A Grand Baby and A Birthday

Oh where to begin... what a whirlwind the last couple days have been. Lets see. On Sunday I went for a 54-mile bike ride and went to see the baby nursery that my daughter and her husband had set up at her house. She told me that she thinks the baby will come on my birthday. I told her that is 3 1/2 weeks early and not likely but if that baby came on my birthday and has my name as the middle name, I would be calling her Crissy! 

I got home from the ride and showered and as soon as I got out of the shower, I received a call from a gal that I just idolize more than you can imagine. We'll talk about that soon, but I have to make sure it's okay to share that first. So I was pretty tired from long rides both on Saturday and Sunday, but the adrenaline from getting the call from my friend pushed me into sheer giddiness :-) So I went to meet her and got home at 1am. When I got home, I had to finish decorating 60 cookies that were for my son to bring to his potluck at 9am. I worked on those cookies until 5:30am. Now keep in mind this is after a long bike ride and meeting with my friend. I'm sure you can just imagine how exhausted I was when I finished the cookies at 5:30am. So I went to bed and slept til 7:30 am, yep lucky me, I had 2 hours of sleep. Then I got up and made the cookie tags and bagged the 60 cookies and got them all ready to go with Nick to his work.

Now the smart thing would be to go back to bed at this point right? Well I got a phone call from my daughter (who is 36 weeks pregnant) and she says that her water bag is leaking and they are admitting her to the hospital. Oh wow! Adrenaline rush again. So I arrive at the hospital about 2pm. Mellissa is knitting and looking beautiful and doing fine. 

She is having contractions pretty regularly, but she's handling it all in stride. She was about 2 cm dilated at that point. Well it turns out to be a very looooong process for Mellissa and she's getting tired and frustrated that there isn't a baby. Lots and lots of hours later and she hits 4 cm and the contractions are pretty much unbearable. Seeing your daughter in that kind of pain is probably about the worst thing EVER. I hated it. She was inconsolable and her hubby and I felt helpless. Thankfully Mellissa had a mid-wife and she stepped in and directed the show. They gave her Fentanyl (sp?) and that took the edge off the pain about every hour or so. Lots and lots of hours and pain later and Mellissa got to 9cm. Nothing helped at this point. The pain was intense, the contractions were super intensely painful and coming about every minute. I realize at this point (or maybe it was hours earlier) that I'm useless and not strong enough to see my daughter going through this. I'm also pretty much in love with the mid-wife at this point and thanking my lucky stars that she is running the show.

Fast forward about 15 hours and Mellissa delivers the most beautiful baby ever. 

 Baby Abigail Cristin was born on July 31st at 3:09am. Weighing in at 6 lbs 5 oz and 18.5 inches long. She just couldn't hold out one more day for us to share a birthday, so instead she became my birthday present ;-)

My beautiful baby girl brought this beautiful baby girl into the world the day before my birthday. Can you imagine a more perfect birthday present? EVER? Won't it be fun to tell her she has to try and top it next year? HA!

 I am hopelessly in love.

I have 100 cookies that I was supposed to start on Monday and I'm obviously a little late. So I just wanted to stop in and share our joy. I'm officially a Grandma! I'm in the cool Grandma club as some of my friends have said. What a fun club to be in! Grandma Pinkie. Yes, I am.

Congratulations to Mellissa & Irik!