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Family Stories
A potpourri of stories about various family members or events
Carrie's Birth
When Marcia confirmed that she was pregnant, we were in our third year living where the local baseball team sometimes played against the Lake Wobegon Whippets team. (Albany, MN.) Our first child, Tim, was born traditionally in a small hospital. Things went fine with Tim's birth, but Marcia wanted something else. She did a lot of reading and was interested in having a midwife help her with the birth.
There was a hospital about 6 blocks from where we lived, and I pleaded with Marcia to at least check it out. We had a visit with a doctor who did many of the deliveries, and he talked to us about how things were done there. Marcia asked some questions and was polite, but then was ready to leave after a 10-minute interview/discussion. As we walked home, she was adamant that she would not ever want to have a child there. Inwardly, I mostly agreed with her, but I didn't let on as such since I didn't want to burn any bridges, wanting to leave it as a remote option.
As Marcia searched for places where there were midwives, she found a hopeful place about 40 miles from us. We scheduled a visit and we had our first appointment, with three-year-old Tim coming with us. Marcia liked the nurse-midwife and the interchange of information. For me, it seemed like a long drive, but if it made Marcia happy, I was fine with it. I did not like the idea of driving those back roads in February, when she was due. Those county roads in the prairie can be problematic if there is wind and snow.
Marcia's pregnancy went well the whole time, with no issues (unlike with Tim at the end). We had to make arrangements for someone to take care of Tim during this next delivery, and we also had think about names for this second child. For the former, we talked with Marcia's parents, Harold and Gladys. Since Harold was still teaching, we wondered if Gladys felt OK to come and pick up Tim and take him back to St. Cloud. That eventually became our plan. For the latter, for some reason, we focused primarily on girl names. It was not as if we knew we were having a girl, but that was just our focus. We were both really happy to have another child, and it brought us joy. This led me to think about naming her Kara Joy since χαρα (chi, alpha, rho, alpha) is the transliteration (spelling) of the Greek word for joy or gladness. Although χ looks like an X, the sound is the k sound as in Christ or chasm. (Both are Greek words starting with chi.) We liked that first-middle name combination until we started thinking about how people might spell it when hearing it or pronounce it when seeing it. We then decided to go with Carrie — a known name but similar to our first choice. I have no clue now what we had for a male name, but we did have an option.
One day in February, Marcia felt contractions becoming active, and she called for me at work. We called Gladys, and she came and picked up Tim. (Later, we learned that she was dismayed when Tim had to go to the bathroom on the way to St. Cloud, and then she was flustered with stopping along the road and letting him use the ditch. She was Marcia's step-mother who had not had any experience with taking care of children, but had a good heart.) Marcia and I then drove to the hospital that housed the midwife. On the way there, Marcia's contractions seemed to have diminished. Indeed, when we got there, Marcia was disappointed to learn that she had not dilated very much. We were encouraged to walk around. Since it was a nice day for February day in Minnesota, we walked to downtown and did some shopping. Marcia found a mop to buy. After some time, we went back to the midwife. At that point, we were given two barrels of bad news, at least from Marcia's perspective: (1) It seemed best to send us back home until contractions renewed, and (2) This was the midwife's last day since her vacation started the next day.
We went home, called Gladys, got supper, talked, and eventually went to bed. About 10:30, Marcia woke me up and told me that she was quite sure that her current contractions were the real deal. We called the hospital and headed out. We had a friendly and helpful male doctor, but Marcia was disappointed. By early the next morning, our bundle of joy joined us, and all the disappointment was left behind. The delivery had gone reasonably well, and I was able to help Marcia through the contractions, and finally, we were able to enjoy the fruit of this labor (no pun intended).
I don't recall now if Marcia spent another night or if we left that afternoon, but eventually we went home and Harold and Gladys brought Tim. There was enthusiasm from Tim about his new sister, and the grandparents were also happy to welcome their sixth grandchild.
Marcia with Tim and Carrie in Duluth
[Note that this was prepared for a timely publication on Carrie's birthday, but just today (2021-03-11), I realized that it was only kept as a draft and not formally published. Sorry Carrie.]
Published 2021-03-11. Revised 2025-07-02.
If you find any error(s) in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]
Marcia making the roundslisting of family stories by me Babysitting from the Grandparents