Two Teenagers!

Today, the number of teenagers living in our house, multiplied by two! Thirteen years ago, Tim was born. It was a dark and stormy night. That afternoon, we had attended a wedding. I was almost two weeks overdue, so I enjoyed all the horrified looks I got when people realized that this baby should have come out weeks ago. The careful step backwards they took, just in case I would explode then and there.



I had some contractions during the wedding, but nothing serious. On the way back home, labor picked up. Cees's birth had been fast and furious, only 4.5 hours, and I was convinced that this one would be even faster. I mean, I had read all the books and parenting magazines, promising me so. I was good at this birthing thing. Yes, it was going to hurt, but I had survived it before.



And boy did it hurt. I felt so sorry for myself. I went to bed and lay down, moaning and groaning and whining and complaining. Hours and hours passed. No baby. I felt more and more sorry for myself. Morning broke. No baby. I was sooooooooo done with this whole birthing thing. I had a friend pick up Cees, hoping that maybe that was what I needed to get this baby out. The baby didn't agree.

Finally, after 17.5 hours of misery, Tim was born. He had the cord tight around his neck, and a fist next to his hand. I would like to say it was this which caused the labor to be so much longer, but I have to admit that the laying in bed, feeling sorry for myself must not have helped. Looking back, I should just have gone out for a walk, or walked around the house, and I suspect things would have progressed a lot faster. Oh well, hindsight.



Going from one to two kids was so hard. It was my hardest transition parenting wise. Cees and Tim both had a lot of health challenges, which didn't help. When Tim was a few weeks old, he was hospitalized for meningitis. I still remember sitting in the hospital, waiting for the spinal tap, and thinking about how to manage logistically if he did end up having meningitis. I was so sure he wouldn't have it though, so I stopped my trying to figure out logistics and switched to 'just waiting' mode. Boy, was I wrong. He didn't leave the hospital till a week later and was in isolation part of the time, so we couldn't even take Cees in the room with him.

Tim had sensory issues from the start. He SCREAMED when he got into contact with water at all and hated sand, grass, anything out of the ordinary. It was hard to take two kids to the beach, one a toddler who wanted to go in the water and do his own thing, and one who was terrified to touch anything which wasn't a towel or his mommy.



Sleeping was one of his challenges, I tend to think back to this as The Sleep Wars. It's nice that he now is old enough to set his own sleep pattern, even if it doesn't always match ours. Teenagers are supposed to be out of sync with the world anyway, right?

He always has been smart and inquisitive, and used to climb everything when he was smaller. His big passions nowadays are dungeons and dragons, World of Warcraft, and computer/nintendo games. Most of the time, he is very caring towards his younger siblings, especially Sylvia.



He had a good day today. He got up at 6am, to make sure he got as much computer time as possible. Some friends came over, he got presents (dungeon and dragon books, and xbox games) and spent more time on the computer and nintendo. Heck, he spent 95 % of his time playing computer or Nintendo ^^. His special birthday dinner was plain pasta (with parmesan cheese) so that was easy.

Still hard to imagine that I have two teenagers now. I am really enjoying this age, where you can actually discuss interesting things with them. I am looking forward to seeing them grow into young adults. This parenting things is quite cool!