The Big 10 (oh my)

Today is the day my baby turns 10 Years Old**. You know, it's not my birthdays that bother me, it is my children's birthdays that bother me. My birthdays come and go, I celebrate and watch fire works (it's on the 3rd of July), and then go on with life and never blink an eye about my age going up one number.
When one of my kids has a birthday it is eye opener. Especially this birthday for Ethan!

My pregnancy with him was ok. I lost weight because I was sick 24/7 for 8 1/2 months. I finally felt ok the last 2 weeks of his pregnancy. I developed toxemia about 7 1/2 months and was supposed to be on bed rest but when you work full time and your husband likes to spend money we didn't have, well, I kind of ignored that order. I worked in an office and they did have a nice break room with a couch in it and they made me lay down for 20 minutes ever hour and a half. I went into labor with him Tuesday night and had him by c-section Wednesday morning. The labor wasn't bad at all. For this one, now Emma and Harley are totally different stories.
When I had a contraction my entire mid section was tighten up and my back would twinge but there wasn't any real pain. I was young and naive and sat there on my hospital bed thinking if this is all it's like what is all the talk about pain.
By the time I was taken to the OR to have him my contractions were a minute apart and they had to hurry to get the spinal done. I had to have a c-section because he was breech and wouldn't turn around for anything. They were going to let me try to push until the doctors realized that he was coming out folded in half, butt first. It would have killed Ethan and seriously hurt me, or killed me too.
SW was out to sea at the time and my mom had flown in to be with me and help out however she could.
Ethan came during hurricane force winds and rain. The news hadn't classified it as a hurricane though. My waters broke about 7:30pm on Tuesday night and I called the doctor to see if he wanted me to get to the hospital. He told me to head out and be careful because of the weather. Ethan was born during the eye of the not-hurricane. He was just fine but my blood pressure soared as soon as they were done with me. I spent longer in recovery because of my blood pressure but the doctors soon managed to get that back to normal and I was up and walking around when he was about 8 hours old.
The most vivid thing I remember about the surgery is that the moment they pulled Ethan out of me and held him up for my mom to see him, was my mom yelling "HE HAS BALLS". Everyone in the room burst into laughter. I laughed the hardest and the doctor had to tell me to quit laughing so they could finish up. They had me in a hammock type thing and it was shaking every time I took a breath and giggled. I laughed especially hard because my mom does not say things like that. She is a retired elementary school teacher and never cussed, ever. Or said anything derogatory. I was so shocked that she said something like that. The doctor had never promised it was a boy or a girl because everytime I had an ultrasound he would turn his back to us.

My life has not been dull one moment since he was born. He was a "normal" baby. He ate well, slept through the night right at 6 week, sat up, crawled, and walked right at the time all of the "experts" say he should have. It wasn't until he was almost 2 that I noticed he was different than others his age. He quit taking naps and would only sleep about 2 hours a night and be up and running the rest of the time. At first I didn't think anything of it because I had a new baby and was up nursing her anyways.
He has come so far from where we started. His school work improves every day. Some days are better than others and he still has blowups but those are easily calmed with a hug. He leans, I hug. We have to direct him to put his arms around us for a proper hug. Every time he has to go through more testing he is so cheerful about it. If something strikes him wrong about the tester he won't do as good and won't try but that rarely happens.

Ethan was so excited when I woke him up this morning because it had snowed. He was sure that God made it snow just for his birthday. All he wants for his birthday is a batman set and to eat supper at Johnny Carino's. He is so easy to please most of the time and that more than makes up for his special needs.

I suppose I should actually get to work now. I am excited to get home this evening to see how is birthday at school was!

**click on the link of 10 year old birthday and it will take you to a site that tells you about when you were conceived, how many months, weeks, days, and minutes you are alive, what you are in dog years and lots of other things.