Family Matters

I've been out of town. Did you miss me?

This was one of those really fun (well, for me, at least-- maybe not so much for my sister), completely unplanned trips. It all began when my little sister Natalie, who lives in Hershey, PA, called to tell me that, at nearly 38 weeks pregnant, her blood pressure had been creeping up and the doctor was talking about inducing her. An hour later she called again to announce that not only were they going to induce her, she was already hooked up to the IVs and getting ready to go! This led to me running around like a crazy person packing as fast as I could. Don't you love that sort of packing? When you just throw random stuff in a suitcase and hope you didn't forget anything important? Because the truth is, that's how I always pack. Even when I try to carefully plan ahead and make lists of everything I'll need, by the end, it always degenerates into the just-throw-it-in-the-suitcase method. So it was nice to dispense with the pretense for once and just pack the way I REALLY do.

Anyway, we were on the road by 2:45, which isn't bad, I think. And the only thing we forgot to bring was the strollers. Not exactly tragic, although they would have been handy every time we were trying to herd three toddlers through the hospital. Lucky for me I had done laundry the day before and paid bills that morning. That's ready enough, right? And I have to admit that I was kind of proud of myself for managing to swing by my friend's house so I could get back my copy of Dr. Horrible so Natalie would have something to watch in the hospital. Oh, yeah, who's a good sister? (I also brought some political magazines to read, since Natalie is even more into politics than I am, but then I realized that if they were worried about her blood pressure, perhaps these were not the sort of reading she needed right now. Oh, well.) I packed a brownie mix, too, since I didn't have time to buy her a baby gift. More on that later, but suffice it to say, this idea didn't go so well. But I was trying.

We made good time to Hershey and beat the baby's arrival. Whew! I got to have a quick visit with Natalie, and then we left her with her husband (who is an anesthesia resident at the same hospital right now AND who had just finished being on call for 24 hours. Poor Cameron!), and took her 2-year-old son home with us, swinging by Sam's Club to get some pizza for dinner. Natalie's son, Samuel, is exactly in between Bentley and Kendra's ages-- they're each about 8.5 months apart. So watching all three of them is a handful. I was pretty proud of myself when I managed to get all three ready for bed: clean diapers, in their pajamas with teeth brushed. I felt like something of a factory, but I managed it. And then they kept each other awake jumping on their beds until way too late. But I'm glad they were happy to see each other!

At 4:40am Natalie called me with the exciting news: her son had arrived! He'd been born around 3:30 (apparently being at her house didn't give me phone privileges ahead of grandparents), weighing in at 7 lbs and 0.5 ounces, and 19.5 inches long. It took them until the afternoon to finally decide on a name, but they chose Caleb Allen, which I think fits him beautifully.

We visited late in the morning:

The happy family! Cameron, Samuel, Natalie, & Caleb.

My flash was bothering Caleb and causing him to make the CUTEST little squinty face!
Then I stopped blinding the poor kid. Really!

So far, he enjoys sucking on his hands. And anything else he can get into his mouth.

Natalie stayed at the hospital for two days. Because of her blood pressure and the medication she was on for it, she wasn't allowed to eat anything until twenty-four hours after Caleb was born. So my brownies ended up being more torture than anything else. But she assured me that she thoroughly enjoyed them once she was allowed to actually eat them and not just look at them.

Happy mommy with her cute little one. Notice his crazy red hair! We still don't know where that came from...

Caleb was NOT so happy when we changed his diaper and his outfit that evening.
He got over it as soon as we finished, though.

Meanwhile, Craig and I had our hands full with the three older kids! We kept pretty busy. In between hospital visits and nap times, we visited Chocolate World, the pool, got some groceries for Natalie (who had planned to go grocery shopping right after the doctor's appointment that led to her being induced!)... And played dress up. This was lucky, because I had picked up these costumes on FreeCycle Wednesday morning, so with the crazy packing going on, I just brought them along, too. That turned out to be a good idea.

Bentley and Kendra are Lightning McQueen, while Samuel is James the Train.

And okay, I may have let them watch The Lion King about twice a day.
But in my defense, I did have to to occasionally shower and cook dinner.

Friday evening, Natalie (who was finally allowed to eat!) and Caleb came home from the hospital. And Aunt Tracy arrived from New York to help out, too.

This picture is kind of dark, but I still like it. This is my sister Tracy with Caleb, in case you couldn't tell.

With Tracy there to help out, we weren't quite as needed, and Natalie's two-bedroom apartment was starting to feel a tad crowded, what with the four adults and four children all sleeping there. (And that's not even counting Cameron, since he was on-call again that night!) So today we headed home, which is where we are now. It's nice to be home, and I'm looking forward to my children (hopefully) not waking up at 5:30 in the morning tomorrow.

But it sure was fun to sit around with my sisters holding such a precious little newborn!

Welcome to the family, Caleb. I think you're gonna like it here!