Happy Birthday, Big Boy!

On July 21, 2002, at 4:22 am, my beautiful son came into the world. He weighed 8lbs 0.5 oz and was 21 inches long.

Let me tell you about the day he was born.

Well, let's start the day before. Now, my due date was either the 17th or the 25th, depending. The 25th was based on the 8-week ultrasound and the 17th, just based on period dates. So even though the 25th was more accurate, I had really wanted the 17th. It was *July*. It was very hot and I was sick. to death. of being pregnant.

So, on the 20th of July, I woke up and got out of bed. Liquid trickled down my leg. I figured my water had broken, but since there weren't any contractions, I didn't bother to do anything about it. It was a Saturday. I felt something like a contraction around 2 pm, but even after giving birth once before, I wasn't sure if it was labour. I like to be certain of things before I act. Anyway, after a few hours, it was pretty certainly labour, so we put my cousin, who would be watching DD, on alert and waited until the contractions lasted 1 minute and were 10 minutes apart.

If only life were simple. I had the barest twinges of contractions until maybe 10 pm, at which point it changed to 3 30-second contractions in rapid succession every 20 minutes. WTF? This continued for some time. Around2 am, the set was 10 minutes apart, so we called in my cousin and DH and I headed to the hospital. By the time we'd driven to the hospital, filled out the paper work and made our way up to the L&D ward, the contractions were still 3 one right after another, but now 5 minutes apart.

As we had also called my parents and my sisters, my Dad's GF showed up shortly after we did. She said she'd never seen a baby being born, though she had 2 of her own. We told them she was my stepmother, otherwise they wouldn't have let her in. *giggle*

It was a pretty short time before hard labour began. I was prepared for half the time that I had had hard labour with DD, so I expected 45 minutes. You heard me. 1.5 hours of hard labour with DD. I think it was 10 minutes with DS. That's why he's my favourite. (Just kidding!)

Push push push and out he came. Only 3 stitches this time instead of 15. Easy!

Dad's GF took the worst picture of me ever, like half a second after they'd cut the cord and had placed my new son on my chest. You can see the whole ugly, naked, recently-deflated lower half of me. Ew.

My sisters showed up shortly after that. I had told them it would probably be a while. I was totally wrong. Anyway, they all got to hold DS and take pictures.

DS and I went home the next day. It was hideously hot, I remember, and DH still had to work. So it was just me and the kids for a while. Luckily, DS was a happy baby. He was a very good eater and his latch was nearly perfect from the beginning.

He started standing up (and falling down) at 8 months. And it wasn't long before he was trying to walk. He's always been like that - he just dives right in and keeps trying until he's got it.


He has grown into a wonderful little boy. He's smart and active and likes to learn new things. He loves to be my big helper boy. He's also very michevious, which you can see in this picture. He is 10 months here and has just knocked down his Birthday Picture Dog., largely because he saw me taking the trouble to arrange it next to him.

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Happy Birthday, Big Boy.

Lots of love from Daddy and Mommy and Big Sister.