Meet The Oldest Son

First, I figured I would tell a bit about my family.

I was 16 years old when I had my oldest son. I know a few people would grown and look down on someone of my age having kids. Yeah yeah, kids having kids right? Not really. I had a few life struggles that made me more than what the average 16 year old was. I did finish high school after my son was born. I did not however go to college, a choice I regret but that is changing. I took my SATs and hope to make it into a college next year.

Enough about me. My husband and I met in high school. We met through a good friend of mine. We didn't hit it off right away and I sort of disliked him. Well, that is what I told myself.

My pregnancy with my now 9 year old, was easy going at first. He was due January 7, 2000. Instead I started going into labor the end of October. They stopped it quickly and sent me home. I again showed up November 10, 1999, in the hospital at about 7 am with hard contractions. They found I was 5 1/2 cem. by then. They again stopped it all and told me I would stay in the hospital until my due date. But this wouldn't do for my first child. Nope, he wanted to make it to his baby shower and decided to wake me up November 15, 1999 at 1 am with more contractions. The nurses gave me heavy sleeping pills. So when I woke, I had no clue I was having contractions.

My birthing classes were to take place November 20 in the hospital since I didn't get to go to my scheduled one. I can say I didn't know how this all worked, so it was confusing with the added sleeping pills that kept me somewhat asleep during it all. Our son was born that day at 4:36 am I remember the NICU doctor tell me that my son would be placed on various tubes and he may grow up with learning problems. He was preparing me for the worst. But I didn't even take it in, not my child. No no, he was going to be fine.

Well, he was. A few hours after being weighed in, 4 lbs 5 oz, he had all tubes removed but still was in his incubator and a feeding tube. The feeding tube didn't last long though, maybe a day. They told me he wouldn't go home until his due date, but again, not my child. Nope he lost his birth weight and was 3 lbs 11 oz when he went home 5 days later.

By the time he was a month old, our baby had gained more than half his weight and was over 6 lbs. Now almost 10 years later, he has no problems. Though he did have speech problems. We put him in a pre-school when he was 3. I thought nothing of his speech, it was kinda his and my secret language. I understood him fine, but I never thought others didn't quite understand him. Phrases such as "La-la" doesn't mean "water" to everyone else? Guess not.

They did testing on him and not fully understanding all his answers, they found that his speech problems didn't come from being "slow" he actually ended up being in the 75th percentile of children 3-5 in that school county. I told them that he was pre-mature and they found it hard to believe. They put him in speech classes to help him. He is now out of those classes and doing just fine.

We also found that he had sleep apnea due to an enlarged adenoid. They said this could have made a bit of an addition to his speech problems. They removed his adenoid and tonsils which did seem to help a bit.

Today, this child said to have a large chance of a learning problem, is pretty much top of his class. He has been suggested to attend the classes for gifted children at his school. He reads at a 9th grade reading level, well he did when he was in 3rd grade. He his proven all the doctors and thoughts of premies wrong. I believe he knew when he had to come into life and he knew he was meant to be something, as I believe today.

Sometimes I also believe he is too smart for his own good. A great deal of adults tell me they forget they are speaking to a child when they are talking to him. I have heard this about him since he was 3.

A famous Adrian quote would be - "I'm just saying..."