Adventures in Babysitting

It is an odd thing to consider yourself a secondary character in your own birth story, but that is how I learned it, and I see the point.

My parents went to my mother's parents' house for the Fourth of July holiday. I was due 23 July. The morning of the 3rd, there was a parade in Brigham City, Utah, and my grandparents and whichever of Mom's sibling that were still at home, and maybe other relatives, all left together to see the parade, except my parents and my youngest aunt, who had neurological deficits. The way I remember the story, she supposedly suffered complications from Grandma getting rubella during her pregnancy, but I can't say I've seen medical records to verify that story. My aunt was 10 at the time, and loved babies, and Mom had a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old, minus about three weeks in both cases.

Mom went into labor.

Mom's first two labors went pretty fast, as I understand it, so Mom and Dad knew they had to get her to the hospital quickly. There wasn't time to go looking for Grandma or anyone else. So my aunt, with all her deficits, was left at the house with the two babies, while Dad drove as fast as he could to the hospital.

That was, according to legend, the most responsibility my aunt was given her whole life. I know that at least 20 years later, she still told the story of when she was left alone with the babies. She did fine. She watched them, and held them, and played with them until the family came home. She always smiled when she talked about that.

Dad got to see my birth, a new experience for him, maybe there are perks to failures of contraception or refusing to follow a schedule. After that, Mom's doctor warned her not to get pregnant again for at least three years. She made it almost two. I have heard, I think, that that pregnancy wasn't planned, though my brother, the object of said pregnancy, says Mom told him she planned it.

I don't know what the whole plan was originally, but Dad left soon after I was born for a summer job, doing research on desert animals. Mom stayed at her parents' house, now with three babies. I hear there was some stresses, as Grandpa wanted a quiet house, which is a hard concept to explain to three babies under 2 years old. Mom's milk dried up after a few weeks.

So the star of my birth story, whenever anyone tells it, is my aunt. My father likes the part of seeing the birth. The rest of us are supporting players. I'm okay with that.