Wednesday, December 30, 2009
'Twas the Night Before
Everything is ready. Ellie and Annie are at our friends the Rosenbergs' house, excited for a sleepover. The hospital bag is packed. A rotating lineup of babysitters has been arranged. The new room is decorated and stocked with clothes and burp cloths and diapers. And yes, Shelly and I sat down this evening over dessert at a restaurant and picked a name. Everything is ready.
Tomorrow morning we will get up at some unearthly hour and head for the Alexandria Hospital. We are supposed to check in by about 5:30am for the 7:30 surgery. Hopefully everything will go just as smoothly as Annie's birth did. It's really a fairly painless process, these scheduled C-sections. I'll spend the morning with Shelly and the baby, get the girls for their nap time/quiet time, and then drop them off with someone else so I can get back to the hospital. That's pretty much going to be the schedule for the next four days or so.
Just like the night before Annie was born, this evening as we were preparing the girls for their sleepover, I was washed over with a very strong sense of emotion and love for my family. My girls - all four of them now - are my reason for just about everything I do. I stopped Ellie and Annie individually to give them a special hug and tell them how much I love them. I am excited to feel that same way about another child.
Ellie is really excited for the baby. She keeps talking about when "the little cutie" is going to come home. Annie, on the other hand, isn't quite as clued in to what is going on, but perhaps she understands more than she lets on. She certainly knows there's a baby in Mama's tummy, and we've been talking a lot this week about how that baby is about to come out of the tummy. Actually, I think the hardest part of this whole thing for both girls is going to be going four days without seeing their Mama. The hospital has restricted visitors to adults only because of swine flu fears. So although I'll be with them a couple of times a day while Shelly's in the hospital, they won't see her - nor will they get to meet their new sister - till she's discharged Sunday night or Monday morning. They have never been away from Shelly for this long. I hope they'll be okay.
Shelly has been sick this past week with a cold virus, but she's just about over it. Enough, I think, that they won't have to follow through with their threat of postponing the delivery at all. In fact, I'm the one who is sniffling and losing my voice now. I just want to be able to talk tomorrow, so I can make all the necessary phone calls.
I'll post a birth announcement here tomorrow night or New Year's morning. Wish us luck - and in the meantime, have a happy new year!
Tomorrow morning we will get up at some unearthly hour and head for the Alexandria Hospital. We are supposed to check in by about 5:30am for the 7:30 surgery. Hopefully everything will go just as smoothly as Annie's birth did. It's really a fairly painless process, these scheduled C-sections. I'll spend the morning with Shelly and the baby, get the girls for their nap time/quiet time, and then drop them off with someone else so I can get back to the hospital. That's pretty much going to be the schedule for the next four days or so.
Just like the night before Annie was born, this evening as we were preparing the girls for their sleepover, I was washed over with a very strong sense of emotion and love for my family. My girls - all four of them now - are my reason for just about everything I do. I stopped Ellie and Annie individually to give them a special hug and tell them how much I love them. I am excited to feel that same way about another child.
Ellie is really excited for the baby. She keeps talking about when "the little cutie" is going to come home. Annie, on the other hand, isn't quite as clued in to what is going on, but perhaps she understands more than she lets on. She certainly knows there's a baby in Mama's tummy, and we've been talking a lot this week about how that baby is about to come out of the tummy. Actually, I think the hardest part of this whole thing for both girls is going to be going four days without seeing their Mama. The hospital has restricted visitors to adults only because of swine flu fears. So although I'll be with them a couple of times a day while Shelly's in the hospital, they won't see her - nor will they get to meet their new sister - till she's discharged Sunday night or Monday morning. They have never been away from Shelly for this long. I hope they'll be okay.
Shelly has been sick this past week with a cold virus, but she's just about over it. Enough, I think, that they won't have to follow through with their threat of postponing the delivery at all. In fact, I'm the one who is sniffling and losing my voice now. I just want to be able to talk tomorrow, so I can make all the necessary phone calls.
I'll post a birth announcement here tomorrow night or New Year's morning. Wish us luck - and in the meantime, have a happy new year!
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