Adam was born the day after Mother’s Day, just as it is falling this year. I always thought that was the most special Mother’s Day for me, because I was full of anticipation awaiting the birth of my second child. We didn’t know if it would be a boy or a girl and it really didn’t matter. Since I had to have a C-section, it was scheduled 10 days early, as was the practice for C-sections back then. Adam weighed a whopping 8 lbs and my doctor told me he would have weighed over 9 lbs if he had gone full term. But since he was delivered early, his liver wasn’t quite yet developed fully, and he developed jaundice. They had to keep him in the nursery under the bilirubin light, so they gave him the coolest sunglasses to protect his eyes. I still have the sunglasses in his baby book. They were a strip of thick white fabric with circles to fit over his eyes and Velcro to hold it in place on the back of his head. Even at birth he stood out in the crowd. But the funniest thing was when my grandpa came to visit, he stopped by the nursery before coming to my room. He entered fussing, “Why is my grandson the only baby in that nursery BUCK NAKED and lying with his butt up in the air, wearing a pair of sunglasses?” I laughed so hard, I thought my stitches would pop! Adam also was born with a full head of blond hair, which the nurses promptly brushed into a Mohawk style. It didn’t quite suit him, as you can see in the picture, and he looks like he’s trying to decide how to get back at those nurses. I have a feeling he probably did.
I miss you, Adam, and I will always connect your birthday with Mother’s Day in my mind and heart forever. Because that is how you started out in the world and life in our household was never the same. Happy Birthday, Son. Know that you are loved by many.
