First Time in a Maternity Ward...

Well, Monday we got a call from our friends to see if we wanted to meet for dinner...and we hadn't hung out with them in so long we jumped at the opportunity!

D got off work, we threw ourselves together, and raced down the hill. We sat in Chevy's for happy hour...watched the last game of the World Series...(our Giants won!)...we visited for a long time, it was wonderful! They had left their little girl home because S was having contractions early that morning and they'd come up to the hospital and the little guy wasn't ready to come out yet. After visiting so long (and we live closer to the hospital than they do), we decided to all head up to our house. We visited for a while, caught up. D made waffles because he decided they had to try some of the jam I'd made, so that was our dessert. After that we sat and visited some more, but S was starting to get strong contractions again. They decided to stay the night just in case.

About an hour after going to bed, they were strong and frequent, and they decided to head off to the hospital. By the next evening, finally, he decided a week late was long enough and came out (pretty effortlessly too). Went went down late last night to bring them food and say hi.

It was my first time in a maternity ward...sort of surreal. All the families huddled in the doorways of recovery rooms. Balloons. Faint baby cries. We went into her delivery room, and he was laying on the table and the nurses where getting all his info entered and sorted out, taking his little footprints and everything. It was weird...I felt so excited yet out of place in a weird way. We helped them take everything to their room on the next floor, and I got to hold him while N and S ate their In-N-Out and just relaxed for a bit. Precious! Before that their daughter was the youngest baby I had held...D had held her in the hospital but I was sick and didn't see her until she was about five weeks old. This little guy was three hours old. He kept sucking on his tounge, and he didn't have the newborn screech, it was a softer cry...and as S said he responds to the same things his sister did when she was crying. (Which made calming him much less daunting)...

At first, the feelings were of wonder and adoration...he's REALLY cute! Then, the more I glanced up at D and the more he made little faces at me, it made me wish that it was our turn. My turn to be recovering, for us to stare proudly as our family held and adored our little one. It was hard...it got harder as we drove home...and then climbed into bed. I layed there in amazement at God and how the whole process works. I was thinking about how approximately 24 hours ago I was laying down to go to bed just like I am now, but my pregnant friend was in the room down the hall...and now her and her husband are sitting in the hospital with new baby #2, a boy...awaiting the next day when family would come and they'd get to bring him home.  It's amazing...and it was hard...and everything I thought of made me want to wonder and smile yet at the same time caused pain and made me want to cry...