Baby Business

My nephew Aaron Cannon and his wife, Diane, are expecting their first child. She's eight months along, and is talking on Facebook about how hard it is getting to be to be able to sit. I remember, too, how difficult it was to get up after sitting down. It was tough to keep your pants up with them resting below the belly line. With my first, it was difficult keeping down breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole nine months. It's been a long time, but I remember.

I also remember I was actually shocked that the whole miserable experience ended with us having a baby. Intellectually I did because I went regularly to my obstetrician, Dr. Eli Bernick. But emotionally, I think I thought it was a tumor.

And so, we really hadn't bought anything for baby Ben. We were alone, so I didn't have my mother near to help me get ready. Also in those days, no one knew if it was a boy or girl until delivery day. Disposable diapers were only on the horizon. We stopped by the local equivalent of Wal-Mart on our way home from the hospital, picked up formula, diapers, undershirts, plastic pants and bottles and whatever we thought we needed and headed home.

A babe in arms was new to me as well. They wouldn't let us unwrap babies at the Edgewater Hospital in Chicago thirty-nine years ago, and we held them as they, wrapped like a burrito, a couple of times a day for a half hour or so. And then they disappeared back into the nursery for the rest of the time for five, long, lonely days. So I could hardly wait to get Ben home to see if there was more to him than just a tiny face. There certainly was.

The picture above is newborn Ben with his very own coconut sent by his uncle, missionary Elder Brent Cannon, from Hawaii.

He was beautiful. I've told people that his birth was the happiest day of my life. My wedding day remains actually a blur. The birth of Brad, My second son, was an absolute wonderful day, too, but the shock of the first is something else. I couldn't believe how beautiful Ben was. He remains to me the greatest astonishment of my life. Diane and Aaron need to know that. New babies that belong to you leave your amazement cup filled up.