Here is a story I think you will enjoy . . . especially
if you have ever become impatient waiting for a baby to be born!
I was watching the news a couple of years ago in August
about a week before my youngest daughter Sarah’s birthday. A park in Manhattan
Beach, called Sand Dune Park, had just been reopened after being closed for a
year. The 300 ft. dunes had been damaged by years of people tramping up its
sandy sides. The streets had been congested by excess traffic and parking
problems, and constant noise well into the evening from all the people who came
just because it was a cool place to hang out. The city finally had to come up
with a solution to please everyone; or at least some. There is now a three
dollar fee and a reservation required to use the dune.
Flashback to 36 years ago (now 38) on August 12, 1974, I was
attending church, at a small hall our church was renting next to Sand Dune
Park. I was miserable because I was more than a week overdue, and it had been a
hot summer. I believe my daughter preferred the warmth and security of the
womb, and refused to come out. She still prefers to curl up in the warmth and
security of her bed, snuggling with her kitty, more than thirty years later. My
son was born a year and one month before, on July 5, 1973.
I told my friend, Nancy, who was standing outside with me,
that I was wondering if climbing the sand dune would help me go into labor. We
decided it was worth a try if she went along to help me. We climbed about half
way up the steep, leg-tightening dune, and then descended into ankle-plunging
depth. Still no labor pains, so we turned around and tried again; this time – a
labor pain. We were experienced mothers and knew how to time the pains to make
sure it was real. It was. Away I went to the hospital, and delivered a beautiful
baby girl, after several hours of labor.
Right after she was born, a nurse overheard us trying to
come up with a middle name to put on the birth certificate. She peeked around
the curtain and said, “Did I hear you say Monique?” We had already picked out
Sarah as the first name and they sounded good together, so I said, “Yes, that’s
it.” Her friends and I have teased her over the years saying she was very
unique, that Sarah Monique. She truly is!
Just think: if I had climbed that dune to induce labor
today, instead of 36 years ago (now 38), I would have had to pay a three dollar
fee and on top of that; make a reservation.
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