Birthday Boy

One week old

Two years old! (this is the same bear)

My first experience with childbirth was magical.  Seven hours start to finish and I was handed a rosy, chubby baby girl.  I got to snuggle with her for thirty minutes before they even weighed her.  It was amazing.  When Christian was born I was unconscious and he wasn’t breathing and didn’t for about five minutes.  I didn’t come to for hours and he was definitely not being snuggled.  After three days I finally made it to Albuquerque to see him but my snuggles were limited because he had to stay under special lights.  It was hard to imagine a time when snuggling wouldn’t involve monitors and oxygen tubes.

Today Christian turned two.  I went to bed last night thinking of him and couldn’t wait to wish him Happy Birthday.  When I woke up this morning I could instantly tell it was much earlier than I usually get up and I lay there for a while wondering if I would be able to fall back asleep.  Thats when I heard a little voice over the baby monitor call for Momma.  I got up and groggily headed down stairs.  As I passed by the kitchen I glanced at the clock.  5:25.  Christian was born at 5:26.  When I walked into his bedroom this morning it was at the exact moment he was pulled from my womb.

He quieted when he saw me.  I lay down next to him and he snuggled into me.  I usually get about a minute of this before he asks for milk and a movie, but this morning was different.  He pressed his forehead against mine and I draped my arm over his little body.  We stayed that way for half an hour.  The whole time I lay there I thought, This was what should have happened the first time we met.  I think it was his birthday gift to me.

Finally he pulled away enough to look into my eyes.  I smiled and whispered “Happy Birthday Bubbi!”  Christian immediately broke into a huge smile, giggled, then asked for milk and a movie.  We went out into the living room and I set him on the couch, put on Despicable Me (one of his favorite movies) and poured him some milk and myself some coffee.  We sat next to each other and laughed whenever he quoted the movie.  It was perfect.

My son amazes me.  He was so tiny at birth, 3.06 pounds, that it was hard to picture him as a little kid or even a chubby baby.  We couldn’t see that far down the road and it scared us.  I look at him now and am continuously blown away by his sense of humor, his amazing vocabulary and his charming smile.  We may not have had an easy, perfect start, and things might not be what we were expecting but I have been given a gift in this little man of mine.  Our birthday snuggle was pure beauty, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.