When Taj was born, I knew he was special.  Born three weeks early as a spontanious VBAC, Taj came rip-roaring into the exactly one week before our planned c-section (Tyson was an emerg c/section).  His birth was great and all up, I was in labour for only a couple of hours.  No painkillers were taken – I was informed by the nurse that there just wasn’t any time for it when I asked fearfully about an epidural (I’m scared of them!).  After a wee bit of pushing, my little munchkim came into the world.

Taj didn’t cry or scream, he just gave a litte swqark to let us know that he had arrived. We were all amazed at how alert Taj was and I was as proud as punch when his AGPAR’s were 10 and 10.  There was a problem with his blood sugar levels to start with and, after 6 days me feeding him every 3 hours, we were finally allowed to go home.  Once at home, Taj stacked on the weight.  What amazed me the most, though, was that within 12 hours of being born, Taj was giving Steve and myself the biggest, cutest grins. It was almost as if Taj was looking around to suss out the surroundings and was finding it all good.

Fast track four months later: Taj gets himself up into a standing position! However, once he is up, Taj WON’T go back down. He wants to stay standing up. As a result, Taj starts to teach himself how to walk – he doesn’t yet know how to crawl!  Within no time, Taj is scooting around the furniture – nothing within reach is safe.

With walking came running. By nine months, Taj was very mobile, certainly alot more mobile than what Tyson had been at that age. But with this new mobility, there were dangers.  Taj starting running into things – walls, doors, even the kitchen table wasn’t safe.  Everything and anything go ran into. It was almost as if Taj wasn’t asknowledging that he was supossed to stop before hitting them.  Yet, even though Taj ran into things at a very fast and hard pace, he didn’t show any signs of pain.  If anything, it was Tyson who cried and reacted.

As time went by, more and more alarm bells went off.  However, I was very frustrated that my fears weren’t being dealt with properly – I felt that people were thinking that I was over reacting and that there was nothing wrong with Taj.  I got very tired of hearing “Boys mature later” or “He will grow out of it”.