stopped at a greasy spoon in Oakland on the way home. Ah memories… All the while, mind you, I was having contractions, but not enough to be a total bother. I was able to fall asleep that night, and slept fairly soundly until the next morning.

I woke up and my contractions were about 5 mins apart. We called Cleone who was already at work, and James, who was at his house. We jump in the car, thinking we knew the way to the hospital. I’m in the back seat with Ryan (in a car seat!) and Paul. I was panting through the contractions as we are heading down the interstate. I remember Peggy writing on a piece of paper “WE’RE HAVING A BABY” to hold up when people looked at us funny. Kinda cute. =)

We took the wrong exit, or perhaps missed it, and ended up in Oakland, past the hospital. I remember having to find an exit and turn around. Remember this is before we had cell phones to use easily. Finally, getting turned around, we make it to the hospital. Entering the hospital, we find that James and Cleone made it before we did! YIKES! So, I get checked in, assigned a bed in the labor room, and get down to the work of.. well… laboring.




I remember Mom coming in once or twice to see me, and then she couldn’t handle the pain I was going through. I don’t remember Cleone coming in at all.. James and Peggy stayed by my side. I remember the surprise on James’ face when I tell him that we were going to name our girl Tansy Marie instead of Alexandria Rochelle. Poor James, he thought it was actually the transition talking, not the truth.

They wheeled me into delivery, and after not too much pushing, I had a beautiful baby girl. I remember there were some cute corpsmen, and Peggy was doing her best to get them on the video for me.. too bad I didn’t follow through with that. =) HAH! When the corpsmen realized that it was my birthday, they lined up down the hallway and made an arch with their arms and wheeled my gurney under them… cool, huh?

It’s so hard to believe that it’s been 20 years. It’s been so wonderful being Tansy’s mom. I’ve been truly blessed to have her as my daughter and best friend.