BIRTH ORDER
My wife and I are both the youngest child. Combine
that with our own experience as parents and we often
satirically talk about how things change as you have
more children:
Feeling the Baby Move
First Child: I placed my hand on my wive's tummy
every chance I could for two months waiting for that
first time when I could feel the baby move. Hours upon
hours I waited until that magic moment when, I felt this
little movement. We called all of our relatives to tell
them about the blessed experience.
When it first happened, my wife called me at the
office. I quickly ran home and felt the baby move. We
included the experience in all of our letter to our
family.
She told me the baby moved. I told her I would check
it our during the next commercial break. I missed out
because her mother called on the telephone so I went on
watching Monday night football. By the end of the third
quarter, I finally felt the baby move.
We were in bed and I was trying to sleep. I turned to
her and said "Cant you make your tummy stay still? I'm
trying to sleep." When it became clear that the baby
would be jumping around for a while, we called the pizza
man for a delivery.
The Trip to the Hospital
First Child:Every time we felt the slightest B&H
contraction, we rushed to the hospital. I would carry my
wife to the car and lay her down in the back seat
surrounded by pillows.
Second Child: We timed the contractions. By the time
she had three in thirty minutes, we rushed to the
hospital. She sat in the front seat, with it leaned back
and a pillow behind her head and another at her feet.
Third Child: I came home from the office as soon as
she started having regular contractions. When they were
five minutes apart and hard, we went to the hospital. I
gave her a pillow to hold along the way.
Fourth Child: When she called me at the office and
told me that she was having contractions hard and five
minutes apart, I told her to drive to the hospital. I
would meet her there as soon as I finished the set of
correspondence I was working on. I reminded her not to
forget the pillows.
The First Step
First Child: My wife grabbed the camera. I grabbed
the Video Camera. My wife took four rolls of film. We
immediately ran out to the one-hour developing place and
had all four rolls developed with double prints. We had
the best picture blown up to 24" X 36" and framed. We
hung it up in the entry hall. I had a professional
studio turn the four hours of video I taped into a
one-hour documentary complete with voice-over by a local
anchor-man.
Second Child: We took one roll of film and five
minutes worth of video. The next day we took the film
and had it developed by a twenty-four hour developing
center. I took the best picture and put it into my
wallet.
Third Child: We couldn't find the video-camera and we
only had five shots left on the roll of film. We took
all five shots but I don't remember if we ever got the
roll developed.
Fourth Child: I quickly got up and grabbed the
camera. I placed it up high so the child wouldn't grab
it.
The First Time the Child Fell and Got a Cut
First Child: My wife and I frantically ran over to
the child. We swept him up and rushed him to the
emergency room. No stitches were needed but we spent the
night with him in his room just in case the bleeding
started again.
Second Child: We walked over to her, picked her up
and quickly bandaged her up. We spent the next two hours
rocking her in the living room to comfort the pain.
Third Child: I told my wife that if he was still
crying in a couple of minutes, we should go over and
make sure he isn't hurt too badly. When he didn't stop
crying, we bandaged up the cut and laid him in his bed
for a while but we went on about our business.
Fourth Child: Put a bandage on the cut and told him
it'd get better after he stopped crying.
