I’m an orangutan

We’ve been checking out PBS specials from the library and watching them at home when we want to watch something on TV and the kids are still up. The latest one we just finished was called “Becoming Human,” or as Iddo called it “Chimps.” I learned that modern orangutan mothers are in constant physical contact with their children for the first 4-5 months of their lives. Constant. The two are never apart. Always touching. And I think I might be part orangutan.

I hate being apart from my babies, for any reason, and for any length of time. And it’s more than just that they are nursing and I’m the only one who can do that. I need to be with them. And if it’s not me I need it to be Brett. I don’t constantly hold them. I do put them down so they can play or I can do other things, like sleep, but I am never far from them. I appreciate the offers of others to hold them, but no thank you. It needs to be me.

I want to say part of it is because of everything we went through to get them here, but it’s more than that and I imagine I would be the same way about it if our kids had come easily. It’s just who I am – an orangutan. Because before we know it they are off swinging through the trees all on their own.