Seventeen Years!

   Tanner said "good night and thank you for having me." Seventeen years ago tonight, Tanner was born. He was a little late & a little bigger than expected. At the time it felt like A LOT late & A LOT bigger. Quote from the Dr. right after Tanner was born "well, I gave him room but he needed more." And from my Mom "That is NOT a seven lb baby." (An aside - never had another episiotomy) Tanner was not really that big - just bigger than we expected and bigger than his way out. Are you cringing right now? There was quite a bit of stitching needed. When I was in labor with Tanner, there were two emergency c-sections happening at the same time so there weren't any spare anesthesiologists for my epidural. At the same time, the stuff they were pumping into my IV to induce me was working overtime causing there to be no time in between contractions. Then there was the delivery & stitching & the recovery from all of that. You would think that after all of that, no one would do it more than once. Except for one small detail...
    In this case, my one small detail was 8 lbs 5 oz with a perfectly round little head covered in the softest blond fuzz ever. Chubby, rosy cheeks. New baby smell.
    Tanner was a mellow baby. He rarely cried. In the hospital, the thing that would make him jump was the sound that plastic bags make when they crinkle. We had to stay at the hospital for a few days. (for me, not for Tanner. That would become a pattern.) When we came home, Jake almost panicked when I left him with Tanner to take a shower & my Mom wasn't there. Thank goodness for family & friends being around to help out! When my back went out after our third day home and I couldn't really move, Jen (Kleinbach at the time.) came to stay the night with a laid up post partum hormone raging brand new Mom & a brand new baby. At least the baby was easy to take care of!
      And he continued to be easy to take care of. Nursing, bottle - whatever. Mom, Dad - I'm good with either. Uncle Josh - sure I'll hang with him. Marin - heck ya, her too. We dragged him wherever and whenever. He still almost never cried. I walked the floors with him once (ONCE) when he was an infant. I remember thinking "oh, wow, this is what people do when their babies cry all of the time." (Chloe was in my future just in case you think that I got off completely easily.) We walked for about 10 minutes while he was crying. It seemed like an eternity. He then puked over my shoulder and went to sleep. Sleep was not his best feature but he was happy when he was awake - even at 2 am. Or 4, or 6. He didn't fuss when teething and once had a double ear infection that just happened to be diagnosed at a well-child check because he hadn't been sad about it at all.
       The scariest thing that Tanner ever did was sleep walk to Grandma's in the middle of the night during the winter - right past the very full pond. Scared all of us half to death! And he must have gone out the front door in the 3 minutes of sleep that I got at a time while the twins were babies.
       Seventeen years later, Tanner is still mellow. He's still pretty easy to get along with. Best of all, he's been the best big brother that anyone could ask for. Someday, I'll have to explain to him why his baby book is only partially filled out. The reason for my neglect of his baby book is that I was so busy being completely in love and enthralled by the baby. Every second, every minute, every hour. Holding a baby is more beautiful than filling out a book. Playing with the baby is more fun than pasting pictures on a page. Hearing a giggle, seeing a smile or a tooth peaking out. So, Tanner, I'm sorry that I don't have a complete baby book for you to look at but I'm not a bit sorry that I never, ever wanted to put you down.