Born This Way
Each morning before school, my kids now watch the soul-soaring performance of Lady Gaga at Super Bowl 51. Then again... my son's been a Gaga lover since before birth.
In the final weeks of my pregnancy I was all about Gaga.
Lady Gaga.
Lady Gaga's Born This Way.
I don't know what it was about that song, but I couldn't stop listening to it. I danced around the living room to Born This Way. I walked (waddled) around the block to Born This Way. I baked a chocolate cake every day for a week and the whole time I was listening to Born This Way.
And I cried every.single.time it played.
"My mama told me when I was young, we are all born superstars." Cry.
"Cuz he made you perfect babe." Cry.
"I'm beautiful in my way." Cry
"Cuz God makes no mistakes." Cry.
"I'm on the right track baby I was Born This Way." Cry.
Even though I was having a boy which meant some of the daughter-oriented-lyrics were off, I wanted him to know...
Before his first breath. Before his first cry. Before I saw his precious little face for the first time...
That he was born perfect.
On March 17th, 2011 about one month before baby Arn arrived, I posted this as a status update on Facebook:
Friend: Will you play music in the delivery room?
Me: Yes. Lady Gaga "Born This Way."
Friend: Nice! What else?
Me: That's all. Just "Born This Way."
Friend: (concerned pause) Um, you know it can take a while for the baby to come out right...?
Me: What?!
Various friends posted their hours in labor or pushing and I translated each to "Born This Ways."
At the hospital 39 minutes?
Nine Born This Ways.
In labor 17 and a half hours?
242 Born This Ways.
One girl questioned if she could have handled 693 Born This Ways, but I knew I could.
Not matter how long it took, I would do it with Gaga.
As it turned out, to my dismay, when it came time for my delivery there was no time for Gaga. A journey we thought would take our boy many hours, took fewer than 15 minutes and before we could turn on the tunes, before we met our doctor, my son was on his way down.
It took fewer than three Born This Ways to push the little man out.
And just as we suspected, he was born perfect.
...
That being said... he had his moments.
Those moments when, no matter what I did, the kid would not. stop. screaming.
And though there are many books filled with tips and tricks on how to stop a (perfect) screaming baby, there's only one thing that worked for our boy.
Lady Gaga. Born This Way.
Go figure.