Sunday, June 28, 2009

Birth-Wedding-Birthday.

It’s been a busy weekend with life-changing events for our friends. We had a birth on Friday at 11:36, a wedding on Saturday at 2:00, and now a first birthday party on Sunday at 1:30. Milestones. We’re stepping on them and helping to celebrate. It’s like constant laughter fighting its way up my throat and out my mouth at every turn.Such happiness. We’re basking in the friend-glow and eating it up with silver spoons. The perpetual momentum and forward movement of life is carrying us with it. We are marching along gladly.

On Friday, after a false alarm on Wednesday, Hind and Nader finally gave birth to their first son. It’s been a long nine months! It’s like she was pregnant forever. I remember the day she called me, screaming into the phone, “What does a cross mean on the stick! What does it mean, Heather?!” Hind always uses my name when she’s serious. That's how I know. She was floored as they were not trying to get pregnant. She was supposed to wait for me since we both agreed it would be harder for me to get pregnant than for her (I’m more than ten years older than Hind). It was an accident. A happy accident. Nader was on top of the world. Hind was shaking with panicky fear. They were so cute. They came over that evening to talk about the news and watch us carve pumpkins. It was October.

On Friday, the temperatures reached about 100 degrees in Alabama. Hind’s water broke at about 11:00 Thursday night. Nader called at 7:00 am the next morning with the news that Hind was 5 cm dilated. We made jokes about how I was going to rub that baby all over my uterus for good luck. As soon as he’s out of her womb. I did do the uterus rub, but I waited about two hours and for the baby to be clean and not gooey. Nader was so excited. He was hilarious. He’s an Arab, so when he’s excited he simply gets funnier. He had comedy gold that day. He was at the top of his funny game. And she was handling it like a champ. They were still torn between a few names. And then a new name entered the race: Sovian. We had not heard this name before, but it was quickly approved by the council.

For the rest of the morning, I’d talk to Nader every hour and get updates. She was a champion. She was soon 8 cm dilated and calling for the epidural. Natural childbirth was out, and give-me-something-for-the-insane-pain was in. I took a half-day and met Debs and Evie for lunch. We were going to head to the hospital. And then Hind called. SHE called me. She was so sweet, she said, “Heather, I just wanted to call and tell you that the baby is about to come out. I’m about to push.” Wow. She called.
I felt so honored. I told her I loved her, cried a little, and wished her luck. It was time to get a move on. It was happening for real this time.

As soon as we got to the restaurant for lunch, Nader called and told me that Hind was breast-feeding. The baby was out! He was ten minutes old. The entire pushing-pushing-push to get the baby into the world only took fifteen minutes. Amazing. And here he is—tiny sleeping baby: Sovian Nader. He has his father’s middle name. He has a head full of hair. He has long little fingernails that need to be carefully filed. He has the tiniest little fingers and a perfect nose. He is a baby. And he smells like one, too.


I immediately rubbed that baby all over me for good luck. We hope that next month is our month. We’re up to 100 mgs Clomid next month. We want to join the baby game. We want that moment. We want a family. Until then, we are so happy to be a part of our friends’ families. Today, Evie has her first birthday party. I’m excited about the pop-up book we bought her—it’s all about Italian families and love. Perfect. I tried to show it to Bonita, my baby kitty, but she didn’t seem to understand. I so need a baby! A human baby. One day, Mr. Husband and I will get in the game.

In the meantime, we'll take lots of family photos with our friends' kids. We ran down to the hospital between the wedding and reception yesterday afternoon to take a family photo with new Sovian. I think we look like the perfect family. We are not creepy. We are not.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Heather, you really have a true writing talent! You should consider writing a book one day.
Don’t consider it! Just start writing one!
You have a unique gift of dressing up the every day events and making them exciting and one of a kind.
That is a true talent!
~ Alicia