Two weeks ago

Two weeks ago tonight, Becky and I were sitting on our couch, watching Law & Order reruns on our TiVo, and joking about the meaninglessness of due dates. Loyette's "scheduled" arrival was the next day, yet there was no sign of imminent labor -- which is, of course, quite typical. Only about five percent of women actually give birth on their due dates, and first babies are often late. Becky had actually published a post about due dates on her new Happy Housewife blog earlier that day, suggesting that a "due range" would be more realistic, and that "the person who invented the Due Date should be tied up while a bunch of outraged, very pregnant women throw rotten vegetables at him."

At a few minutes after midnight on the morning of December 31, as our last Law & Order of the evening was wrapping up, I noticed the time on the clock, and I said to Becky: "Hey, they say pregnant women have a 'bun in the oven,' right? Well, shouldn't you be going 'ding!' right now?" But of course, the odds being what they were, neither of us really expected anything to happen that night or day. We went to bed around 12:30 AM, fully expecting a peaceful New Year's Eve  and a continuation of the "waiting game" into 2008. I had pretty much given up on getting that tax deduction.

The rest is history, of course. Barely two hours after my "ding" joke, a few minutes past 2:00 AM, Becky woke me up with the fateful words: "I think my water might have broken." It had. She marvels at how quickly I -- the normally groggy, grumpy, slow waker -- jumped out of bed, wide awake, and sprung into action. Less than an hour later, we were checked into the hospital and settling into our comfy labor & delivery room. Twelve hours later, our beautiful baby girl was born. And now, a few hours short of fourteen days later, I'm sitting on that same couch where we watched those Law & Order episodes... but I find myself inhabiting a whole new world, one in which everything revolves around the little angel who is, even as I type this, snuggled up against my belly, listening to my continuing efforts to "shush" her to sleep.

It's hard to believe it's only been two weeks. It seems like everything before December 31, 2007 was a lifetime ago. And I suppose, in a certain sense, it was -- if we measure "lifetime" on the time scale of the completely adorable creature in the fuzzy pink sleeper who is now sucking adamantly on my right index finger while I try to finish typing this sentence left-handed. :)

Happy Two-Week Birthday, Loyette.

P.S. As an aside about the events of December 30: a few hours earlier, before watching those Law & Order reruns, we watched the movie Knocked Up on DVD after dinner with Becky's parents, who had arrived in town earlier that day. We saw Knocked Up in the theater just a few days after learning we were going to have a baby, and, as it turned out, we watched it again less than 24 hours before said baby's arrival!

Comments

[Joe Loy]

:)

happy Two Weeksday, little darlin'. :) See ya very Soon now. Got my Beard trimmed, so's not to Scare ye whilst singin' you Softer lullabyes than yer daddy's oul' Brennan On The Moor & suchlike. ;>

[Alasdair]

"Happy Fortnight Birthday to you,
Happy Fortnight Birthday to you,
Happy Fortnight Birthday, Loyette,
Happy Fortnight Birthday to you !"

Hmmm - methinks it needs some work !

www.daybydaycartoon.com has daily strips, some of which are about the new-born twins of two of the characters ...

[jlr]

Happy 2 weeks, Loyette!

She marvels at how quickly I -- the normally groggy, grumpy, slow waker -- jumped out of bed, wide awake, and sprung into action.

I'm reminded of a certain Star Trek: Voyager episode (yes, I'm a dork--I'm quoting Voyager and relating it to your baby). Tom is woken up by B'Elanna to be told that the baby is coming. He calls the Doctor and is out the door before he asks the Doctor over the intercom, "Wait, should I bring B'Elanna?" Part of me imagines you out the door, in the car, and around the corner before realizing you've forgotten Becky. :-)

And Loyette, get used to having "combined" Christmas and birthday gifts.

[Brendan Loy]

And Loyette, get used to having "combined" Christmas and birthday gifts.

Not if we can help it!! We definitely intend to keep the two separate -- and at six days apart, I think that'll be a lot easier than if she'd been born on the 24th or something. Anyway, hopefully her other relatives and friends will realize what a no-no "combined" gifts are (well, unless you're really going to get her something twice as cool, and not just say you're doing so while actually getting what you would have gotten anyway).

Now, Loyette's birthday overshadowing our anniversary, that's something we're pretty much resigned to being inevitable...

[Bonnie]

What a very lucky little girl!

[kg2v]

Brendan,
Actually it will be HARDER to keep the Birthday and Christmas seperate with them being 6 days apart than they are say, the 24th,25th,26th

My Bay is the 17th - I always got the classic "Here is your combined gift" deal. My Godson, born on Christmas day, has the exact opposite happen - everyone says "gee, he must get ripped off", so they make sure that he gets 2 gifts - each worth about the same as they would spend on say his brother

I don't know how wide the "(s)he must get ripped off" window is, but I'll tell you in my case it's less than 8 days wide

[David K.]

She marvels at how quickly I -- the normally groggy, grumpy, slow waker -- jumped out of bed, wide awake, and sprung into action.

I dunno, i seem to recall you reactin pretty quickly to my "Brendan, wake up, we're having an earthquake" freshman year. Of course you did so by immediately trying to grab your video camera...

[NDLauren]

Agreed on the b-day gift comment by kq2v- my birthday is the 10th day of Christmas, and here has been more than one occasion where it's been a combined gift (however, I do tend to think that they end up being better than average gifts, so I don't mind the combining all that much :-) ).

[Alasdair]

Now, hang on - will Loyette not be graced with Xmas *and* Hannukah, as well as Birthday *and* parental wedding anniversary celebrations - and will any of 'em be low-calorie ?

I hope she doesn't feel the need to diet !

In our family, July into August is the 'busy' time ... #3 daughter's birthday is 7/24, then #2's is 7/31, then mine is 8/2, then my wife and my wedding anniversary is 8/12 ...

[Nadine]

For Loyette's two week birthday here is a slideshow of some cute animal babies!

http://cbs5.com/slideshows/zoo.babies.animal.20.229088.html

And speaking of cute animals, has Loyette met Hugh Manatee yet?