My son

turned eight yesterday.  We festooned the house with green streamers, green balloons, green shamrocks and green paper chains because his favorite color is green and St. Pat's day is coming up.  He had his favorite dinner: cheese raviolis with alfredo sauce and corn.  Then he opened his presents, most of which came from thrift stores;  we love recycling like that.  He was thrilled with his stuff.  We had cake and sherbet and laughed and hugged and had a wonderful family evening. 

I love this little boy; the only boy I have.  I had to use fertilty medications and intrauterine insemination with my husband's sperm;   I had to do that with for the twin girls I had and then again to get their sister.  My third girl  was born four days before my 35th birthday and I felt I should be done because my doctor told me that after 35, risks to the baby rise significantly and after 40 they rise yet again. 

Imagine this:  I was 41 and on the pill to regulate me, not for birth control.  I began having irregular cycles so I went off the pill because I knew I couldn't get pregnant.  As usual, my cycles began to get longer and longer once off the pill.  By mid June 2001, I was uncharacteristically desirous and my husband and I had one week of crazy, amazing sex.  One night stood out as being a very intense night for both of us.  It was the night of the summer solstice that also had a solar eclipse in Cancer.  It turns out, I got pregnant with my son that night.  This was a miracle because I was certified infertile and had needed strong drugs to induce ovulation to get my daughters; it had taken five years to get pregnant the first time with my twin daughters and the same procedure for my third girl so getting pregnant on my own without even trying was an amazing miracle. 

Miracle or not, when I found out I was pregnant, I was terrified.  I was over 40, I had these fears that my baby would be born with all sorts of defects and I could not bear the thought of seeing my child suffer.  I didn't think I was emotionally strong enough to deal with that.  My specialist doctor calmed me and reminded me that I had not led a lifestyle that would have caused problems with my eggs (no heavy drinking or drug use nor exposure to radiation or chemical landfills, etc).  Everyone was saying it was a boy but my history with my little brother made me afraid to have a boy;  what if I had a boy and he turned against me when he was older like my little brother did?  It turned out that my son was the healthiest 9 lb baby.  He had no ear infections and needed  no antibiotics until he was seven years old.  He is perfectly healthy, sweet, funny, and has a fantastically smart wit.  I love him to pieces. 

I am so blessed in my children.