New Year, New Grandson!

We are starting the new  year right!  Welcoming 2015 with a new baby boy! I'm super excited and very very very happy that he was born happy and healthy. My daughter is also well. She had a healthy delivery. Nothing could make me happier than my baby being healthy and my grandson too!

He's adorable!  I'm not just saying that, not all newborns are adorable, some are "adorable" (know what I mean?). But he is, he is perfectly adorable!

I hope I understand the birth story correctly; I will relay what I know. I wasn't there. Gasp! I was peacefully slumbering in my bed at home. oops. I wanted to be there for her and I tried hard to be available, but I still managed to miss the birth. She did well without me though, and honestly, I don't know how much help I could have been if I had been there. I probably would have just brought nervous energy into the room.

Little Martin was born at home. Henry was born in the hospital; Alfred was born at the Birthing Center; Marty was born at home. I told Katie that number 4 will be born while she's camping.

Katie started to have light labor around midnight or shortly after. She took the trash out at midnight, so she was doing fine then. It was the type of early labor that they send you home for if you go to the hospital, so it wasn't anything to get excited about at that point.  The boys were asleep, of course, it was after midnight.

She decided to take a bath, and when she did, she left her phone in her bedroom. In the bath, things kicked into high gear and her labor intensified. She managed to get back to her room to her phone and she called her friend, Stacy. Katie then made it over to her dining room patio door and unlocked it. Her front door is down a long flight of stairs, so she couldn't unlock that one. Stacy would have to come in the back.

Then Katie thought she would go use the bathroom before the baby was born, as it was going to be soon. She could tell. She waddled her way back to the bathroom. Somewhere in there, her husband Andrew called. He's deployed right now and a phone call is an impossible feat! The fact that he called during her intense labor is pretty cool! He was as "there" as he could possibly have been!

Katie gave birth to Marty in the bathroom at 5:05am.  She caught him so he wasn't born in the toilet or on the cold tile floor, but safely into his mother's arms. Her friend had arrived and helped her from that point forward.

Katie called me at 7am.  Actually, she called me a couple of times earlier too, but I totally slept through that. Oops. I gathered up my overnight bag that I've had packed for a while and I also scooped up a bag for Gracie and took her with me. We sped down to San Diego and got there at 10am.  Might need to work on my speeding. It's only an hour from my driveway to Katie's driveway and it took me three. I had to shower, gather stuff, have a piece of toast and some coffee, forget something and turn back, etc. Getting going just took me a bit.

When I got there the midwife was there checking on Katie and Marty. In her professional opinion, all was well. Both mama and baby were fine. She brought black-eyed peas for good luck in the New Year. She weighed and measured Marty and he was 8 pounds 13 ounces and 21 inches long. Katie's smallest baby of the three, but a very healthy start to his life!

Gracie and I spent the day with Katie and the boys. We played cars, read story books, and ate. I made a couple of meals for Katie and kids and brought her glasses of water.  I changed Alfie's diaper a few times and cleaned up a potty accident of Henry's. Oops. I did dishes and took down her Christmas tree and did a load of laundry. Soon it was bedtime for the boys, then after bedtime, then way after bedtime and I finally got them to bed. I slept with Henry and Gracie slept with Alfred for about a minute. Alfie then migrated to sleep with his mommy and baby brother.

Gracie and I left in the morning before the boys woke up, but we left breakfast on the table for them.

Wishing you a good year, Little Marty.  And wishing you a long healthy life!