Next, Meet...the Baby!

Well, I was going to introduce you to Jonathan this morning, but the baby woke up at 5:30am screaming for attention, so I decided to tell you a little bit about him today. David was a very special gift from God. After 3 beautiful children, and 3 miserable pregnancies. I was ready to be finished having babies. Although in the back of my head somewhere I was still a little disappointed because I had always wanted to have 4 children. Well, the day came when I realized that God MUST have put that desire into my heart because we found out that we were expecting our fourth child. Unfortunately, my world was completely rocked by my first ever miscarriage. I was absolutely broken in pieces. This, of course, refueled my fire for having a fourth child and so I began desperately trying to have another baby. Lo and behold, Fertile Mertyl over here couldn't get pregnant. (Now I won't get into details, but I have not only gotten pregnant without really trying, I have gotten pregnant while trying to avoid getting pregnant!) 11 MONTHS! passed before I again was pregnant, only to find out that at 6 weeks, the baby had died. I was devastated. I was convinced that at 39, I was just too old to have a baby. My wonderful doctor suggested that perhaps I had endometriosis and didn't realize it and that was what was causing the problem. I looked into it and found that I had had many of the symptoms, but had written them off as related to my kidney problems.

So....the doctor removed the endometriosis, we got pregnant three weeks later, and 5 months before my 40th birthday, baby David was born in all his blue-eyed, blonde haired glory! Now, imagine my surprise as both my husband and I have brown hair, neither very light (at least not without the help of my hairdresser and friend, Candy!), and all 3 of the other children had their daddy's DARK brown eyes and brown hair. I do have blue eyes, so was thrilled to finally get a blue-eyed baby, but the blonde hair is still a mystery. I like to tease Candy that she put a few too many blonde highlights in my hair while I was pregnant!

Now David has been different in more than just his looks. I have lovingly referred to him as my "high maintenance" child. First of all, he was colicky, I mean walking back and forth through the house at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, etc., etc., etc. in the morning! I had NEVER had a colicky baby before. For those of you have had one and then willingly gave birth again, my hat is off to you! Then, I got pregnant again...again despite GREAT effort on my part to prevent such a thing. But again, the baby didn't live past 6 weeks. However, that pregnancy began David's aversion to nursing. Now, I had nursed all my babies for well over a year, and intended to do the same with David especially knowing that this was most likely my last one. However, David, while I KNOW he loves me, wanted to have nothing to do with it any more. So, I reluctantly bought my first ever can of formula, and viola...instant happy baby! No more colick, no more crying, no more waking up in the night at all! All of a sudden I began referring to him as the best baby ever! He took two (count em) TWO, 2+ hour naps a day. He went to bed by 8:00pm and slept peacefully until at least 7:00am. And in-between that time, he sat nicely and played quietly, or watched "Signing Time" in complete mesmerization. Life was good!

Then, David began to crawl, and stand up, and walk, and...CLIMB!!! That beautiful, extremely high-maintenance child now climbs EVERYTHING and gets into EVERYTHING... something else that not one of my other children ever did. He opens the pantry door (yes, he can open doors!), climbs the shelves, pulls out whatever looks good, brings it to me and, smiling sweetly, says, "pweese?" He climbs on whatever he can find, or drag to the scene of the crime, opens the DVD player and changes the discs, but not before adding 1000's of fingerprints to them first! There are some that are missing and may never be heard from again! Oh, and did I mention that he LOVES to splash in the toilet...perhaps I should have kept that little nugget private. Oh well, you mom's understand, right?

Anyway, if any of you have read the book, "No, David!" you have seen a small glimpse of life at our house with our beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, baby boy!

What a magnificent gift he has been!