My baby the Adult

Alexander David

So today my son turns 18.  My oldest child, the one I made the most mistakes on and learned so much from.  A good friend of mine told me once "the first child survives in spite of the parents and the following survive in spite of the siblings."  Being an Early Childhood Ed major I really thought I knew what I was doing.  I had taken the classes, been around babies in my classes and felt very knowledgeable.  Unfortunately I had little hands on experience.  My only younger sibling is 3 years younger then me so when I had my first baby at 22 I hadn't lived in a house with a baby for years.  Things are a lot different 24/7 then watching a child here and there.  Feeding, diapering, bathing, pacing the floor, wiping, wiping, and wiping were all very new to me.  I had this strange feeling every time he cried if his diaper was clean he must be hungry.  So I fed him a lot.  Poor child.  He probably was crying trying to get me to leave him alone for a moment.

I can vividly remember that time in my life.  How does it go so fast?  I had wanted a baby so bad and when I took that test and sat it down to wait the five minutes for the results I could already see the result.  I was shaking and went to sit down with my husband.  He had wanted to check the result to let me know.  I thought maybe it was too early and the plus sign just comes up for a second and then would fade away.  I didn't want to get my hopes up.  Then David checked and sure enough we were finally going to be parents.  I was so happy and scared.    What an exciting time.  I didn't mind the sickness although it was not fun.  Fitting in to maternity clothes was so exciting, then outgrowing the maternity clothes was a bit depressing and still I continued to grow.  My sister preceded me in pregnancy about 10 weeks and so I saw her grow and thought that wouldn't happen to me because I was taking a water aerobics class and watching what I ate.  My sister ate like a pig and enjoyed the freedom of eating what she wanted.  But to my amazement we gained the same amount.  My lovely mom had only gained half what we gained and explained that was what happened to the women on my dad's side. 

Me almost 9 mos pregnant before David's college graduation

The big day came and I decided to try to have the baby natural.  My water started leaking about 3:00 am.  I wasn't sure what was going on so went to the restroom several times before my husband became concerned.  I called the hospital and told them what was happening but I wasn't in any pain.  They told me to come on in and off we went.  It was a dark drive to the hospital and I was so excited and scared.  David was focused but he seemed nervous.  I couldn't believe what was about to happen.  Was this a dream?  We got to the hospital and I was having small contractions.  They asked if I wanted any drugs and I said no I wanted to do it naturally.  A couple hours later David was enthralled in a cartoon and had no idea I was dying in the bed.  The pains hit hard and fast and I was trying my best to remain call and not over react so he had no idea.  After another couple hours I had changed my mind.  I was having hard back labor with one contraction on top of the other.  There was no break in between and I had decided I wanted something.  The nurse checked me and informed me it was too late.  I preceded to let them know I wanted to be knocked out but I could hardly talk.  So all I could say was Ow, ow, ow.  A couple hours later we delivered our first gift from God.  He was a good color, probably because he came out screaming.  What good lungs he had.  He was totally exercising those vocal chords to be used for the Lord.   A very health beautiful baby boy. 

Me loving on my Baby Alexander

Daddy and his boy

Starting to walk and never stopping

ready for church

school time

always the loving big brother, well most the time :)

Playing the piano

Tiny Tim in the Christmas "Life is full of Sweet Surprises Every days a gift."

And there we were.  Proud parents of our amazing son.  Alexander has been a blessing to us in so many ways.  I nick named him son shine and would always sing you are my son shine to him.  And truly he is my son shine.  He lights up the room and has entertained us from day one.  He loved playing the piano as a baby and never stopped.  He also began talking quite young.  First he had his own language but soon he started speaking English and we have got such a kick out of all he says.  I have many entries in my journal on what Alex said today.  Alex started preaching when he was 4.  We have the best video of it.  He has always been quite the athlete and would shock us with his coordination.   Looking back I think of my thoughts when Alex was born:  What will he look like when he grows up?  Will he love the Lord?  What is Gods plan for his life?  What does he need from me?   Questions we wonder about all of our children.  I am so blessed to see  answers to those questions at this stage.  He is handsome, loves the Lord, has God's calling on his life and respects our advise.  I am  so blessed to have had this opportunity to raise Alexander David with my amazing husband and his daddy.  Alexander truly you are a beloved leader of man as your name says.  I will love you forever, as long as I'm living my baby you will be.  Love always Mom

my soccer star.