{"id":257,"date":"2016-01-11T22:28:07","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T03:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=257"},"modified":"2016-01-11T22:28:07","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T03:28:07","slug":"and-baby-makes-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=257","title":{"rendered":"AND BABY MAKES THREE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0\"IMG_0023\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Faye holding her latest book HALLEY\u00a0 and wearing the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction.<\/p>\n

My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction. Awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction. \u00a0 (see the following web address for more information)\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.newsouthbooks.com\/pages\/2015\/10\/20\/halley-wins-moonbeam-awards-silver-medal\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon<\/p>\n

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Several young women of my acquaintance are expecting a first baby.\u00a0 It is interesting to hear them talk.\u00a0 The children are going to be intelligent because they will expose them to all the right books, good music, excellent schools.\u00a0 The youngsters will be respectful, appreciative, and, of course, beautiful.\u00a0 The babies will be happy and lovable.\u00a0 The young women will be perfect mothers to those perfect babies.<\/p>\n

The real baby they get might not fit the plan.\u00a0 I know, because I had all these expectations when pregnant the first time.\u00a0 In addition, I knew what my baby would look like.\u00a0 Just like my four younger siblings–who were all beautiful, in my opinion–mine would be bald.\u00a0 In, fact, I considered a baby with a headful of hair ugly–almost grotesque. Comparable to being born with a beard and a mouthful of teeth.\u00a0 The big night came and my husband drove me to the hospital.\u00a0 This was in the days when fathers were secluded in a small room about five blocks from the delivery room.\u00a0 Doctors back then would have allowed a stray dog in faster than a father-to-be.\u00a0 My husband would have preferred to be in a separate hospital across town.\u00a0 Being in the same building might allow him to hear screams.<\/p>\n

Anesthesia took me under before the actual birth, so it was several hours later when I woke to see my husband, along with a nurse carrying a big bundle.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a boy,\u201d she said, and laid the ten pound bundle in my arms.\u00a0 I looked down at a puffy, scrunched-up face and about two pounds of coal black hair.\u00a0 I wanted to claim it wasn\u2019t mine, but he looked so much like my mother-in-law that I couldn\u2019t, not unless Benjamin had fathered another child born on the same night, in the same hospital.\u00a0 I cried because the baby in my arms didn\u2019t seem like the baby that had been in my body.\u00a0 I cried because: What kind of mother was I to feel that way?<\/p>\n

After three days, I began to accept the hair and soon I could see Ben was beautiful.\u00a0 More important–he was HAPPY! He slept all night long the first night home.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t cry when he had a dirty diaper.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t fuss about diaper rash.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t burp out gallons of spit-up after each feeding.\u00a0 And he wasn\u2019t scared of strangers–he loved everybody.\u00a0 Once, when we went to my parents\u2019 home for Christmas two of my sisters-in-law and my sister had babies near Ben\u2019s age.\u00a0 Sometimes all three babies were screaming at the same time. Meanwhile, Ben smiled and slept through it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you do it?\u201d the other mothers asked.<\/p>\n

Feeling smug, I shrugged.\u00a0 It was obvious, I thought. Unlike the others, I had waited until I was mature, and when you did that, you got a baby like Ben.<\/p>\n

Then I had my second baby and learned the truth.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t have much to do with me.\u00a0 David was not as easy to please as Ben.\u00a0 He liked routine to remain the same and he didn\u2019t care for strangers.\u00a0 When he was unhappy, boy, did he let you know it!\u00a0 In other words, he was a typical baby.\u00a0 And I loved him every bit as much as Ben.<\/p>\n

What I learned is the same thing that I guess every mother learns sooner or later.\u00a0 Each child is different and has his own personality right from the start.\u00a0 A mother\u2019s job is to love each one unconditionally and help him be all he can be.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the best job in the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n