Happy Birthday

I love Birthday parties, love my little ones faces, the excitement as they realise they are the absolute centre of attention. Today, my darling Boy 2 is seven years of age.

Seven long years have passed since I first held him, fed him and prayed for him. Within a week of his birth he had lost several ounces and each time he was weighed, he had failed to gain.

I fed him constantly, he was content and I had breastfed my first child, four years earlier with no problems. There was no explanation to his failure to thrive. We went through numerous tests, expressed milk and bottle fed him measured amounts. I tried (very reluctantly) feeding him some formula, but worried that if there was anything seriously wrong there was no alternative to his mother's milk.

Eventually he was tube fed a high energy formula milk whilst I expressed and froze mine. We found no answer to his weight loss and through a combined breast and bottle feeding schedule, the ounces piled on. My local La Leche League Breast Feeding Advisor helped me through much of the ordeal and my Health Visitor was fantastic. But to this day I am still bewildered why my milk was fine for one child and not another, despite his content. Boy 2 is happy in general and is not a complainer so perhaps he was never full & content, but didn't complain about it!

Today he is a happy healthy seven year old! Ate a McDonalds Happy Meal with his friends after his Laserzone party yesterday, nachos, chocolate cake and Easter eggs at our family tea today. He's out the garden playing football in his new Man United kit with Dad and Brother at the moment and he will never realise the pain and heartache he caused seven years ago when he was such a tiny, frail little love!

Happy Birthday!