My Baby Boy is 6!

Baby Boy is 6!

If I could choose my baby from a catalogue, I would have chosen my Baby Boy anytime. He is just everything and all that I want in a baby. My little catalogue baby. And he turns 6 today.

Good-luck birthday eggs naturally coloured red with beetroot (to eat with Udon noodles)

It is difficult to believe that it has been 6 years since I took that public bus to the hospital with then 15 months-old Baby Girl to have this boy. Unlike his older siblings, I hadn't needed to call the ambulance or have Hub drive through a crazy Paris to come pick me up.

It was around 11am on a Thursday and I had a routine fortnightly check-up with my sage-femme at the St Vincent-de-Paul Hospital in Paris. I was lucky that Baby Girl started walking when she was only 10 months old - so we could just take the public bus together and cross a small road to reach the hospital.

He asked for fondant au chocolat for his cake

I wasn't allowed to leave after the check-up. I'd been having contractions all morning and had suspected even then that I was going to give birth that day. I made the mistake though of being optimistic that they would allow me to leave the hospital for an hour or 2 to buy Baby Girl some lunch. Poor girl was very hungry (always is) and couldn't understand why I was lying on a bed while she was standing on the floor hungry and thirsty.

And he wanted them like muffins

FIL was dying of cancer then and MIL had to look after him. I had nobody to help me. Luckily for me, my American girlfried Jane was between jobs and she turned up at the hospital to pick Baby Girl up and looked after her for the day.

I had opted for a natural birth with no peridural - my 3rd. It was of course very painful, but I had wanted to experience the birth fully. And I was lucky that all 3 children had been co-operative and their births had all been relatively fast, easy and without complications.

I called Hub to come to the hospital and he passed by the flat first to pick up my maternity bag. Then he brought me a few magazines to while away the time. It was a little difficult trying to concentrate on what I was reading with the pain and the contractions and after about 2 hours, the sage-femme figured that I was getting bored and offered to manually burst my waterbag to induce greater contractions and hopefully the birth. Why not?

Less than an hour later, Baby Boy decided that it was time to make his appearance and this happened so quickly the nurses didn't have the time to prepare everything. He was perfect all over (nice head of dark hair too) and even knew how to suckle immediately! He still has a thing for the boobies (as he calls them).

The timing was good as Hub had to pick up the Teenager from school. And invite himself and the kids to dinner at Jane's. As for me, I was really happy to be on my own for once, enjoying my dinner without having to feed anybody or clean up. Oui, and French hospital food was quite good, actually. Plus though the hospital was public, I had a room to myself.

Cookies and Chocolate Gelato Birthday Cake from K2 to share with his whole class

I feel sad sometimes that Baby Boy's my last chef d'oeuvre. But if you ask him if he wants a little brother or sister, he'll say no. He's a really smart boy and knows that he's king as long as he's mummy's last baby.

Seriously, my baby's a charmer. He wasn't really planned, arriving more than a year earlier than we would have wanted him to. We already had a boy and a girl. His father honestly was super gaga over his daughter and was very busy at work. His paternal grandparents didn't have time for him.

But FIL left this world (same year) happy because his family finally has a boy to continue the line. Baby Girl has someone to play with all the time. The Teenager has a brother to wrestle with. Hub has a boy who's just like him (that's what he says, totally charmed) and I have the most wonderful, charming and loving baby in the world.

I love love love you, my Baby Boy, and Happy 6th Birthday!!!