One year ago today, I was not in labor. This was a problem, since I was two weeks late, except I wasn’t two weeks late as we most decidedly learned after the baby was born.
With his six older siblings, I wrote out the details of my labor and delivery. I used to go back and read these in those final weeks before the next baby came. I never wrote George’s birth story. I think a lot of that had to do with my husband and sons leaving me in the care of my daughters about nine hours later to drive to Florida to meet the moving truck. And how 4 days later, we had grandparents in town for his baptism. And how I spent the 5th day of his life loading boxes into a U-Haul trailer and driving 350 miles, arriving long after midnight, and needing to unload the entire trailer right then because my mattress was in there.
Writing the birth story just didn’t seem very important at that time. I wanted to, but I just didn’t have the energy.
Somehow, we recovered. Here is George, on his birthday eve.
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| His chin dimple gets the most attention from strangers. |
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| My earliest walker – first steps at age 10 months. |
At this point I asked the kids to be amusing and make the child smile. At first, he just thought they were strange. But they finally got him to laugh.
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He is such a darling, and you are an incredible woman to have survived that extended birth story and not have blocked it entirely from your memory!
He's adorable! Happy birthday, George!
He's a cutie! Those pictures make him look like he might have strawberry blond hair. Just curious did they get an estimated due date via ultrasound?
I had an ultrasound at 8-10 weeks to make sure he was alive, and they dated him then. Each subsequent ultrasound – one at 22 weeks to check for development and another a month or so later to double check his head circumference which seemed very small at 22 weeks (it was fine). Each time he was tracking close enough to my “first day of last period” that my due date was based on that. I shouldn't have used that date. My 1st 3 pregnancies, I used my real LMP date and had late late late babies – even with ultrasounds and moving the day out a week. After that, I started adding 1 or 2 weeks to my LMP date and (miraculously) the babies were on time. With George, because I thought a miscarriage was more likely, I used the truthful LMP date…so when he was “late,” I knew he wasn't really late. I think he was 7 lbs 5oz and covered in vernix.
We WILL be nominating you for sainthood.
I hope that you will still write George's labor & birth story when you can find a few minutes of peace & quiet here & there.
I am still looking for the picture of Fritz holding Billy – so there will be a complete record of Fritz holding each of his siblings after they were born. I think you have pictures of all the other kids holding new siblings.
We had the due date wrong with my last one too. They went by the early ultrasound date, which was two weeks ahead of my NFP charting dates (but closer to the last menstral cycle date). I should have stuck with what I knew was right and insisted on using my date, but I let them move it up. Big, big mistake, because of all the blood pressure checks and extra appointments they started once I “went over”. Then they scheduled me for an induction, luckily I went into labor on my own the day before. His birthday ended up being the exact day my charts said he would be born. The dr. said I was right all along, they checked the placenta, which was a healthy full term one, not one that was two weeks overdue.
My goodness, he's a cutie! Happy One, little one!
So cute!!!
He’s a cutie! I hope the transfer to this new space was easy.
So sweet. :0) He puts a smile on your face.