I still haven't written down his birth story. I shared it with women at The Red Tent in February. That was a turning point in my recovery. Calvin, at 4 months old, cooed and babbled over my entire telling of our birth story. It was as if he had his own version of the story and I don't think our stories are quite the same. I was reminded of this as I watched him insist in throwing away his own diaper last night. He wriggled around to grab the diaper as soon as I took it off. A fair distraction while I attempted the buttons on his pajamas. Before I could finish he had twisted and shoved to a standing position. He then screeched until I finally gave up. At which point he marched across the room and lifted the top to his(child-proof?) diaper pail. He stared in for a moment before shoving the diaper in(with a little help from momma).
He is independent. He is determined. He is still learning how to communicate. As I think back on the last year it was these qualities that challenged us. He has always known what he wanted but he hasn't been able to communicate it to us. We didn't realize he was often over-heating, or that eggs weren't agreeing with him. So different from his easy-going sister who was content just to be with us and was an extremely early communicator.
And I see now that is why his birth story went the way that it did. Calvin had a plan. He was determined. He wasn't sure how to inform me of his plan. And so he arrived with the help of the best midwives, doctors, nurses, 7-month-pregnant doula(amazing!) and one very excited grandma(thanks mom for the all-nighter) at Highland Hospital. He arrived healthy and happy to two very tired parents, late on a Monday night, 38 hours after the first contraction woke me on Sunday morning. Here is his story...
