My Baby is One

One year ago I was at the train museum, wondering why I was still pregnant (my baby was due a week before and all of my other babies had been early) and watching the clock because I had a doctor's appointment that day and I knew my midwife would try to get me to induce the labor, and I would have to tell her to let me wait one more week because I wanted this to happen naturally.

The appointment arrived and I was determined to stand firm.  After some discussion, we compromised.  It was Tuesday and I talked her into letting me stay pregnant until Saturday to see if this baby would come on his own.  She was very reluctant, but saw that I was determined.  Then she did an ultrasound.

She measured my amniotic fluid.  "Hmmm.  Maybe there is more fluid behind the chord...",  "No, that is more baby."  "Let's look over here",  "No, that is more baby as well...."  After about 10 minutes of searching for fluid she declared,  "Your baby needs to come today.  You do not have enough amniotic fluid and I have seen enough still-births that I can not risk you waiting any longer.  I am not saying this because it is convenient for me, I had plans to go see my grand-daughter's play tonight but this is an emergency and you need to go home, pack your things, and get to the hospital right away."

How could anyone refuse a lecture like that?  I made it to the hospital at 4.  I really did not want an epidural, but I was a little afraid about the intensity of induced contractions.  I decided to try it without one anyway.

Usually, once I go into labor, I have my babies very quickly - which means I have very intense contractions with very few breaks in between.  The induced contractions came on gradually and they gave me time to prepare for the next one - they were actually a little easier to handle then the real ones.  At least at first :-)  My midwife was great and helped me try different positions that helped with my back labor (I always have back labor!)  I kept reminding myself that women had done this for thousands of years at home without drugs and that if they could do it - I could do it!  I wanted to labor in the bathtub, but my midwife tricked me.  She kept saying, as soon as we get the contractions going steadily, I could jump in the bath.  Then once the contractions were going steadily she said, "It's too risky to go in there now because they are coming pretty intensely and quickly so you need to stay in bed."  I could have smacked her, but at that point the main thing on my mind was trying to relax through yet another intense contraction...

Then at 10pm, my baby arrived.  Oh what a wondrous, miraculous, extraordinary thing it is to see your baby, hear his voice, and hold his warm little body for the first time!  What a precious, divine, incredible gift!

He has turned one at an alarming rate!  He is developing his own happy personality.  He smiles whenever you look at him.  He used to lay on his tummy, put his arms and legs up off the floor and wiggle his little hands and feet.  It looked as if he were trying to take off flying.   Now he crawls everywhere, pulls himself up and talks to us, "bah, dah, dah".  Or yells, "bah, dah, dah, bahh!"  He has the cutest little "fake laugh" - he scrunches up his face and snickers whenever we're laughing.  He loves climbing up the stairs to a certain spot where he can see us all and then yelling for us to look at him.  When we all do, he laughs and bounces and yells some more.

He just learned to say "bye" with his hand by shaking it up and down and saying "ba".  Yesterday at the park, he was crawling away from Rock and me.  When he crawls away from me, after he goes about 10 feet, he'll look back.  Sometimes he crawls back to me, sometimes he'll smile at me, wave his hand, and keep on crawling away.  Well, this time at the park, Rock called to him, "Ray! Where are you going?"  He stopped, sat up, looked at us, waved his hand and continued to crawl away.  Rock called to him again.  This time Ray didn't even bother turning around, he continued crawling, but picked up his arm and waved at us, and then moved on.  He keeps us laughing all the time.

The kids argue about who gets to get him when he wakes up from a nap, or who gets to take care of him.  Spice often exclaims, "He is just so cute!  We have to get his picture!"  Most of the pictures we have of him are due to Spice running up and grabbing my camera when she "can't stand" how cute he is.

For his birthday, we sung him a birthday song in the morning (no presents - I couldn't think of anything he needed and I'm not about to buy more toys that I want to get rid of - I didn't think he would mind.)  In the evening, he got to eat cake for the first time.  The kids were all exited to see what he would do when he tasted it.  He kept smashing it with his fork at first, so I gave him a taste, he smiled and then tried to pick some more up with his fork, he eventually gave that up and ate it with his hand (but he took it from his fork).  What a proper gentleman.

Happy birthday baby boy!  You'll never know how much happiness you've brought our family every single day.  I love you so much that I can't stand it!