Denise Noelani

Today is Denise's 45th birthday.  She was born on November 11, 1969 at Tri-City Hospital in Oceanside, CA.

I have been thinking a lot of that weekend leading up to her birth.  There was a lot going on leading up to hearing the words "you are pregnant"...surgery, fertility tests and finally fertility drugs.  I was the first patient in North San Diego County to take the fertility drug "Clomid".  It was thought to cause multiple births.  I took 5 days worth of the pills and went to see my doctor for a urine test.  It came back negative.  I was going to do another 5 days only taking 2 pills at a time.  Before I started that, my doctor wanted another urine test done.  That one came back positive.  I had gone through so much, I didn't believe the news, at first.  It slowly became a reality and I was so excited.

As an extra precaution, my doctor wanted to administer hormone shots to insure I would not have a miscarriage.  So once a month I went in for my shot...my doctor visits were every 2 weeks.  Towards the end of the pregnancy, I had the shots more often...sometimes having 2 at the same time because my backside had been pricked so many times, the serum would run out.

At about 6 months I was put on complete bed rest.  I was at a friend's house and passed out.  She called my doctor who told her what to do to bring me back.  She drove me home and the next day I went in to see my doctor.  Due to my short stature, as the baby grew, she would get her feet up underneath my breastbone cutting off my oxygen. 

My due date was November 6th.  Denise's dad wanted a Marine Corp birthday baby, November 10th.  I, on the hand, was determined to have my baby on Tuesday which was November 11th.  I was born on a Tuesday.  He was convinced I was having a boy...I had been praying for a girl with light skin, red hair and blue eyes...and I got a girl with light skin, red hair and blue eyes.  Actually her hair was a dark brown with blond streaks through it.  Her daddy is a blond with blue eyes.  When the nurses brought her to me for the first time, I asked the nurses what happened to her hair.  They told me that is how her hair was when she was born.  It looked like someone had taken a tiny paint brush and painted the streaks in her hair...it was beautiful and she had a lot of hair.

I started having low back pains on Sunday, the 9th.  About 10pm or so, we went down to emergency to be checked.  My contractions were about 5 minutes apart.  They were going to send me home, however decided to admit.  I heard the nurses talking among themselves after being taken to a room, saying "she looks like she is frightened so let's just keep her...there's no one up here anyway".  One of the nurses sat with me off and on through the night.  TriCity, at the time, was a very small hospital.  Monday morning, the contractions completely stopped.  After my doctor came in to see me, it was decided that they would induce labor that afternoon if my contractions didn't start up again.  So after lunch, the fun began...it would be a long rest of the day.  My doctor came in that night and decided to do a C-section.  He had told me if the baby was more than 7 lbs, a C-section would probably have to be done.

Finally at 2:47am, Tuesday morning, November 11th, my sweet girl made her entrance.  When my doctor said "Betty, it's a girl" I started crying...I was awake during the whole procedure...everyone got nervous...they were happy tears and God had answered my prayers.  When I had been praying I told God I would give her back to Him if my prayers were answered.  And that is what I did...she belonged to God...I've gotten to have her for a little while.  Denise weighed 7 lbs, 6 ozs and was 19 inches long.

And so her 45th birthday has occurred on a Tuesday...