Let me start by telling you a bit more of our story. My third child was born a healthy 3kg baby, the fourth in our home of two boys and a girl. We hadn’t decided to find out gender as we already had a mix it didn’t matter too much, and the surprise at the end of pregnancy seemed like a good idea.
Unlike the other pregnancies we hadn’t decided on names and wanted to wait until we lay eyes on our child to name him/her. My two previous babies were born with little or no hair, and what hair they had was light blonde. This baby was born and everyone in the theatre made comment on how much hair dark hair our child had. Baby number three had the most gorgeous chubby cheeks, perfect skin, and truly was angelic in appearance.
As all parents do we looked at the genitalia and announced “it’s another boy”
I had said prior to going in for my c section that if the baby was born with no hair and was male he would be called Hunter (most likely), if he had some hair he would be Rian (a book I had been reading had this as the main character), and if he had heaps of hair (definitely didn’t bank on this) he would be Levi. Previously my husband had agreed on a female name of Jessica.
Our youngest child was a 2 year old boy so I was super excited that they would be best of friends and have each other for company.
Levi was an easy baby, he had to go with the flow in a busy household with lots going on, he slept and fed well and loved cuddles. Levi started communicating quite early and loved chatting, singing and food. Around 1 years of age I had to return to full time work so Levi and his older brother attended day care full time.
Levi became best friends with a little girl at daycare, Anneke. They did everything together and their friendship was celebrated and documented in many photos through daycare. Levi had a real interest in performance- dressing up and dancing were his favourite pass time, and almost every day when I called to collect him he would be dressed in various dress ups (usually pink or purple)
Levi and his brother didn’t have a lot in common, they didn’t really play together and couldn’t have been more different from one another. Levi had dark hair and lots of it, he was chubby and short and calm, preferring a quieter existence. Big brother had blonde curly hair, was petite and strong and always on the go. The differences didn’t end there, big brother wanted motorbikes, helicopters, cars and action. Levi wanted dress ups, ponies, girly toys. We didn’t think too much of it for the first few years, just allowed things to be what they were.
At aged five I became more concerned as big brother was super proud of his boy bits running around ‘rudies’ doing “butt dancing” Levi appeared shamed by his body, sitting in the bath and tucking his penis underneath and making comments like “look mum I’m a girl” Levi also didn’t like to take baths with others and was secretive about changing. At school Levi was often in trouble for not doing as he was told. Fairly disruptive and angry, almost depressed, a far cry from the happy easy going child we knew and loved. At aged six a few months before his seventh birthday Levi made comments about wanting to “chop off his penis”. This became a bit more alarming and I started to think maybe something more was going on. I started to do some research online and learnt of the term “transgender” despite being a medical professional I had little contact or knowledge about gender dysphoria. It was not something I had come across and hadn’t needed to know about. I started to listen to stories alarmingly similar to ours and started to wonder if this was what we were facing. The real turning point was when I asked Levi what he wanted for his seventh birthday he replied “ I just want to be a girl Mummy”
I showed Levi a video on you tube of a girl named Jazz, Jazz explained she was a girl born in a boys body. Following the video Levi turned to me and said “God made a mistake when he made me Mum, I’m meant to be a girl, like Jazz” the excitement on Levi’s face that he wasn’t alone in the world was priceless, and there was no turning back.