birth

Hard Time Marrying Part 28

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Emma spent the night and eased Anya’s concerns about baby care and breast-feeding.  If she thought Anya seemed less than experienced, she voiced no concerns.  “Don’t worry.  It’ll all come back to you.  After you’ve had six or seven, you’ll be nursing one, luggin’ one on your hip, an’ swattin’ one out of trouble without turning a hair.  You sure birthed this one easy.  You don’t look like you got child-bearin’ hips, but she didn’t give you a bit of trouble.  I got a lot wider hips than you, but when I had my Marthy………..”  Anya enjoyed the tenor of her friend’s conversation, but was lost in admiration for the tiny baby.  Her ears perked up when Emma moved on to a discussion of the baby’s size.  “I do believe that’s the smallest, healthy baby I ever seen.  My Melvin would’a made two of her, but he was a big ol’ lunker.  I swear, this baby could sleep in a shoe box.!” 

Joe looked alarmed.  “But she’s big enough, ain’t she?  I’m a big feller, but my ma never weighed ninety pounds and she could’a whooped a bear.”

“No, Joe.  She’s breathin’ fine, her color’s good, and she’s nursing like there ain’t no tomorrow.  This baby’s just little, not puny.” Emma laughed at his concerns.

Anya acted huffy.  “Now don’t go making my baby out to be too little.  Give her time and she’ll set you straight.  I ain’t never been big as nothin’ but I can take care of you two if you keep picking on my baby.”  She smiled and nuzzled its sweetness.

Emma laughed and Joe looked alarmed.  “I ain’t talkin’ against the baby.  I just got worried when Emma said she was too little.”

Emma threw a towel at him.  “I ain’t never said  nothin’ was wrong with being little.  I was just saying she’s smaller than them buffaloes I birthed.  I think that was right smart of Anya to cook up a little one.” They all got a good laugh out of that.  “I do believe I’d keep her away from other folks till she catches up a little so she don’t catch something.  What do y’all reckon on naming this big ol’ gal?”

Anya looked to Joe.  He thought long before speaking, “Well, if you ain’t opposed, Anya.  I’d like to name her after two of the finest women I ever knowed, Rose for my mama and Anya for you.”

Anya looked at him with love.  “I’d be right proud to call her that.”

Charley’s Tale Chapter One

Ellen Pendergrass led a charmed life till the day her daughter, Charlotte, was born in 1938. At Ellen’s birth, her parents celebrated the long hoped-for arrival of a perfect daughter born ten years after the last of their six sons. Ellen was all any parent could have imagined, dainty, feminine, and delightful. She was all the more welcome, since her mother had despaired of ever having a daughter. Both parents doted on her and were well-able to indulge her since her father was from a long line of bankers.
A high-minded young woman, well-aware of her importance, Ellen studied music and art at a notable Southern Women’s College, though she’d never need to earn her own way. No one was surprised when she accepted the proposal of a wealthy plantation owner’s son. It was the wedding of the decade. The father of the bride built the young couple a Victorian mansion in the finest part of town and Ellen’s husband, a doctor, spent his time between his practice and his father’s plantation. His practice grew so quickly, he had to hire a farm manager when he inherited upon his father’s death. Ellen, like her mother before her, gave birth to boys, though she yearned for a daughter to follow her in society.
At thirty-nine, Ellen feared she was entering menopause, when to her great joy, she realized she was pregnant. Surely, she’d have a daughter this time. Her husband attended the home birth, of course. Ellen was relieved to hear a healthy squall at delivery, but Charles didn’t meet her eyes as he handed the swaddled infant to Cora, the maid. “It looks like a healthy girl.” In minutes, Cora diapered and swaddled the babe and passed her to Ellen to nurse.
Ellen counted all the little fingers and toes as she admired her little one. “I do believe this is the prettiest one yet.”
Charles answered, “You always say that,” then whisked the infant away immediately instead of leaving her with her mother, as he had at all the other births. “Get some rest.”
Ellen was glad to rest, but was a little concerned that Charles had taken the baby.
“Cora, was everything alright with the baby?” she quizzed Cora.
“That baby looked plenty healthy to me,” Cora turned her back as she tidied things up. “Shore had a fine set of lungs on her. You ain’t as young as you was. Git you some rest while you can.”
Miffed at the reference to her age, Ellen snapped at Cora. “I am plenty young enough to tend my baby, thank you. I have the finest skin of any of my friends.”
“Yes’m,” Cora answered.

To be continued