It's a boy!

At the risk of sounding cliché, there are so many different aspects in a mother to son relationship. 

From my own experience, nearly everything was different from my other 3 "with child" times with my daughters. My hormone levels were very different, he was not my largest baby, yet, he was definitely the most active. I felt his tiny body moving beginning with 4 months gestation. It felt like a soccer game with just one player.

It was a happy time, an easier time. When I received a positive pregnancy test, it was merely a formality to receive insurance coverage for pre-natal care, delivery plus post natal care. It was such an easy time, at 7.5 months, that, on a family road trip, driving from Omaha, Nebraska to Claremont, California? 

I drove all the way from Omaha, Nebraska to St. George, Utah, while the rest of the family slept.

When I was asked if I was going to have a baby, at 6 months, during that time when I just looked like I had been hitting the ice cream too hard? My reply, as I knew who this little person was going to be. "Nope, this is my Nolan."

Please excuse me for refraining from a litany of aerie faerie talk in regards to how I knew. I knew with complete certainty that this was not just any boy baby. This was my son who visited me in spirit form years before his entrance into the world, in the flesh.

A wee bit of aerie faerie, there.

When my son was born, I was officially off the hook.

Mm Hm, many women might identify with this. Most men want a son so much. When a blessed union produces all daughters, of course the father loves as well as cherishes his daughters. Openly or sometimes secretly, most men want a son. 

This puts a lot of pressure on a woman to give the love of their lives, the desired baby boy. There seems to be such a feeling of relief in the mother, accompanied by the complete joy of the father, when a healthy baby boy is born.

Many people may speculate that the desire for a son is to fulfill the need to continue the family line, the family name. It seems there is much more to this innate desire than simply carrying the family line forward.

Even the royal family of the UK used to have a strong rule that a son, as well as ONLY a son, for the most part, could ascend the throne as a ruling monarch.

That rule has changed from only males to being next in line by birth order.

Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth I as well as Queen Victoria faced some difficult hurdles to rule as Queen of the UK.

As it stands in 2021, there is less of a need to produce a male heir, yet, the pressure is mostly on, to give a man the son he desires. It puts a lot of pressure on the mother with circumstances she has very scant control over.

Sincerely, I hope, that if a man is reading this, he will have his heart touched. That he will refrain from putting that pressure on his wife.

Having felt the pressure, I can say that it's very uncomfortable.

My son was different, very distinctly male immediately following his birth. He was a breast fed baby, so were his sisters, yet, even as an infant, he was thrilled at the sight of cleavage. He was a nursing mothers dream! He was the only one who knew right where his next meal was, how to get it, taking only as much as he needed. He would fall directly into a milk coma after burping himself. This is a redundant statement, it was a nursing mothers delight.

Whereas his sisters, when given a small toy that made noise, would shake it, delight in the rattling noise, shake it a few more times, cooing followed by sweet baby laughter.

My son?

He would shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture, give a slightly throaty laugh, throw it against the wall, then fuss until I retrieved it for him. He was more active, foregoing naps at around 8 months of age. That was so much fun! 

My son was a very easy, very happy baby. This was a fortuitous circumstance as he & his younger sister were very close in age. There is a lack of preference within me as to whether baby boys are easier or baby girls.

The love in my heart for my daughters & son is equal.