Embryonic/Fetal Me

Gram got pregnant with me in 1946.  I am a baby boomer by accident.  My dad was born in 1903 which made him too young for WWI and too old for WWII.  I came along by chance, not as a result of a soldier coming home from the war.

My parents lived on the outskirts of Houston in an area known as Almeda.  This was southwest of downtown Houston on the Missouri Pacific railway line.  Since my father was a cattle buyer who shipped cattle by rail to feedlots, this must have been a convenient location.  From Gram's point of view, it must have been out in the middle of nowhere.

Gram was 37 and Pop was 43 when I was conceived.  I was very much wanted, but Pop was sure I would be a boy, and I was known as Tomcat.  Lorette, who came along six years later after two miscarriages, was also supposed to be a boy.  Alas.  Gram, however, was very happy to have girls.  She felt that Pop would have been very demanding of a boy.  One of his stories was how his father had disciplined him with a toy buggy whip.  Pop didn't sound like he felt that a real whipping was inappropriate.

Gram weighed about 100 pounds when she got pregnant with me and weighed about 150 when I was born on February 8, 1947.  At that time women were advised not to gain too much weight then since it was believed that a smaller baby would be easier to deliver.  However, I was a planned C-section from early on, since it was determined that Gram's pelvis was too small for a vaginal delivery. Thus she could eat as much as she wanted, and I weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces.  I think the decision to plan a C-section was greatly influenced by fear on Gram's part because her mother died when Gram was only10 days old.  Gram had been a very difficult forceps birth, and all her life the scars from the forceps were visible, on one temple and behind the opposite ear.  Given the location of the scars, I think Gram's head was at an angle to the birth canal, making her birth much more difficult.

Little was known about the effects of the prenatal environment on babies in the 1940s.  Gram smoked a couple packs of unfiltered Camels a day, drank plenty of strong coffee, and sipped cooking sherry for morning sickness since she had read that rich pregnant women sipped champagne, but it was much too expensive.  I can't help but wonder if I would have a better memory without the nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol.  At least I wasn't starved.