May 6, 2014

Welcoming my nephew.

I turned my phone on silent, as I usually do at bedtime to avoid being woken by email notifications, plugged it up, and went to bed Friday, April 25 without a thought. I woke later than usual the next morning, got a cup of coffee, and checked Facebook.

Right there at the top of my feed was a post by my soon to be sister-in-law stating she wouldn't be going into work that day because of back pain. It was marked as being posted four hours before. Five or six posts down, there was another post that made it plain she was at the hospital in labor. I jumped up and grabbed my phone to call my parents and saw they'd tried to call me several times the hour before. Feeling stupid, I called them back and found out where my brother and his fiance were.

Hubby wasn't looking forward to spending an undetermined amount of time in a hospital waiting room with both girls, but I was adamant about being there. My only sibling was expecting his first child. He'd been there for the birth of both our girls. He'd wanted a dozen kids since he was just ten himself, and he'd been told years before he only had a 2% chance of ever becoming a biological father. I wasn't going to miss this.


Sneak reading one of their newest books to Gran Gran.

I'm not saying bits of the morning where not trying. After an hour or so, the girls tired of reading and drawing and itched to run around. That's not so easy to do in the middle of down town. I'd finished the blanket for my dear nephew several weeks before, so I tried to start in on another one for a cousin who is due sometime this month. I've never made granny hexagons before, and I didn't have a pattern. I ended up starting, ripping it back down to the chain, and starting over three times before I got one that'd lay flat. (A caffeine deprivation headache setting in wasn't helping matters.)

There were some great moments in the waiting room too though. Boo Bear dazzled the family with her growing artistic skills. Sneak introduced Gran Gran and Auntie G to the wonders of Amelia Bedellia books. Gran Gran wrangled a cup of coffee for me from somewhere. With the coffee machines down and the cafeteria refusing to make any, I'm still not sure how she managed it without leaving the hospital's campus, but I was grateful for the blessed caffeine. And then Little Brother came with the news his son had been born, and both baby and mother were doing well.

"Little" Brother and his son.

There were hugs and congratulations all around. He showed us photos he'd snapped to tide us over until his son was cleaned up and had a chance to eat.

On into the afternoon, we were finally able to go back and meet the newest edition to the family. He was a handsome little chunk already in the possession of a head full of dark hair and brown eyes. He was alert and not sure if he'd rather chew on his fingers or the blanket he was swaddled in.

Unfortunately, that's the only time Hubby, the girls, and I have seen him thus far. We all came down with allergies the next day, and I got laid out with a horrible sinus infection and bronchitis a few days after that's just starting to clear up. We'll see him again soon enough though, and we're excited and happy he's here.

The girls are just looking forward to around Christmas when he's starting to crawl and really able to play. They can't wait to teach him games.

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