13 Months

The Boy’s First Birthday Post – One month late

My son was born thirteen months ago, more than a week late and weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces. It was a med-free vaginal birth, a testament both to my stubbornness to let MS affect my birth experience and to my fear of needles.

After 36 hours of labor I finally got to meet my son, screaming and with meconium coming out of his nose. I blubbered to Hubs, “look at what we made.

I bled a lot, so much I nearly needed a transfusion. I also tore badly and had trouble getting rid of all of my placenta. So, after holding him all too briefly, they took The Boy from me and sent me to have surgery.

Hubs went with The Boy and I went under, waking up a short time later totally looped(it was not long after Michael Jackson died and I kept asking the nurse if they gave me what killed him) and wondering where my family was.

Here's a picture of him when he was new:



We brought the Boy home two days later. Both completely ill-prepared, I relied on Hubs’ diaper changing experience. It entailed only the few diapers he’d changed since The Boy was born, but it was greater than mine.
Since then I’d venture to say that we’ve both changed hundreds of diapers – though it feels like thousands, or even millions.

Always super alert, The Boy smiled at two weeks and laughed not long after that. He rolled from tummy to back at his one month check-up and back to front around five months.

He started belly-flopping around six months and relied on that as his means of getting around until he was almost a year old, where he quickly went from crawling properly to walking. He pulled himself up and scooted around on furniture and people from around seven months, but has been a bona fide walker for several weeks now.

He has gone from loving his playmat to his Jumperoo to his wagon to his bike.




Pic of bike to follow

He began his year relying on breast milk and now he resembles something more like a garbage disposal unit, eating everything he can fit in his mouth.



He is clever and sweet and silly and mischievous and dramatic. He is more than we could have hoped for when we decided to get pregnant two years ago. I love him more than anything and am so grateful to have him in my life and to be able to call him my son. I can only hope that I am worthy of such a blessing.




Happy 13 month birthday, Baby Boy!

Love, Your Devoted Mama