What The Heck Is Andernarchy?

5 year old little girls should not need to know about getting their periods. They are supposed to be thinking about Barbies and tea parties and kindergarten. My sweet little Tillie was robbed of her innocence way too early.

Tillie was born at 28 weeks, just under 2 pounds. Yep, she was 3 months premature. It was a long road for this brave little soul to make it out of the NICU and into our arms at a whopping 3 pounds. When she finally got to come home to our family she was 4 pounds and 2 months old. She came home with monitors for her heart and lungs. Sometimes her little self would just forget to breath or beat. Then a quick, frantic, little shake would remind her and off her little body would go beating and breathing once again. This was a pretty stressful time for her newly named parents. But we got through it together.

When she was 4 they told us she had Andernarchy and would need bone scans every month to make sure she was not going into premature puberty. Oh this was not in the game plan. Whatever we had to do for our little darling was what we would do.

So when she started kindergarten we needed to be realistic and let everyone know that it was possible she would start her cycles early, way early. Well, this was something that her kindergarten teacher had never had to deal with. So the nurse came in and STOCKED the kindergarten restroom, just in case.

As I have said before, we are an adopted family. Well, I had a hysterectomy at 25 and it had been years since I had dealt with menstral cycles. I sat Tillie down and began to explain all the ins and outs of this situation. She listened and then stopped me short, looked me straight in the eye, and asked if I did that. I told her I didn't anymore but had for years when I was younger. Her next question floored me." Does Jolie do that?" So I told her that yes Jolie still had her cycles.

That ended our conversation. My 5 year old daughter wanted an expert and felt I was not at all qualified. So we called Jolie and she hemmed and hawed and admitted that she had not even talked to her own 8 year old daughter yet. Tille was an impatient 1 and wanted all this explained right then and there.

Jolie was at soccer practice with her kids and I was over at the football field with Tillie watching her brothers. So Jolie nervously drove over picked Tillie up and went and had the big talk. Luckily, she must have had the right answers because Tillie didn't need to consult any other experts after that.

Tillie's funny insistence took the stress of the situation away and made a precious moment between the 3 of us. Later, when she needed the SEX talk, I was glad to let her know I could fill her in since I was still married. Guess I should ask Jolie if she came to her for answers too.

In Him,

Joyful
4-3-2010