Part 1

When I married movin' dad, I knew I wanted to have children right away. He wanted to wait. So we did. It took some convincing, but about a year and 1/2 later, we decided to start a family. October of '90, I went into the Dr's office to see if I was pregnant. The anticipation of him walking through the door to say, "The test is positive" was more than I can say. But that isn't what happened. He said, "It's negative."
I started crying. Which is crazy now that I think about that time, after all we had only decided to try and have a baby the month before. I was only 3 days late, when I went in to the Dr. Of course I started the very next day. The positive experience was that he gave me all kinds of hints and tips that the very next month of November, my test was positive! I chock up the emotion to my age, I was only 23 years old. Even though I didn't feel like I was that young at the time, now having a son who is about to turn 16...I WAS young.

At 5 months we were thrilled to find out that he was a boy. We had his name picked out right away. I was given two HUGE baby showers and we barely had to purchase anything. Between friends and family, our new son would be stocked with diapers clothing and formula for his first 3 months of life.

I continued working as a hairdresser until the month before he was due. I wanted to allow some time to prepare the nursery. 3 weeks before he was due I went in to the Dr. and discovered that he was breech. He was concerned that my pelvic bone was too small to deliver him anyway so he viewed this as a blessing in disguise. I started crying again. Even though I was a ripe 24 years old now, I was scared and disappointed about having to have a c-section. I had many more days of tears, but as it turned out, it was my easiest delivery! I woke up that morning, put on a full face of make-up and headed to the hospital. Within hours, my first born child was there.

I had no desire to breast feed. (Please don't sick the leche league on me) In fact when I was pregnant with him, I actually had a beer or two, ate sushi all of the time, and he is wickedly bright, athletic and healthy.

*disclaimer*(just because it worked for me doesn't mean I'm telling you guys to go out and drink alcohol and/or eat mercury)

I even took those pills to dry up my milk. It was 1991, I didn't even question it. He kept my epidural in my back for the 3 days that I was there and unhooked me the morning I was leaving. It was a fabulous experience. I was able to go out a couple of days later to show him off to my friends at the salon. I wasn't worried or paranoid. It was like I had been doing this forever. I was quite comfortable in the shoes of motherhood. My dad and mom came to help, then my in-laws. We were the only ones who had moved away. We traveled to Texas when he was 5 weeks old for his "coming out" party and then to Chicago for a wedding when he was 9 weeks old so he could meet all of the elders! Being our first child we didn't realize that some of the things he did were early. He began crawling at 4 months old. I spent everyday teaching him things, it was our goal every day to learn something new to show daddy when he got home from work. All I could think about was that I wanted 4 boys and I wanted them to all be one right after the other. My first birth was such a positive experience that I was ready to do it all over again. And when he turned 5 months old, we found out that we were blessed once again. Baby # 2 was on it's way.
Life couldn't get any better. My son was such a happy, smart, loving boy.



*Part 2 coming soon