You're probably wondering why I am writing about this. Why am I, the mother of three happy, healthy little boys, concerning myself with this television family? Well, I will tell you why. My second born, Little in the Middle, was also born with two thumbs on one hand. As I was scrolling through some posted articles and comments last night, my blood was boiling. The horrible things that were being said about this baby just disgusted me. Now, I know that this "Boo Boo" family has not displayed the greatest image of themselves. The open bodily functions, giving a 6 year old a mixture of Red Bull and Mt. Dew, I'm sure you have heard or seen it all. In my opinion, they have not made the best parenting decisions, but I am not them, I do not live their lives, who am I to judge? And I certainly don't think it is appropriate to criticize a helpless infant. People were calling this child a mutant, a result of imbreeding, you get the picture.
So, I will take you back 8 years, to July 8, 2004. I had just delivered my precious baby boy, and was visiting with my mom and my then 6 year old son. My husband was also there, of course. The nurses were prepping the baby for his first hospital bath. My husband walked over to the bassinet and started counting his fingers and toes.
"One, two, three, four...wait a minute. SIX?" was all I heard come from the new daddy.
I immediately shot up in the hospital bed. The nurse spun around to look at what Ron was talking about. Yep. There is was. My perfect baby was now officially imperfect. The nurse called in the doctor, and he explained to me that something like this is usually hereditary. Well, I certainly did not have any extras, and neither did anyone in my family. I gave Ron the "blaming" look. He insisted the same, no one in his family had anything like this either. I played through every scenario in my mind. How did this happen? Did I eat something that I wasn't supposed to? Did I walk past a running microwave too many times? I was driving myself insane, trying to find answers. After talking with my regular pediatrician, I calmed down. He explained that it is an easy fix, when he is a little bit older, we will have it removed. Meanwhile, the nurses on the maternity floor were having a good ole time, parading my son around to other new mothers, as if he was the daily freak show. As if they were saying "be glad your baby wasn't born like this". I was furious!
In the months following, Middle Little had grown very attached to his extra thumb. He insisted on sucking that instead of a pacifier. I even debated on letting him keep it. The thought of my tiny baby boy going under the knife terrified me more than the thoughts of him being teased by other kids when he was older. Hesitant, we went ahead and met with the surgeon, and scheduled a surgery date.
We arranged for the procedure to be done when he was nine months old. The doctor wanted us to have it done before he was a year old for a couple of reasons. The first reason being that he won't remember it if it is done before his first birthday, and two, he will heal better the younger he is. Once the surgery was over, we took our sleepy eyed bundle of joy home. He was in a cast that went over his elbow, so that he wouldn't try to wiggle himself out of it. As soon as we walked in the door, after an hour drive home from the hospital, my little spitfire immediately wanted to crawl around. He was in no pain at all, he crawled around like Speed Racer, using both hands. I was so proud of my little trooper! It came time to have the cast removed a few months later. We took him to our local pediatrician to have it done. As soon as the cast came off, you could see that it had not healed properly. His "real" thumb was reattached incorrectly, and looked very deformed. My hot headed husband was fuming. He called the surgeon and gave him a piece of his mind. He insisted that the doctor see us immediately, and that he correct his mistake. So, at 15 months old, the second surgery took place. Thankfully this time, it was done properly, and healed beautifully.
Every mother-to-be has the fear that their child will have something wrong with them. We all have prayed and hoped with everything in us that our children are born healthy and perfect. And we also all share the same maternal instinct to defend and protect our children in every way possible. That is why I felt the need to immediately comment back to these people, defending this new baby girl, as well as my son. Little in the Middle is now a very handsome, happy and healthy 8 year old little boy, whose personality brings sunshine to my life daily. The only evidence he has of his 'imperfection' is a teeny tiny scar on his thumb. He loves telling people that he was born with 2 thumbs, because it makes him different and special. It is actually been said to be a sign of royalty and intelligence in other countries. To this day, I still don't know what caused this to happen. I am definitely not related to my husband, I had 100% prenatal care, and I am pretty sure I didn't ingest any type of radioactive fluid. I took my vitamins, I did everything I was supposed to do as a mommy-to-be. It was just one of those freak things that happens. So please, before judgement is passed on to this teenage mother, and mean comments are made about her tiny baby, think about my story. Think about what this new mom is going through. Her reasons for not having it removed immediately, which many people have already made mean judgemental comments about, may be because like in my case, her doctor recommended waiting until she is a few months older. Not because she just doesn't care about her baby's well being.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Anna and Kaitlyn. It is difficult and scary enough being a new mother. Being criticized and judged doesn't make it any easier.
At the Petting Zoo, look at those big blue eyes! Just gorgeous!
