Cindy's 59th Birthday

I wrote a long time ago how, when I was pregnant with Cindy, I worried terribly that a mother couldn't love another child as much as she loved the one she had.  I was so wrong.  We are gifted with infinite love and the love you have for one child has nothing at all to do with the love you feel for another.  It's one of the miracles of motherhood.

I was huge bellied in all my pregnancies and #2 was just as uncomfortable in the final months so I was more than ready to give birth that November day.  I remember, in the evening, just standing up from the sofa when my water broke...that hadn't happened with Kim until I was in the hospital.  The contractions started immediately after that so we somehow got my mother to the apartment to take care of Kim before heading to the hospital.

This birth was different in many ways than my first.  It was much more painful for some reason...I found out later it was because the cord was wrapped around Cindy's neck so she couldn't drop down normally.  I also didn't know that both of our lives were in danger because of it.

In those days, husbands were not allowed to stay with you so a woman giving birth was essentially left alone only to be checked on occasionally by the nurses.  Doctors appeared only at the final birthing.  I was in terrible pain, something like being in the final stages of labor but having it last for hours because of the cord holding Cindy back.

At 12:50 A.M., Friday (all my babies were born on a Friday, by the way) November 27th, 1959, my beautiful baby girl was born.  She was a healthy 9 lbs., 7 1/2 oz., just 1/2 an ounce less than Kim had been.  Large babies are a sign that the mother will sooner or later become diabetic and that turned out to be true.

So there we were.  Dennis was 22 and I was 19 and we were the proud and very loving parents of 2 little girls.  How they survived is anyone's guess but we did our best.  Cindy was feisty from the start, very tiny boned and took a while to start gaining weight even with a high birth weight.  

It's always amazed me how 2 children can be so different but Kim's and Cindy's personalities were nothing alike except where it matters most.  They both have huge and loving hearts and are honest as the day is long.  The differences just make them more interesting!

Happy Birthday to my precious Cindy!!