HAVING JASON

Okay now, it’s almost midnight, January 15, 1983… and I have not had my baby yet… been in the hospital a month now with complications.

And the only reason I stayed was after a routine checkup a month ago, my good doctor threatened to quit servicing me if I crossed the threshold and walked out the hospital. Sooo, I turned around and marched back in and stayed an entire month to birth my first and only child safely.

Tick tock… and I’m in a very deep sleep yet I heard it, the voice was clear as day, whispering in my ear, “Get up Faye, you’re going to have your baby now.” Of course, I obeyed. I got up, put on my robe and slippers, and began to walk the quiet corridor of Michael Reese Hospital.

There was a little Filipino female nurse at the desk who spoke in a thick accent, “why are you walking Ms. Grey, please go back to bed”. Before I could turn around and answer her, a two-by-four came out of nowhere and hit me in the lower back and I dropped down to my knees.

That’s what it felt like.

I thought a mac truck had hit me so, what did I do—I ran. I ran as fast as I could with a gigantic belly screaming down the corridors back and forth, and then I ran back to my room and dialed my mother. Mom picked up intuitively and said, “Faye?” I said, “Momma I’m having the baby”—she said, “we’ll be there,” meaning my father Horace Grey and mother Mary were on their way.

Before they got there, I jumped back in my bed and was flailing widely in this new found pain, as the little nurse came in and told me, “You must call down Faye and then we will take you to the labor room or we will have to call in Biggie”. At this point, I didn’t understand a word she said, nor give a damn.

Welp, Biggie was called in and turned out to be a gigantic nurse from hell. She stood over 6-feet tall and weighed at least 350 solid pounds of muscle. Biggie looked down at me with her large oval face and said, “calm down Faye”.

I took one look at her and thought “I’m not, I’m gonna keep acting crazy to make this pain bearable!”

Biggie took hold of my shoulder and with one fell swope she had me lying straight and strapped down headed to the labor rooms. I was like, “yes, Biggie”! She was a monster nurse, strong as a bull and stronger than me at my 250 pounds of super pregnacious weight!

Next stop—labor room from hell. No water, no food, nothing, just pain every few minutes, the worst pain ever, ever, ever, crashing down like waves of pain that made me shudder.

This went on until I was cursing out everyone, especially my mother. Every time I came up for air, between the labor pains, I would throw another insult at her, worse than the last one like, “why did you have 7 kids, are you crazy!” “What’s wrong with you”! “This is nuts!!!” And I needed my mother to be my birthing coach to hold my hand, and push back on it for some resistance, but she said that I almost broke her wrist...

And then mom disappeared for a bit... The doctor walked in and said, “no dilation yet”. What!? All that damn pain and no dilation. Hours had gone by! I asked, “where is my Mom”. They said, “she’s in the other room with a high blood pressure attack”! Huh!? They had put my mother in another room in a bed to rest. Oh my God!

I thought Goddamn! I couldn’t believe this. So, a nurse stepped in to help me with the continuing pain, but nothing seemed to help at all. They just kept coming. So, then I started to pray to God to just let me go; birth the baby; kill me off because this pain is too fkn’ unbearable!

After 15 or 16 hours of this, I don’t remember exactly how long, I was foggy and delirious—then my doctor walked in at around 4 p.m. on January 16th and said, “Faye there is no dilation; this is ridiculous; we’re going to have to take the baby by cesarean”.

And at that moment, I saw God, and he had on a green doctor’s gown with a mask!

I was so glad and shaking with pains, now just one minute apart, and my baby’s heart was getting tired because he could not find his way out.

Then, as the nurses were whisking me away in transport, I saw my lovely, funny sister Tricia and yelled to her, “I have to go Tricia, I’ll see you later, I’m having the baby now!” Later, Tricia said that my voice was like the Exorcist and my breath was just as bad, and that my face had turned green with hives broken out!??

In the operating room the nurses and doctors tried to quickly transfer me to a proper delivery table but first they had to bring in the anesthesiologist to give me an epidural to numb me from the chest down.

However, right before transferring me, my paper gown melted off from all the sweating I was doing, and fell completely to the floor, so I was just sitting there like a giant naked 24-year-old pregnant ball… and a little Filipino man with a mask on freaked the hell out and said aloud, “Oooooh Wee you are a BIGGGG WOMAN!” He was loving it!

If I could ever have beat a man down that would’ve been the time. Even my doctor’s cheeks went up in a smile under her mask after he said that, and I was pissed as hell. Just then the anesthesiologist told me not to move once inch, and I abruptly told him, “Hold the hell off” as I had one last major tremorous labor pain about to hit, it was so bad that I almost fell off the little transfer table. The expression on everyone’s face in the room seemed to say that they felt that last pain with me.

He then quickly administered the epidural shot and put an end to all that painful labor that I had endured for an entire day, not to mention the whole month I was captive in the hospital during Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

My surgeon asked me if I wanted to witness the actual cesarean birth—I told her no, please put up a curtain. However, my mother naturally wanted to see it all! She sat there and told me she could see Jason lying there waiting for them to cut the placenta open as they simply lifted him up!

Hallelujah!!! He was soooo big and so beautiful! I swear, I have never seen a newborn that pretty in my life—and that was my own child! Hahahaha

Mom agreed—and the doctor said she guessed the weight would be around 9 pounds. I told her it felt like ten. I won. He weighed 9.5 pounds. Jason made his first sound like a small laugh, no crying. I told the doctor that it must’ve been all those Wendy’s that I ate.

They then whisked Jason away and I saw my sister Jackie standing outside the room, I gave her a quick Sista instruction—"Follow that baby” and Jackie said, “I got this Faye” and she never left his side, as she told me they took Baby Jason on an elevator ride to a place where babies were name banded and made ready for the nursery for his first feeding.

My family members were my Angels then and now, as I went through nine months, single parent, and subsequently 30-odd years. Jason, as you can imagine is very special to all of us!

So today, to think this little (BIG) Baby is now 40—4-0 years old, FULLY GROWN MAN, makes me proud that I stood the ground and brought him safely into this world. And I remember my young millionaire boss telling me back in the glory days of Roe v. Wade, whispering in my ear in his office one day, “I’m so proud of you Faye, for keeping your baby”! Oh yeah, y’all this was back in 1983…

Anyway, Happy Birthday to my One and Only SON Jason Noel Grey!

Jason, You Have Always Been No. 1 to Me and Always Will Be!

Love you Son,

Mom

©2023 Faye Grey