My firstborn!

It was an extremely long labor ( 62 1/2 hours) but when he arrived he was so perfect. I never even noticed his two little web toes on each foot until the doctor pointed it out. I guess other’s might have thought that was an imperfection but to me it was special. At that time my husband even suggested that we take our son for corrective surgery on his toes but I firmly told him, “No!” Later in life my son would appreciate that his mom stood up for him at such a young tender age to not separate those little tiny toes. They turned out to be sort of his special trademark and he was proud of them. He would even show his friends and the girls. We also use to lovingly tease him that those toes made him such a good swimmer.

Right from the beginning he was hard work but I was use to hard work so I didn’t think much of it. I just thought kids were hard work in general so all of this was typical. He wasn’t fussy all of the time like you would hear some other mom’s complain of their babies. But when he was fussy you would know it. He just happened to be more intense right from the beginning, When he was good he was great and when he fussy he was intense. I just handled it. I mean what else is one to do?

My son seemed to reach all his developmental milestones okay in that first year. As a matter of fact, some of the stuff he did even earlier then what the books said he ought to do. He held his head up in the hospital. He rolled over just shy of five months old.. He crawled at 7 months. And he walked at eleven months and two days. The one thing he wasn’t very good at was sleeping though. And of course, if he didn’t sleep neither did I. As I said before he was a happy baby for the most part but when he was fussy or mad it was hard. Other’s told me I better not give in to him. So one day I put him in the crib to go to sleep and he screamed. He screamed so hard that he vomited all over the place. I bathed him and then he ended up right next to me in bed between my husband and I. He would continue to stay there for years. Of course after that, other’s might see it as I gave in. In reality, I am glad I “gave in” because even at that young age I know and learned that he really needed me.

When he started to babble a few words I didn’t really realize at first that his vocabulary should have probably been more by eighteen months old. He was my first child so this was all new to me. However , his language did continue to progress but his articulation just wasn’t there. Being his mom for the most part I tended to understand him though.

Although my son had in home childcare for the two days I went to my office I decided I would put him in a Montessori School. I figured this would help him developmentally and socially since he was an only child at the time. He entered the school when he was just under two. He didn’t seem happy but it was new so I gave it some time. I stood in the hallway waiting to hear the crying stop before I left. Eventually, it did. It seemed like forever… As time passed it seemed apparent that he didn’t enjoy school so much. I questioned the teachers and they assured me he was okay. But as more time passed he began to scream when we approached the building. He would scream the same thing over and over. “ICKY, ICKY!” I could not figure out what was going on. Although my son spoke in words he could not put sentences together. Then one day I picked him up and his face was scratched I questioned the staff as to what had happened. I was told that another child had scratched him but they could not tell me who. I really didn’t care who the other child was. I was just interested that my son would be kept safe. Again another incident occurred. My son also continued to scream when we approached the school. One day when I was dropping him off I heard the aide say, “VICKY, come over here.” It then clicked “VICKY” was “ICKY”. Now I knew why my son did not want to go to school. I spoke to the teachers again however, when I picked him up on another day he was scratched again. This time the scratches were deep and it was right near his eye. I then pulled my son out of this school. And my son actually still has the scars up until this very day right near his brow. It tends to add to his character and makes him look a bit more distinguished if you imagine that. This was the beginning of our story….

Copyrighted 2011: danadogooder and DMT