Baby Stuff

Baby fever is spreading like wildfire!

Kelly Stamps from Kellys Korner Blog delivered her third child and first little boy on Friday. He was a little surprise caboose for their family train.

Two daughters of three of my high school classmates delivered three babies yesterday. Confusing? One couple, who went to school with me, were married for awhile and had a daughter who had twins yesterday. Plus another girl from my high school became a grandma yesterday. Apparently 29 years after graduation is when people who grew up in my hometown become grandparents. That's not a hard and fast rule because some of my former classmates have been grand for awhile. I was among the first to become a parent. I don't mind letting other folks become grandparents first. I'm glad it's my turn now.

Reports are that the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate) will be induced tomorrow. Cosette will be in great company. My mom was born two months before Prince Charles and my brother was born a month before Prince William so we have a history of breeding like the royals.

I ordered a tshirt Friday night that says, "My favorite people call me ____________". The blank is filled in with the grandma name I picked for myself. I have to know how to introduce myself to Cosette. I had hoped the shirt would be here before the baby but that doesn't look to be the case. Boo hiss. I bought the shirt with a gift card that was a birthday gift from a dear blog reader who is always good to remember me. I was going to use it to buy Dana Perino's book but this shirt caught my eye. And it was very late and I may or may not have been shopping under the influence of ambien.

Pop came home from the grocery store Friday night with a pack of size one diapers. For those who are not current on modern day diapers, size one goes from 8 pounds to... fifteen or sixteen, I forget. Cosette is predicted to be about 7 and a half pounds so by the time we get to have her over here she will be about 8 pounds worth of baby and we will be ready for her!

My first child's first and middle name used the same letter - Robert Ryan. My first grandchild's first and middle name will use the same letter - Cosette Camille. This was totally by accident.

I'm really eager to take Cosette down to see my grandma so we can get a five generation photo. Those are rare. Honestly, my grandma will probably live to be a hundred so we'll probably have lots of opportunities to do this but you never know and I would hate to miss the opportunity.

Because Tasha will be induced, the chances are good that we'll be at the hospital for a long time. I intend to stay there as long as it takes. Since regular old chairs cause me a good deal of pain I'm dragging my own chair up there. Not my recliner... I'm taking one of those fold up chairs you use for picnics and sporting events. The seat is fabric so it offers less resistance. I know it will look odd and I don't care. Whatever keeps me in the game.

Yesterday and today I'm having a really nasty flare up of the crazy gut pain. I'm two hours into the strongest dose of painkillers I can take and have the old bean bag sock warmed and pressed against me and it's still excruciating. Usually these flare ups last around three days so I'm hoping and praying that it's out of the way for me to be able to hang tough at the hospital.

My labor with Ryan took about ten hours (I'm not sure, I need to check his baby book) with a lot of pushing and he was delivered with "salad spoons" (forceps) ten days past his due date. He was 7 lbs and 11 ozs.

My labor with Cody took about eight hours from the time my water broke to the time he was delivered. He was about ten days early and weighed 6 lbs, 13 oz. I went into pre-term labor with him at 26 weeks and was able to keep him cooking until full term.

My labor with Austin took about six hours from start to finish. He was born about ten days early and weighed 6 lbs, 13 oz. Yes, Cody and Austin weighed exactly the same. Their names are also really similar - Justin Cody and Austin Clay. I went into pre-term labor with him at 25 weeks and was able to keep HIM cooking until full term.

My mom had five kids... born in 1966, 1968, 1975, 1978 and 1982.

There are twelve grandkids in our family... born in 1986, 1990, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2004, 2007, 2009. Two of my brothers married women who already each had a little girl. This is why I say that there wasn't a little girl born into our family between me in 1968 and Sarabeth in 2002. I had nieces, we just didn't get to do the "it's a girl" pink frilly newborn baby girl stuff until Sarabeth was born.

Sarabeth's nursery was decorated in red and black, the colors of her mom's alma mater. So technically we didn't get to do pink and frilly with her either.

My parents have another grandchild on the way but it belongs to my brother who is estranged from the family so we don't know when and we don't have high hopes of knowing this one. I will continue to pray for him/her just as I pray for his/her siblings.

We had never thought that my brother Bryan would have children. The girl he was with for many, many years was not able to have kids and we figured he was too busy/didn't really like kids that much. Although, seriously, how many bachelor uncles take their nieces to adopt Cabbage Patch Kids? I'm just sayin'.... Since he is marrying Helen and she definitely wants to have kids, my parents will hopefully have another grandchild or two. When they came in and announced they were engaged the second thing I said was, "will there be children?". I said congratulations first. I'm not THAT baby-greedy.

When Helen marries into the family she will become an aunt and a great-aunt simultaneously. Without the work or the wait! How lucky is she? She is already a pretty amazing aunt - including my nieces as junior bridesmaids and giving generous, lovely gifts to her great-niece and great-nephew.

If my boys had been girls their names would have been Ashley Elizabeth, Alyssa Ray and Cailen Brooke. If I was having kids now I would have picked out family names/ names with meaning instead of trendy names. Ray is my mom's middle name and is the last name of her maternal grandmother. Yes, my mother's name is Norma Ray. Remember the movie with Sally Field?

Tasha has requested that nobody post any pictures of Cosette on social media until she has a chance to. She wants the scoop and she definitely deserves it. So if I am short on details/photos immediately after Cosette gets here, please know that I am not "vague-booking" but honoring her mama's wishes. I'll get it all out there as soon as I get the go-ahead!

In the wee, pain-filled hours of the early morning today I thought that it was Monday and thought, "Cosette will be on her way TOMORROW night". Then... as I was flipping the channel to Fox and Friends First (which comes on at 5am on weekdays) and noticed it wasn't on, I remembered that today is Sunday so it will be two more days before we get things under way. I was a little bummed.

Instead of going out to eat for my birthday this year we're having Taco Tuesday before we go to the hospital Tuesday night. I had already asked for Taco Tuesday before we knew Cosette was coming then. Wednesdays my dad eats dinner at church so Tuesday was the closest to my birthday that we could celebrate anyways. We're going to have so much eating out and so many expenses with the wedding coming up... and.... knowing I was going to be doing some hospital sitting soon, I didn't want to tax my back with restaurant sitting. It works out well since we will be up at the hospital Tuesday night. Apologies to those sharing the waiting room with us.

And now my fur-baby is requesting my undivided attention so I'll leave things here. Love and hugs, y'all!