Slipping Through My Fingers

The other day my dad was going through some video footage on his computer when we stumbled onto a large video file labeled with S-Boogie's name. It turned out to be about fifteen minutes of footage from her birth--something Mr. Fob and I had never seen before. It was fun to watch her looking around, getting to know people, and (unfortunately) still rooting her little mouth at least an hour after birth since no one let me try breast feeding for a few more hours. Don't worry--that actually went well and she nursed for a full year. Watching the video made me realize how much things had changed, because I honestly have a hard time remembering her as a baby.

S-Boogie's birth story is pretty unremarkable. We had wanted an unmedicated, low-intervention birth and so we found a practice of nurse midwives. But S-Boogie decided to spend the last few months of gestation in breech position, and an ultrasound revealed some issues with my uterus that precluded turning her around externally. I did a bunch of different things to try and get her turn, and finally the last week of my pregnancy she turned around and dropped. Then I woke up on the morning of my due date and realized that she had flipped again during the night. I had an appointment with the midwives that day, and they decided that it was best to schedule a c-section. The next available time was a few days later, August 5, and so my July baby became an August one instead. We had to get to the hospital early in the morning, and S-Boogie was born at 7:37 AM.

And now it's been almost five years since that day, and I still think Mr. Fob and I are wandering around with the same stunned look on our faces. I've come to realize that parenting isn't a destination, it's a constantly evolving process. S-Boogie is going to be starting kindergarten soon. She can write her name and many other words from memory; she goes to the bathroom all by herself; she can change her own clothes, and has definite opinions about them; she remembers things and tells great stories about her past; she has many friends and loves making new ones. Lately she's taken to pondering deep questions, like how Adam and Eve were created by Jesus since Jesus' parents were Mary and Joseph. She has so many good qualities and she's generally a great kid. We all struggle with the first-child problem: she wants to be independent and Mom and Dad are still trying to figure out how to make that work for all of us. I just hope that as she gets older we will manage to keep up with all the changes in our lives and that some day she will become a parent and realize just how difficult--and how rewarding--this journey is.

Comments

Lindsay said…
What a lovely post about your beautiful daughter! They grow up so quickly, don't they? I sometimes wish I could stop the growing and changing, but at the same time, I love watching them learn new things. Enjoy each moment!
Emma said…
Happy Birthday S-boogie. I will be sad not to see her in Primary when I get back.
Oo . . . my last baby moved breech when I was overdue with him by a few days. I didn't have to have a c-section: my doctor was able to turn him, but that was one of the weirdest experiences of my pregnant life. The subsequent birth wasn't great either, but that is another story.

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