On August 31st, twenty-nine years ago, I was sitting in my mom’s red Datsun watching my youngest brother’s football practice at Pilila’au park when all of a sudden, I felt a pain in my stomach. It wasn’t very sharp but I knew something was happening so I turned to my mom and described the pain I was having. So told me I was in labor so she let my brother know and we drove home.

After gathering my hospital bag, we drove to my grandma’s house to let her know too. Then we were on our way, but then we took the exit to Waipahu so we could let my Aunty know too. Luckily, the contractions were still far apart and they weren’t severe yet. We finally made it to Kapiolani and I was examined and admitted.

I had a private labor room but I could hear other women screaming and groaning and that crap scared me more than the contractions. I was still a long way from giving birth so my mom would run upstairs to take smoke breaks every so often. But as soon as I heard someone screaming, I’d ring the nurse and ask her to page my mom. She told me she didn’t even get to smoke before she heard her name being paged. Then she told me that my grandma, Aunties, Uncles, cousins, and brothers were in the lobby waiting for me to give birth. Eventually, after a few more hours of waiting, most of them went home while my grandma, Aunty and brothers stayed overnight. They slept in the lobby. (more…)