The birth of Wilbur Will

Wilbur William Will was born late in the evening of October 31st 1814. It was a stormy, cold autumn evening in New Bedford. The screams from the bedroom during delivery were so loud that the Mid-wife had placed balls of cotton in her ears. Wilbur’s mother was in terrible pain and the labor had lasted since midnight of the prior day. At 11:59 pm Wilbur made his entrance into the world, little did we know what kind of hell would be unleashed in the form of an 8lb baby boy! His mother died during labor, the minute Wilbur emerged she took her last breath. His entrance into the world was odd to say the least. From the moment he emerged from his mother’s womb, he did not make a single sound, not cry or gasp for air. The midwife laid him on the blood soaked sheets between his dead mothers’ legs thinking that he was too dead. He was an odd looking baby, no real terrible deformity, other than he did have a slight cleft lip, it did not appear to extend into the pallet, however there was a noticeable cleft of his upper lip. The tone of his skin was odd; it was not a pale grey like most babies but almost a perfect tan. He lay on his back without making a sound; the midwife noticed an almost imperceptible movement of his chest. He was breathing, very slowly, but he was breathing. At that moment, as she was looking at the baby, he slowly opened his eyes in a manner that seemed intentional, not like that of a baby who had just been born and was not able to focus on the world around him. Then she saw them, his eyes! Wilbur’s eyes were of the brightest piercing blue she had ever seen, they were like the eyes of a “Heeler” dog. As she moved away from him in shock, his eyes slowly followed her and his head turned as she moved away. He could see her perfectly and was quietly watching her every move. The midwife brought her hand down from her mouth, as she had been attempting to silence the horror she felt and was afraid she would scream out. She slowly walked back towards the boy, his eyes, perfectly focused and piercing, followed her movement. She reached down with a sharpened razor and cut the umbilical cord and clamped it with a clothes pen. Never once did Wilbur make a noise or utter a cry. She wrapped him in a blanket and sat down in the rocking chair in the corner of the room. His mother was gone, fortunately the Mid-wife’s breasts were “wet” as she had given birth just 6 months prior and was still feeding her child. She knew the poor baby needed nourishment and she felt the least she could do was to feed him until his father could be made aware of the situation. She arranged herself in such a way as to allow Wilber access to her breast, she laid her head back and closed her eyes it had been a hard delivery and she totally exhausted. She thought that sleep would overcome her as she felt Wilbur nuzzling her bosom preparing to feed. In an instance she felt a searing pain in her breast around her nipple. She pulled Wilbur away, looking down she saw a sickening mixture of milk and blood on his mouth and her areola was bleeding profusely. She looked into Wilbur’s mouth and found he had 4 teeth. Natal teeth are not common; in cases of cleft lips and pallets they are more prevalent. Generally natal teeth will be to two lower teeth. In the case of Wilbur, he had four teeth and they were not the two uppers and two lowers, they were canine teeth and sharp like a puppies teeth.