Not the whole story, but some snapshots:
Walking over to exercise at 8:00, Jennie said “What if she comes tonight?” I said she won't, can't. I'm not ready. We got home at 9. Jennie had started feeling contractions around 10pm and we started keeping track about 11:30. Jennie asked me to take the baby monitor up to our neighbors just in case. We tried to go to bed at midnight when the contractions seemed to stop being so regular. After a few minutes, Jennie got up. After another hour of contractions, we shrugged and decided that we might as well call the hospital and go in. I still sort of thought we'd be headed home in a few hours.
Olive Mae was born just before 3 am on Dec. 30. The last nurse left us about 5:00 and I asked her to wake me up at 7:00 so I could get home before Junie woke up.
First picture of Olive.
I got home about 7:30 and Junie woke up at 7:45. On the drive to the hospital I asked Junie if she was going to sing the baby a song. She said yes. When I asked her which song she would sing she answered “I am a child of God.” When we got to the room, we saw Jennie and the first thing Junie said was “Where baby sister?” Junie held her and gave her gentle kisses.
We did not practice that song and we did not prompt her to sing it.
When Olive was leaving the hospital, Junie was the most excited she's ever been. She led the procession down the 400 ft hallway. Jennie held Olive and a nurse pushed them both in a wheelchair. I held the bags. Junie ran about 10 feet ahead of us shouting “yay yay yay, yay yay yay, yay yay yay” the entire way.
This will be a quickie since Olive has already been asleep for one hour, thus my window of opportunity for a chunk of sleep tonight is rapidly closing. Grandparents have been clamoring for pictures of Olive, so here goes...
Olive and Junie modeling their blankets from Aunt Penny. I love Olive's blanket: it resembles a fur coat and matches her old lady name perfectly.
At about two weeks old, Olive barely qualifies for the classification of "bigger than a breadbox" (or a loaf of bread, anyway).
The results of an extraordinary burst of sharing by Junie - the entire contents of Junie's crib ended up on Olive (and Mom) during Olive's breakfast.
Olive, at about 3 1/2 weeks, modeling her new outfit from Grandma Berg.
Even with all the responsibilities of a new baby, Mom and Dad still found time for a night out thanks to Grandma Rands' fortuitous one night stop in South Bend on her way to Pittsburgh. (Drinking Coca Cola out of champagne glasses wouldn't really be that cool except that we're in a stretch limo.)
