Day 7 – A Photo That Makes Me Happy

This picture makes me very happy. It is one of the first pictures taken of me and my firstborn.

I spent much of my childhood dreaming of becoming a mama some day. I had his name chosen by the time I was fourteen years old. I named him after my great-grandpa, the father of my maternal grandma. I promised grandma's sister, my Aunt Mae, that I would name my firstborn son after their daddy. She died just before the doctor told me that I was pregnant. On my first date, with the man that I would eventually marry, I told him the name that I would give to my future firstborn son. Amazingly, he didn't run away. :)

David knew from the moment of conception that we had a baby coming. I started having baby dreams and the baby in the dreams was a boy. We took the Lamaze classes and did everything by the book...until it came time to go to the hospital. We knew that once I got to the hospital, I wouldn't be allowed to eat anything until after the baby was born, and for a first-timer, that could be even as long as a whole day. We stopped at Burger King and I ate a triple whopper with cheese, large fries and had a large drink. Right now I'm wondering how on earth I ate that much because I was already overloaded with the baby. There were no spare inches available, but somehow I made room for that burger and those fries.

We got to the hospital around 6pm on Wednesday evening and I delivered our son at 11:29am Thursday morning, surrounded by a class of student nurses that had to leave the birthing room by 11:30am. He didn't want to disappoint them.

Because I was so tense during the prenatal exams, the doctor wasn't so sure that I would be able to give birth naturally. He had the suction forceps at hand and the operating room was prepared in case a c-section was necessary. I aced it. Dr. Hearne said that I was his best Lamaze patient to date, especially for such a large first baby.

Jared was born exactly on his due date, 8 pounds 8 ounces of alertness that hit the ground running and hasn't stopped since.

That's my boy!