Oh, Baby!

On Friday night around 5:00, I got a phone call from my brother Drew. His wife Marquesas, whose baby was three days overdue at this point, was in the hospital and the plan was to begin inducing her. Jill, Valarie, and I conferenced for all of 2 minutes, and Val & I decided we would jump in the car and make the 5 hour drive up to Tallahassee and try to get there before the baby was born. We figured we had plenty of time since they were only just beginning the process. We were right. We arrived around 11:00 pm. Marquesas was there with Drew, her mother, & her sister Jasmine. She was in a good mood; not in too much pain. Eventually, Val & I left to go sleep at Drew's house, leaving the instructions to call us if anything exciting happened. The next morning around 8:00ish, Drew called to say that Marquesas's water broke and that things were getting more intense. Val I left to go back to the hospital. We got there just in time. Apparently, they had decided to give Marquesas some medicine to help her get some sleep since things weren't progressing so fast and she hadn't slept at all during the night. Once they did that, the baby decided it was time to emerge. Marquesas kept falling asleep between contractions, and, because she was totally doped up, she said some very HILARIOUS things. (See list of funny events below.) I'm so glad that Marquesas let us be in the room with her during the birth. It was really amazing. And my new (nameless at this point) nephew is so adorable!

This is Marquesas on Drugs:
So, as I mentioned above, Marquesas was pretty funny once they had doped her all up. She said many funny things before Val & I got there. (By the time we were there, she was more distracted by the pain.) I have made a little list here of some of my favorites.

**This one happened before I arrived, but I heard about it, and it rocks! When the nurse, who had pretty strawberry-blond colored hair pulled back in a ponytail, bent over Marquesas at one point, Marquesas began stroking her hair and said, "I want my hair to be this color." It's not the comment that's so funny as much as the picture of her stroking a stranger's head.

**During her hard labor, there was a (very) short pause in the action, and the midwife began to gather her equipment at the foot of the bed. Marquesas kind of sat up and said, "Are we done now? WHAT'S HAPPENING???"

**The pretty strawberry-blond nurse pushed the nurse's call button on the side of the bed at one point during a contraction. When the nurse at the desk outside said, "May I help you?" Marquesas and Jasmine both screamed in unison, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" And then you could hear some chuckling through the intercom.

**After the baby was born, they handed him to her, and she said, "He's beautiful, just beautiful!" The nurse said, "Does he have a name?" (As I mentioned before, they have not decided 100% on the name yet.) Marquesas answered the nurse's question by saying in a dreamy voice, "Beautiful." So, apparently, my nephew's name is Beautiful.

**When she began nursing the baby for the first time, and it hurt for a moment, she said "Ouch! Renesmee!" (If you've read the Twilight books, you'll get this; if you haven't, then you'll have no idea what it means.)

So, here's a picture of my nephew "Beautiful". He was born on December 27, 2008 at 9:42 am; he weighed 7 lbs and was 20" long.

Bruno!

My parents were in town last week. On Friday, Val & Jason took Evan to Sea World and left my Mom and I to care for the others. Dad came over for a couple of hours, and played with Alaina. (I apologize for the poor quality of the picture. I took it with my camera phone because it was all I had, and the lighting was bad.)



Dad carrying Alaina around in a box reminded me of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street yelling "Bruno!" when that funny guy would carry him around in his garbage can.