Joshua's Birthday

Joshua’s birthday

When I found out I was pregnant, I had looked at a pamphlet about pregnancy.  The pamphlet discussed what foods to eat month by month during the course of the pregnancy and it was fascinating to see pictures of what the baby would look like inside the womb each month.  I felt very motivated and encouraged to eat healthy foods and exercise properly.  Like everyone else, it was so important to me that I do the best that I could to take care of myself to produce a healthy baby.  I took this very seriously and was diligent at this task.  It was almost like training for the Olympics!  Being hearing impaired myself, I especially hoped and prayed for a normal healthy baby.

It was at this time I had a job teaching aerobics classes at my father’s health club.  I continued teaching during the whole pregnancy.

 

I was crazy to be wearing a long sleeve turtleneck shirt and long sweatpants!

The customers were concerned that I was hurting the baby, but I had doctor’s permission to go ahead and exercise.  I wasn’t worried because I knew it was healthy for the baby.  I followed my doctor’s advice to not overexert myself.  There was no reason to worry because I was a young, healthy and strong woman.  When the pregnancy came close to the end, I was getting very anxious and excited to meet our baby.  Jim (my ex) and I were fascinated with the whole experience of having a baby. 

Close to 9 months.  Hey, don't laugh.  Leotards and tights were popular then!

What the human body experiences during pregnancy never ceases to amaze me.  It gave me a new appreciation of God’s magnificent creation of our incredibly functioning human bodies.  It was truly an amazing experience watching a baby grow inside my womb.  At around the 7^th or 8^th month, the baby kicked and moved around quite a bit and I remembered that it worried me.  Call me naive, but I was concerned that the baby would get all tangled up with the umbilical cord and choke.  It was a horrible thought and I worried about that a lot.  I know it was silly of me.  We chose to keep the sex of the baby unknown because we wanted that to be a surprise.  Joshua came two weeks early.  There was a small part of me that worried it was too early, but I was reassured that this was normal.  The night of Joshua’s birth, Jim and I had just finished a lasagna dinner at my parent’s home.  I was tired and wanted to go home to bed, but I started having cramps and my mother recognized that I was going into labor.  I had to pinch myself to see if this was real and happening!  But it was happening when I wanted to shut my eyes and sleep!  No such thing a convenient time to have a baby.  I remember thinking I had better get ready for many nights when the baby cries in the middle of the night. 

We were so excited to meet our baby!  Is it going to be a boy or a girl?  What is the baby going to look like?  Is it going to be normal and healthy?  If it was going to be a girl, I hoped the baby would look like me of course.  If the baby was going to be a boy, I hoped the baby would look like Jim.  Well, Josh is a spitting image of his dad.  Seriously, he looks nothing like me.  Honestly, I felt like I had to tell everyone that I am his birth mother!  I also wondered if I was going to go through a difficult and hard labor and delivery.  My parents drove us to the Baltimore Memorial Hospital.  The labor was about 6 hours long.  My water didn’t break until the last 2 hours.  When the water broke, I was grateful to be at the hospital.  I heard horror stories of labor pains, but honestly it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  I didn’t require or want any drugs for the labor delivery.  Hey, we've all seen screaming women on television and movies...nope that doesn't happen in real life. It wasn’t until after the baby was born then the pain came when the local anesthesia wore off.  No one warned me about this part.  The part of labor that I found difficult was to hold off the urgency of pushing until instructed to do so.  The pushing phase wasn’t very long, I'm guessing probably a little over an hour?  When I was allowed to start pushing, I pushed to the best of my ability.  It didn't feel to me that the baby had moved at all, but the doctor and nurses told me that I was doing a great job.  I pushed so hard that my face turned red.  Jim commented that I had the face of a power lifter benching 300 pounds!  I think he was kinda proud of me.  (Those of you who don’t know Jim, he was a power lifter at the time and still is.)  There were no complications, however my blood pressure did go up but it didn’t appear threatening.  Joshua’s foot position in my rib cage was uncomfortable.  He was a big baby.   

I remember thinking I’ll be glad to have my body back to myself again.  I was blessed with a strong healthy body, but I believe a large part of the reason that my pregnancy didn’t involve sickness or difficulties is due to exercise and nutrition.  At the time though I didn’t realize how much of a difference it would actually make but looking back on this experience I know it did help.  Click here at:  http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3976657  or http://huff.to/18nOFOT  for an interesting article from Heidi Powell’s experience with and without exercise and nutrition.  Her first two pregnancies were difficult but her last two pregnancies were much easier due to exercise and nutrition.

Our healthy baby boy weighed in at 9 pounds and 2 ounces and was 21 inches long.  He was born two days before Christmas.  This was by far the best Christmas present I could ever receive!  I’m so grateful that Jim remembered his camera and took pictures of this special day.

I hold them dearly to my heart.  My doctor was very surprised because during visits when she measured the growth of my belly she estimated the baby was going to be of average size.  Just imagine, he was born two weeks early, how much bigger Joshua would have been?  I’ll never forget the first time I nursed Joshua.  I must have missed this part in the pamphlet of nursing.  I surely was not prepared.  I was shocked that a tiny baby’s mouth could be so strong!  I was also amazed that a baby knew what to do.  The nursing, how incredibly bonding it was!  The single most beautiful link I had to falling in love with this blessed angel.  I became a mom just less than three weeks shy of turning 21 years old.  Jim was 25.  

We wondered if I could be released from the hospital because it was Christmas Eve and I wanted to be home.  Thankfully, everything checked out good and I was cleared to leave.  Walking out of the hospital was not an easy task as I was experiencing pain from the episiotomy.  There was no way I could have walked out of the hospital without assistance.  I winced with every step I took with Jim by my side.  I was not prepared for this type of pain.
 

The first weeks of feeding Joshua were sweet and hilarious at times.  While nursing, Joshua would start to fuss every time there was talking.  He wanted absolutely no talking while he was eating.  So, I learned to be real quiet.  Oftentimes in the mornings, I was blessed with an abundance of milk and ready to burst.  I was glad to be rid of it when the baby was ready to eat again.  It was a welcome relief!  One of those mornings, Joshua’s eyes grew very big as he was drowning with too much milk coming at him so fast.  The milk was spilling out of the corner of his mouth!  It was hilarious and it was very hard for me to keep quiet.  Then while burping Joshua, he burped the loudest burp ever heard from a newborn!  Oh, the joys of motherhood and how rich he made my life!  He was such a beautiful baby boy that I could not stop staring at him while he napped.

He grew up so fast, it felt like I was cupping my hands, attempting to hold water when it just trickled through my fingers and there was nothing I could do to keep it there.  I love my son something fierce.  I fell in love caring for a sweet baby boy!  Never could I have imagined the joy he would bring me.  I loved his cookie-sweet cheeks.  In fact, today as a young man, he still has those red rosy cheeks.

Fast forward a few years, I was travelling by train with my mom.  Joshua was now old enough to be talking.  On one particular trip, my mother wanted to know if I would permit her to give Joshua a cookie she had in her purse.  She tried to do this secretively by saying to me, “Can Joshua have a C O O K I E?” spelling out the word.  My response was, “After dinner.”  When Joshua finished eating his dinner he said, “Okay, can I have that cookie now?”  He was around 2 ½ -3 yrs old.  We were very surprised at this because we thought Joshua was certainly too young to know how to spell.  We think watching Sesame Street had something to do with it.  We realized that not only he was a healthy boy, he was also very bright.  I didn't realize it at the time, but looking back, I believe my prayers for a bright child was granted.  I don’t mean to brag, but when he started school we knew his intelligence was going to be a challenge as time went on.  His brain was a sponge absorbing everything that was taught to him.  The experience of parenting brought me a better understanding of my parents and why they raised me the way they did.  My parents were challenged to raise a child with special needs, and personally, I am so grateful for everything they did for me.  I think they did a wonderful job.  The challenge I had was to raise a very bright child, so this required making sure Joshua got the advanced education he needed.  Joshua was 5 years old when Jim and I divorced so, being a hearing impaired and a single mom had additional challenges.  I had to make sure to keep Joshua from getting bored in school with his above average intelligence.  There were times when his intelligence was really mind blowing.  I mean, how did this kid know so much?  Sometimes it was actually kind of scary.  He is now 28 years old and I can't believe it.  It was mean of him to grow up so fast.  He is a wonderful young man and I am very proud of him.  He is a foodie, loves art, photography, books, travelling, music and sports.  He has a great zest for life.  I love him far beyond words could ever express.  I feel so richly blessed to be his mom! 



About 2 or 3 years old