So little sis was born just AFTER the biggest blizzard in the history of Chicago weather situations since at least 1967, if not EVER. We left the Marriott downtown at 3pm on February 2nd, only to make the chilly, unplowed, white out, nary-another-car-on-the-road return trip at 1am. Figures.
Although I was (once again) hoping for an annoyingly uneventful labor and delivery ... it simply wasn't to be. Well, the labor part anyway.
Due to the outrageous and unrelenting dumping of snow the day before, inductions, c-sections and various other surgeries had been postponed. No one was available for break my water for five hours after I caved on the epidural. How annoying.
Still, it was worth it in the end. By 7:44pm, after insisting someone check me again, it only took two pushes, 180 seconds and NO STITCHES to meet the littlest Freeman. I fully consider this a pleasant alternative to the 90 minutes of pushing and painstaking needlepoint involved in delivering Leighton.
Mairin Isabel was born at 7:45pm with a full head of shiny, black hair (no real clue where that comes from), big sister's giraffe eyelashes and a dimple in her chin to match both mommy and Leighton. She was just too cute, right away.
Leighton was super pumped to meet little sis for the first time and never misses a chance to kiss her and hug her and tell her just how much she loves her. Sometimes, she loves her a little too "hard" but we've learned to manage the hard lovin' to some degree. If we can't lock it down completely, Mairin might need a helmet - at least until the soft spot closes up.
Luella didn't seem to need much of an adjustment this time. She's relatively chill and actually appears to love the newest member of our squad - most likely because she has witnessed, first hand, how rambunctions these sweet little people can become over the course of twenty-two months.
In this house, the infant is the easy one. Mairin is a sleeper, which feels crazy to us. We keep checking to make sure she's okay. Lei needed constant entertainment and sleep management - she still does to some degree. A sleepy baby is so completely different than the toddler who WON'T GO TO BED.
In fact, Lei's recent behavioral outbursts have risen to a level of toddler mayhem so cleverly calculated that they seem unlikely to have come from said toddler. Last night, she managed to fight sleep until 1am by bargaining for drinks, trips to the potty, crying, screaming, flailing and pulling random stunts. I was ready to poke my own eyes out by 12:45am, but am happy to report that last night's shenanigans seem but a distant memory at this point.
In fact, Ryan and I are enjoying a few blissed-out, mommy/daddy moments of simultaneous maternity and paternity leave with Mairin sleepily cooing in the living room bassinet as we blog and google our way through the next thirty minutes until it's time to pick Big Sis up from school.
What happens after that is anyone's guess, but I'm guessing you'll hear about it tomorrow.
Congrats to you all Jenny! So happy for your newest addition!
Posted by: Amy Serio | Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 11:35 AM
Congrats on the new arrival!
Posted by: WillBinMN | Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 11:28 AM