Waiting for the Day

Mom was due on Saturday.

I got the text on Wednesday night, after watching Survivor and turning off Modern Family because it was a repeat. Good timing, Theo! I ran around like a chicken with no head, packing a bag, preparing to spend the night with Aurora while Mom and Dad went to the hospital.

When I arrived, Mom was eating pad thai and Dad was walking through the condo, calmly gathering bags. Thank goodness I was wearing layers; I had to take my sweater off because I was sweating. At least someone was worked up! After everything was packed and Mom got dressed (she looked like she was going out to a nice restaurant--professional work clothes with a light scarf around her neck and jewelry, I'm not kidding!), off they went.

The plan was that I'd sleep in Mom and Dad's bed, and in the middle of the night, Aurora would come into the bedroom like she often does to sleep on a pull out sleeper. She wouldn't try to wake me or anything, and wouldn't know that it was me in the bed, not Mom and Dad, till the morning. I went to bed and slept fitfully. Sure enough, in the middle of the night (of course I had to check my iPhone to see what time it really was--12:30 AM), Aurora came in, had a sip of water from her water bottle, and fell promptly asleep. So did I.

Around 7:00 AM, Aurora came to the side of the bed. I was sure she would freak out as soon as she saw that it was me in her parents' bed. I prepared to soothe her tears. She crawled in beside me, and we snuggled for a few minutes. Then she really woke up and looked at me. Here's our conversation:

Me: Hi, it's me!

Aurora: (smiles)

Me: Mommy went to the hospital to have the baby!

Aurora: On Thursday?

Me: (I had to think a minute) Yes. Yes, today is Thursday, yep. It's so exciting!

Aurora: It is! And he'll come home on Saturday, and then he'll be here on Sunday, and Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday...(she went through the days of the week a couple of times)

No tears. No freaking out. No need for soothing words. She was fine. We got texts throughout the day saying that things were progressing as they should. Around lunchtime, Grandpa drove down, and we spend the afternoon together. At 5:00, I was preparing to leave for the day, as my shift had ended. I jokingly told Grandpa, "I'm leaving so that we'll get some news." No lie--I was in the vestibule, and I got the call that Theo had been born at 4:34 PM! 9 lbs, 6 oz.; roughly four times the weight of Aurora when she was born. New plan: Go back, have dinner together, and go to the hospital to meet The Brother.