LIFE WITH MY CHILDREN PART 33

The first weekend in Feb. we made a trip to Indiana to celebrate Mom and Dad's anniversary. On Friday night, we stayed with my brother Jim and his wife, Loretta. Saturday morning, as soon as I got out of bed I felt very sick and had to rush to the bathroom to vomit. Sitting at the table with Loretta drinking coffee, the nausea hit me again and I ran to the bathroom. Coming back to the table, I said I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me. Then, when it happened a third time, I started thinking.....and counting.

I went into the bedroom where Joe was still sleeping and jumped on top of him, waking him up rudely. And excitedly told him my period was late. Being a man, he just said sorry...and rolled over to go back to sleep. And I pushed him off the bed! I was laughing so hard I was crying...Honey, I said....my period has only been late three times in my life...and I was pregnant all three times. (When Buddy was eight months old, I had a miscarriage. I was five months along.)

Finally, it sunk into Joe....and he grabbed me and we rolled around on the floor, both of us laughing. By then, the bedroom was crowded. Jim, Loretta, Tammy and Buddy had rushed in to see what the racket was. Joe and I, talking at the same time, said...we're having a baby!

Although I knew I was pregnant, I still called the doctor on Monday and went in the same day for a pregnancy test. It took three days for the rabbit to die...but the doctor called and said the results were positive. I called Joe at the school...and by the end of the day the whole school knew he was going to be a father.

Everything went along fine. When school was out, Joe started coaching sandlot baseball. I got a job as scorekeeper. We were at the baseball field every day either for his job or mine. When they were in town, a lot of the Detroit Tigers baseball team hung out at the field. Joe had coached some of them...Willie Horton to name one....when they played sandlot ball, and he was friends with nearly all the players on the team. It was a thrill for me and the kids to get to know them. Buddy was in heaven because the guys were especially nice to him, making a point of sitting with him to watch the game.

I should mention here that the Tigers won the world series in 1968. The kids and I had actually met most of them the summer of 1968 when we'd go to Detroit on weekends to watch Joe's games..he was coaching sandlot then, too. Naturally, we were all huge Tigers fans, so when they won, we along with the entire city, celebrated. We went up to Woodward Avenue to watch the team parade by...and it was chaos. I lost sight of the kids in the crowd and panicked when I couldn't find them. After looking for them for over an hour, I went home...and they were there! Little monsters!

Then in July, I began having cramps. The doctor told me to go to bed and stay there. After two weeks, the doctor said I had an infection in my uturus and was in dire danger of losing the baby as well as my life. And said I was only to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Another two weeks went by with no improvement. In tears, I called George's Kuma Eva...the one who had put on our wedding reception...and she said to hang up, she was going to find another doctor for me. And she did. She made an appointment for me with an OB/GYN in downtown Detroit for the very next day.

Joe took the day off and went to the doctor with me. He, the doctor, was amazing. He put me on a couple antibiotics, made another appointment for the following week and sent me home to bed again. The next week, he told me I didn't have to stay in bed all the time, now..but to sit around and let people wait on me. Two weeks later, he said I was home free. No infection. Normal, healthy pregnancy! All I could do was sit there and cry. Joe's eyes were suspiciously damp,too. There were not two happier people in Detroit that day. We stopped on the way home and bought bags of hamburgers from our favorite restaurant...The Red Barn....and went home to celebrate with our family.

By then, Joe's brother, George, was home from Vietnam and living with us. Jim and Loretta had moved just a few blocks away. Uncle George lived nearby. When we got home, I called them all...even Kuma Eva...and we had a party!