Brain

So I guess I will explain some history on my boy.

I remember a man that Stud and I worked with (I was the receptionist at Stud's office for a few months during the pregnancy) told me that I was having a boy.

We had not found out what the baby was going to be and I remember the moment he said that it dawned on me that the baby would actually be a certain gender. Until that point, I was just so glad to be having a child, that it honestly did not register with me that what I gave birth to would not just be a person, but someone with a particular gender. I felt kind of stupid about the whole thing! LOL

I was put on bedrest the last two months of the pregnancy. We had 4 cats and they lounged around all over me and got knocked off of me often by Brain jumping around in there. It was SO BORING and I was not able to get up and clean or anything. I finally had no choice, we needed clean clothes at some point! So the turd decided to be ELEVEN DAYS OVERDUE, after all that.

We found out that the man was right. We had a little boy. His father is the 4th in line with the EXACT same name. I cannot stand that and think people should have their own identity and not be named after people. Especially so many on and on...and on...and on...give it up already!


Stud told me before we were married that it did not matter to him if we did not name a son after him and his father...and his father...and...you get the idea. I told him that was good, because if he married me, he would be guaranteed it would never happen. He was the end of the line with that particular name. Once we were expecting Brain, he changed his tune and tried to convince me to cave in. It is one of the few areas I have stood my ground on. Brain actually goes by his middle name, which causes confusion and is annoying. Stud did not want his first name to be shortened, so did not want him to go by that. What a pain that has been! LOL

So on we went. The first few years were rough, being that we lived in an apartment and I had no driver's license or way to get around. We had hardly any money, but there was always food and heat and light, somehow.

While I had been pregnant with Brain, a woman we worked with was due with Twins. She is a fellow Canuck and we were SO SAD when she lost both her little girls during about the 6th month. By the end of my pregnancy with Brain, she was expecting again! This time she had a baby boy and I ended up caring for him in our apartment two days a week, for some extra spending money. It was very helpful and Brain had a playmate. Actually, he had a baby 6 months younger than him who he could beat on if I could not get to the baby fast enough to stop Brain! LOL We cared for him until he was a year old. We have kept in touch sporadically since then.

When Brain was 13 months old, he was rattling off all the shapes, colours, etc etc. He loved to sit and colour (what kid that age colours!??! Don't they usually chew on crayons?? Not this one!) or just read books. Our Doc was blown away and said he would be reading by the time he was two. By the time he was 18 months old, he could carry on a conversation with any adult. I did not realise at the time how unusual this was, I just enjoyed his company! LOL

At this time, he also got quite sick. Until he was 3 months old, he gained weight well and seemed fine, except for a horrid case of excema. He was 2 months old and had the motor skills to reach around and actually scratch his little head. We had to grease him up with creams and gels and still do to this day. Well, he does it himself now:)

By the time he was 7 months old, the Doc did not know what to do with him and sent him to another one. He was losing weight, would not eat and was dubbed "Failure to Thrive". My parents had taken care of many foster children with this problem over the years, so I had seen it first hand. I never expected my own child to not thrive. He had NO appetite and grew extremely slowly.

From the time he was 13 or 14 months old, until he was 18 months or so, he and I were at the Dr's office a minimum of twice a week. He was vomiting constantly, coughing like crazy and started doing a nebulizer to get medicine into his lungs. Something else he still does to this day, he just did it last night. I need to remember to get him to clean the mask off.


He had bronchitis, pneumonia AND Croup all during that time. Lost weight, which was horrible since he weighed about 15 lbs at the time. That is what a healthy 6 or 7 month old child weighs, if not more. And here he was almost a year older than that. He did not get to 20 lbs until he was almost 2 years old. He was very sickly and it was a horribly scary time.


I remember being at the Dr.'s one time and he threw up all over the bathroom. It was just slime, like always. The veins would pop out of his head and he was just screaming (when he could catch his breath) and this was about the 14th time in as many days that we were there. I did not want to scare him, but I finally collapsed on the floor and started crying along with him. I was exhausted and worried beyond reason. It all just erupted at one time. There seemed to be nothing they could do for him, he was on all sorts of medications, they tested him for Cystic Fibrosis (talk about being terrified!), were always taking blood (that was SO FUN when they made ME help them hold him down and he would scream and plead at me with his eyes. He did not understand why I was helping them hurt him) and doing x-rays and could not find anything. Almost as quickly as the horror of those 4 months started, they quit. He was well again. Well, as well as he could be.

When he was almost 2, we took him to his first movie in the Theatre. It was the "Lion King". I will always remember him sitting there all tiny surrounded by Stud, myself and two of our friends. When the big screen came up that is all green and says...whatever it says. He SCREECHED "Oooooooo...BIGUN...GEEN...TEEFEEEEEE!!!!" In case that is not clear, allow me to translate-

OOooooooo, big one, green TV.

Almost a year later, he started music lessons. By now Jock was born and was a wee babe. After his first lesson, I took him to DQ to get a Banana Split for a treat. They were taking a LONG time to make it and he and I were getting tired of waiting. It had been about 15 minutes and NO ONE else was in there. They had forgotten all about making it. I was just about to go say something when tiny little Brain sauntered over to the counter, leaned over on one foot and screamed back at the people -

"HEY!! Where's my BANA SPIT, you DOUGH HEADS!!!!"

To be continued.