As most of you know, today was the big day that everyone in my family has been waiting for! At 8:28 this morning, Emily gave birth to her third child! I'll cut to the chase and tell you what everyone has been waiting to hear for nine months...SHE HAD A BOY!!! :) His name is Cole Joseph, and he weighed 10 lbs 4 oz, and was 21.5 in long. He is quite the little chunk, but he is an adorable little chunk! Emily, Cole, and the rest of the gang are all doing just great.
As a recap of our long day, it began with Scotty & Emily dropping the boys off around 5:30 AM. Although they were excited, they were still pretty sleepy, so they rested until it was time to leave. My parents, the boys, and I ended up leaving our house around 7:00, in the midst of the thunder and pouring rain. (Any other morning, it would've been the perfect day to sleep in, but not today, for we had better things awaiting us!) I actually drove my own vehicle, for reasons I'll explain later, so I missed out on the headed-to-town conversation with Cody & Kyle, but it's okay.
Upon my arrival to the hospital, I went into the Ante Partum room to talk to Emily for a while, and to help her pass her time in that dreaded space. After a while, the anesthesiologist came in to talk with her and Scotty, so I decided to leave them to square things away. In the waiting area, my parents and the boys were working a puzzle on the coffee table. It turns out that a nurse was kind enough to lend the boys the puzzle to help occupy them during the long wait. (Actually, my mom & Emily both brought things for the boys to do while waiting, but the puzzle came out before those things did.) We were all thankful for the puzzle, because Cody & Kyle actually sat down and worked it, with everyone's help. Cody & Kyle are natural puzzle solvers, and I'm thinking that more puzzles may be in their future, if you catch my drift. It took us about twenty to thirty minutes to finish it, but that was plenty long for us.
About the time we were finishing the puzzle, Scotty's mom, Carol, arrived. This began the interminable process of waiting. Waiting to meet the baby, waiting to know its gender, waiting to know that Emily and the baby were alright, waiting to know the baby's statistics, waiting to hold the baby, waiting to see Emily...like the Tom Petty song says, the waiting is the hardest part. To be perfectly honest, my dad was making this process ten times more difficult than necessary, because he would tell us that Scotty was coming when he really wasn't, or that he saw something, etc. We all got to the point that we stopped listening to him for a while, because he was doing nothing but getting our hopes up, just to dash them. Wouldn't you know that that was when he actually was right, and Scotty came walking through the doors. (My dad had quite the smug grin at that point, just so you know.)
To digress a little bit, my one and only real duty for the day was to record Cody & Kyle's first reaction to the baby on Gina's camcorder. Also, the battery on it is a little iffy, as it really doesn't hold a charge that well and constantly needs to be plugged in to the charger. I had it all planned out, and I was ready, or so I thought...Back to the story... Once we knew that Scotty was coming out, I dashed over and turned the camera on to start recording. The lens cap was off, and I hit the record button. I captured everything on camera, and I had successfully completed my task for Emily. I had a beautiful new nephew (I know he is a boy, but he is beautiful, anyway.), and all was right in the world...well, until they went to weigh Cole, and I looked down to see that the screen did NOT say that it was recording, nor did it ever start recording. Awesome. Just my luck. I was more upset with myself than anything, because I had solemnly promised Emily that if I would do anything, I would do that for her, while she was temporarily indisposed. Later, everyone assured me that it was alright, specifically Emily, which made me feel a little bit better, but still disappointed. Oh well, I suppose that is a small picture thing, since my mom and Carol both got some pictures of the moment.
While waiting, we watched Cole's first bath, his measurements, his foot stamping, his first diaper, and getting hooked up to all of the necessary monitors. I'm sure that Emily might be a little more technical than I am, but I know that all of his measurements were pretty well off the charts in all of the percentiles, so that is always a good thing! The best part of waiting was when Scotty told us that each of us (who was 18 or older, including me, for once!) could come into the nursery, one at a time, to admire Cole up close. Carol went first, then my mom, dad, and, finally, me! I felt bad for Cody & Kyle, though, as they wanted so badly to go and see their baby brother, but couldn't. I could identify with their feelings, because I was always too little to do a lot of things, and it is frustrating to no end, especially when everyone else is old enough to do all of the "cool" things. Of course, our words were no consolation to them, but it was better when Scotty was able to hold Cole up to the window for them to see him closer. Not long after, Emily came out of recovery, and Cole came out of the nursery!
At that point, I knew that Scotty and Emily needed some family bonding time, so I left to go get Mimi, which was why I drove separately. I loved getting Mimi, as we were able to talk at length, something I so love to do. A little over an hour later, Mimi and I were back at the hospital, and she was ready to see her newest great-grandchild! Everything was much calmer by the time we arrived, so Mimi got to hold Cole pretty much instantly, also she is 93 3/4 years old, so she has pretty much earned the right to hold babies whenever she wants to. Shortly thereafter, I got to hold him for the first time, although it wasn't a very magical experience for him. Cole was starting to get hungry again, I think, so he was a little bit fussy, which cut my time with him short. For me, I loved getting to hold my newest nephew! He was so soft, warm, and snuggly, not to mention that he has that new-baby scent! :) It was definitely love at first sight for this aunt! Besides, he is my fifth nephew, and I have long since gotten used to unhappy babies, and I have learned not to take offense if they were fussy, as I just love getting to snuggle with them any chance I get!
Gina got to the hospital a while after Mimi and I got back. The interesting thing about that was the fact that she had been at work all morning, as it was surgery day back at Perry, and (as per her request) she still didn't know the baby's gender when she got there. You wouldn't believe how incredibly difficult it was to carry on a phone conversation with her beforehand. Pronouns were virtually useless at that point, and we had to keep saying/emphasizing the phrase "the baby" (As in, "
The baby is doing just fine." "
The baby weighed 10 lbs 4 oz.") Emily almost slipped and said "he" at one point while she was on the phone with Gina, but thankfully, it cut out, and Gina didn't understand what she said. Gina was pleasantly surprised by Cole, and she got her cuddle time in before she had to go pick up Wyatt from school.
Not long after Gina left, Tevis made it up to see Cole. Cody and Kyle were ecstatic once they saw Tevis, and were bouncing off the walls trying to tell him everything. After I held Cole a while longer (it went better that go-round), Tevis finally agreed to hold him. I will admit that Cole was much calmer with Tevis than with me, although I think it has something to do with the fact that Tevis has a firm grip, and he probably just felt a little bit more secure, is all. (Tevis did happily hold that fact over my head, by the way.) After Tevis had his chance holding Cole, Kyle was literally begging to hold him again, so Tevis ceded his holding duties to Kyle. At that point, Tevis and I decided to once again leave the Moody family to have a little bit of peace.
I actually saw Cole one more time after that, since Emily had me run a few errands for her, but he was fast asleep by the time I made it back. I'm okay with that, because our little guy needed his rest after the big day he had, what with being born and all!
(I will add pictures later, because my computer is being unreasonable right now; sorry for the inconvenience...perhaps Emily will have some posted before then!)