I am huge and heavy with the new baby growing inside. My first child, a boy by the ultrasound! I have everything ready and just getting the new baby layette. I reach for a really dear looking bonnet and it is snatched from my hands before I really get a feel of the cloth.
“No!” says my mom. “You never buy baby bonnets before the birth so that nothing is wrong with his head or brain.”
I stare open mouthed at her in shock.
“Ok, mom, I’ll bite. Where did that come from?”
“We are Irish and we believe strongly that you don’t name a child after a dead relative or buy bonnets. It would only encourage something bad.”
“Pffffft! Whatever! The amniocentesis said there was nothing wrong, no chromosomal abnormalities, mom”
I reach again for another and it too disappeared.
“It is tradition.” Says mom. “Too many children born with problems, and trying to prevent and find reasons why. That is how superstitions arise..”
Ok, so she fed into my fear of ANYTHING happening to the baby. I waited until after my son was born.