Havana Cuba – For my months my whole family has been waiting the birth of my little sister, Inés María’s, first son.
When they did a sonogram, they had first said that the baby was a boy. A few months later they said that the baby was a girl. This last diagnosis of the baby was held until birth. The family was ecstatic about the birth of the baby. They had congregated in the waiting room with all the gifts they had bought for the baby including gowns, blankets and towels.
My wife and I having gotten an early start, and guided by emotional impulses, from the first ultrasound had bought clothes for a baby boy. After having bought them we were frustrated because the doctors had changed their opinion about the sex.
The little girl that was already so real, was a joy for some and a disappointment for a disabled niece who thought at some point she would usurp the role of having been the first granddaughter and first niece.
The pregnancy of my sister from the beginning, with nutritional problems, according to the doctors she would gain weight but she didn’t, so she was put in the hospital on more than one occasion. Later they thought it might be diabetes, which idea was later discarded. Then in the last three months of gestation the stomach grew in size and as it grew so did my sister’s desire to eat.
The delivery was expected between the 12, 13, 14 and 15 of October 2012. The waiting family traveled form Havana to await our new niece named Victoria.
My sister started her pains on the morning of Sunday the 14th, a date in Cuba that commemorates the first anniversary of the death of Laura Pollan. The fact that we wanted to call her Victoria became a double recognition of two women. One of them was the mother of the husband of my sister who has already died, and the other we wanted to pay tribute to was their great woman, mother, wife and Cuban of such great stature, Laura P.
We didn’t think of honoring Laura by giving her name to a newly born girl, we were just excited about the name Victoria. As this is the name she takes forever, and will take in the footsteps of a woman who left teaching to become the leader of a number of women whose sole mission is to rescue a nation and the Cuban family.
In the early hours of Sunday the 14th they took my sister to the community polyclinic in Santo Domingo, and later took her in an ambulance to the city of Santa Clara. There she was admitted the Mariana Grajales Maternal Hospital and the delivery occurred on the second day after he admission. The baby, according to the doctors, was delayed in crying, and against all predictions was a boy.
Instead of a vagina, he came with manly testicles. Everyone was amazed, there was no shortage of skeptics who asked to see to believe. The baby weighed ten pounds and today by the honor of God is in perfect health as is my sister.
I want to thank every friend who helped us find a name, I want to thank those who from different latitudes sent Tweets, text messages and emails, the name of our nephew is one that we received.
I can tell you today that we are still thinking about what to do with the clothes for my nephew, born so heavy and not expected to be so large for such a newborn baby. His health, according to the doctors, is excellent.
Happiness has come to our house and we receive the one who comes to us today in all his innocence.
October 22 2012