A Member of the Club

I joined a new club last week.
The club of grandma-hood.

I tell myself I’m the youngest member of this club.
After all, I’m not a typical grandma:
gray haired, wrinkly with baggy stockings.
I’m only PLENTY-NINE YEARS OLD!
(Okay, I’ll admit a: I color my hair, b: I have plenty of wrinkles and c: if I wore stockings I’m sure they’d be baggy.)

Most women who are between the ages of
PLENTY-FIVE AND PLENTY-NINE
are not members of this club yet.

Uh huh.
Sure.

Then I get on Facebook,
and I see some people that I graduated from high school with have 2 or 3 grandkids.
Some even have more.
(Honestly, I don’t know how that’s possible, but these women claim to have them…
and even post pictures to prove it!)

So much for the “I’m too young” theory.
Who am I kidding?
I AM old enough to be a grandma!
Grandma’s these days aren’t gray haired and wrinkly!
The grandmas I know are fun, active and cool women!
I hope I can fit into the club and be cool like them!

Well, whether or not I am in denial with the fact that my offspring are having offspring,
I simply can’t refute it anymore.
My beautiful daughter gave birth to a beautiful son, last Friday.

What a day!
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words,
so my post will mostly be in photos.
(Probably overload!)

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The night Belle went to the hospital to be induced.
She and her doctor decided to induce on her due date.
They felt the baby was big enough and didn’t want him to get too much bigger.

This next pic is BEFORE the epidural.
My poor girl labored all night and no one knew!
She was put on Cervadil to soften things up so she could be put on Pitocin in the morning.
She is one in a million.
Even though Cervadil is not supposed to induce labor,
IT DID!!!
By the time the doctor came to check on her at 7 am, the baby had already crowned.
EVERYONE was incredibly surprised!
The person you see in the back right side of this pic is the anesthesiologist prepping to give
her an epidural.
I was quite surprised that they would offer her this procedure this late in the game.
But everyone in the room was so glad they did.
She wasn’t the most pleasant person.
(Okay, we all agree she was MEAN!)
After the epidural took effect,
my daughter – who everyone was calling SYBIL –
was called by her real name again.

Beast got the courage to cut the cord.
He wasn’t sure he could do it.
I’m so glad he did!

I love this picture so much!
It’s a testament to the peace an epidural gives.
My daughter smiles calmly at the labor nurse.
You can’t tell that Sybil Belle had been yelling profanities at this
poor nurse just two hours before.
(The nurse was VERY PATIENT and forgiving of my daughter.)

HE’S HERE!
7 LBS 12 OZ
19 inches long
Squished nose and cone head
but incredibly beautiful in spite of it!

Quite possibly the world’s youngest Elvis impersonator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Baby
who shall be known as CHIP
(keeping with the Beauty and the Beast theme)
is looking for work as a
YARD GNOME!

 

 

 

 

Even though we like to tease Belle about the little outbursts directed at the nurses,
I am incredibly proud of her.
She labored for about 6 hours without the benefit of an epidural.
That was NOT her birth plan. And was NEVER her birth plan.
In spite of it all, she handled the pain and discomfort until her hero, the anesthesiologist showed up.
Belle, you are MY hero!
There’s NO WAY I could have done what you did!

Poor Scooter is only 10 years old,
which left him 8 years short of being able to visit Belle, Beast and Chip IN the hospital.
(Due to the high RSV risk, no one under the age of 18 was admitted into the baby area.)
He was pretty disappointed.
Until we figured out a way he could still see his brand new nephew!
We pretended we were going to see a baby the old fashioned way:
through a nursery window.
Only it was 32° for those of us viewing the baby because
we were standing on the sidewalk OUTSIDE the hospital window!

This guy makes me laugh --
when I’m not threatening to kick him out of the room.
One day, I swear, he’s going to get us ejected from a hospital.
Dang, he’s cute though.
Isn’t he?

Chip isn’t fond of
a) being put down
b) having clothes put on

Uncle Bean loves singing to Baby Chip to help soothe him when he cries.
The song of choice is
Peter, Paul & Mary’s version of
Hush Little Baby, Don’t Say a Word
(Papa’s gonna buy you a mocking bird)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, our hearts have been stolen by this little guy.
He is an angel.
Such a good baby.

I never knew being a grandma would be so much fun.
Seriously,
if I would have known this,
I would have had him first!!