peace

this morning i got to work at 7:20. that's VERY unlikely for me, but brendan was scheduled to work at rona at 7-1 and we weren't sure how he could get there on time. so i offered him a drive, it was right after a living room gathering about treating others as we'd want to be treated. in the end it worked out smoothly, and it means i can leave work early, so it worked out pretty good for both of us.

as i mentioned, i have a new niece. let me tell you the story...

i got an email from joy on saturday saying she was feeling weird. she was having contractions, but they weren't regular and not particularly significant either. i was on alert all day, whenever the phone rang i wondered if it was her calling to let me now it was go-time. but the day went on quite uneventfully, and i went to bed earlish because there wasn't much to do. meanwhile, joy had sent joelle to a friend's house for a birthday sleepover, and had arranged a special sleepover for caleb at my mom's place. when my mom went to pick him up, liam was all excited and put on his shoes too. he thought he was going too, and they felt really badly for him, because he really fancies himself as a big boy, so they asked if my mom wouldn't mind taking him too, and she was thrilled. thus, joy and tim were alone without kids and with nothing to do for the first time in 6 years. so (as my mom said), they just had another one :p at 2:30 in the morning joy woke up with a really bad contraction and upon having another one she told tim and they headed out. when they got to the hospital tim called me, and i bolted out of bed to the phone. when we hung-up i was in such a state that i wasn't sure what to do first to get ready, so i turned on the kettle, once i had some water boiling i felt much more on the ball and threw some clothes on, and headed out the door with a fresh cup of tea. the roads were pretty bare, except when i drove thru queen's, there were an odd number of people out and about, you'd like it was 11:00 instead of 3:30. i got a great parking spot out front and headed up to connell 5 (i love KGH, i used to work there and i love knowing my way around, i feel really comfortable there like no time has past at all). when i arrived they were putting in the epidural (or so we thought), but it turns out there wasn't time for one so she only got a spinal drip. when i was allowed in the room, the nurses said "it's time to have this baby" so i put down my knitting (that i brought just in case it was going to be a long wait) and stood up beside joy. she was shaking and i could tell that she was in quite a lot of pain because the spinal tap hadn't kicked in yet. but she managed to get her knees up and gave 3 or 4 mighty pushes and out she came! we would tell her "oh we see a head, she has a lot of hair!" and that really helped spur her forward. on the second last push, when the head was out i heard the nurse say "there's the cord" it seemed to be around the baby's neck, and she put her fingers in between the cord and her neck, then instructed joy to give one more big push and out she came. erin cried a lot more than liam, and didn't look around like he had. she kept her eyes closed because the light was bright, and everytime she tried to open her eyes she'd start to cry again. i got to cut the umbilical cord :D she weighted in at 7 lbs 2 oz, which is actually joy's biggest baby yet which is interesting because she carried the baby pretty small, compared to other people she didn't look 9 months pregnant. the baby's full name is erin joy, erin means peace. she has a whole wack of black hair, and her eyes look slate blue, which means they'll probably go brown. maybe erin will be the one baby that looks like joy, but only time will tell. she was born at 3:45, we hung out all morning chatting and getting caught-up. it was fun. we passed erin around and made calls as the morning went on. i went home around 7:30 and brought brendan to the hospital to meet her after church around 2. when we came in to visit she was still all mucky and still had joy's blood on her face :p her hair was still all goopy but was still super cut, i'm looking forward to seeing her all cleaned up. she was a really good baby, she fed within the first half-hour like a pro. joy's very thankful because joelle was a really big struggle to feed and did not latch on properly. after that she just slept all day, joy said newborns are really tired the first day. in the afternoon she kept her eyes open for much longer and just stared and stared at brendan. my mom came in to visit when we were there too, which was fun. i would've liked to be there when the other kids arrived. very exciting.

so that's that, my very last niece has been born. no more nieces or nephews for me. that's a very interesting feeling. it was very fun, and i have some great photos, i'll post them this evening when i'm back at home.

i'm really overdue in finishing up the entries about my trip to cuba. i still have yet to tell you about the most exciting day of them all! soon i hope soon.

freedom has a scent,
like the top of a new born baby's head.