Okay, so we had a decent first night's sleep with baby girl. I took the first shift sleeping while Jen cared for baby. Apparently, Jen had some scares with baby girl's breathing. At 1ish AM, Jen woke me up and asked me to take baby, and to make sure to hold baby upright. Baby would occasionally cough up some mucus, which would cause her to cry. I would pat her, and she'd sooth right back down almost immediately and go back to sleep. We repeated this pattern for a while. After a while, I woke up a bit more, got my phone out, and one-handedly played video games while baby slept. The midwife came in to check on us, and everything was good. After that, I got sleepy again, put baby in bed between Jen and I, and proceeded to get about 3 more hours' uninterrupted sleep.
Spent the morning packing up and trying to decide on a name for this baby girl. Our top choices were Betty (Jen's grandma), Irma (my grandma), Natalie (baby's cousin who shares her birthday), Flora (a family name on my side), and a few others. We kept putting together combinations of those and trying them out, but nothing quite clicked.
Jen bathed herself and baby as I got the car seat ready and loaded all our gifts into the car. Finally, Jen came up with it: Betty Lin. Betty is Jen's grandma-- a British korean-war bride from Leicester England. She was always loving and English-proper, and cared especially for Jen and her kids. Grandma Betty died about 3 years ago. Lin is Jen's middle name, which we hadn't thought of passing on, but it just seemed right. So, Betty Lin it is.
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| Betty Lin |
Auntie Dani had coordinated with my mom to take the kids from Vancouver (where they'd stayed overnight) to Salem and to school. Today was Sabrina's first full day of Kindergarten. Not only that, but Sabrina lost her first tooth moments before school started. What a big day for everybody!
Jen and I strapped baby Betty into the car, and headed to Salem. Jen decided to be low-key about it, which was good. If I remember correctly, both our other kids' first car trip involved Jen driving, white-knuckled, and me in the back seat with baby. (Correction: that was just the first time)
When we arrived at home, Dani and Mom were in full whirlwind-mode. They are wonderful and efficient, but a bit exhausting to be around. Dani and Mom cleaned the house from top to bottom, made a few meals (including future lunches for Edgar and Sabrina), made a list of everything we didn't have in the house, and sent me to the store to pick up whatever we were missing. What a blessing to have awesome, helpful family members!
I walked to school to pick up Edgar and Sabrina and inadvertently caused a small panic by going in one door looking for them, while they walked out the other door. Edgar had picked Sabrina up, and was ready to walk her home without anybody's help, thank-you-very-much. What a dependable big brother.
The kids were excited to see Betty and get to know her. We spent a bit decompressing, and I cooked the meatloaf dinner that Mom and Dani had laid out for us. Yum.
Soon, it was time for me to go. My parents live near the Portland airport, so it's a convenient place to wait when someone is coming in on a flight. I drove up to my parents' house, and as soon as I walked in the door, I got the call from Grandma Vickie that she had arrived. I gathered the box full of tomatoes that mom had got me, hugged my parents, and went out the door to pick up Betty's other grandma.
Grandma Vickie will be here for 5 or 6 days, and boy is she glad that the baby was born while she was here. Jen's dad visited for a few days not too long ago, but we didn't have a baby for him to visit with.
Anyways, I got home with Grandma Vickie, and that is when things got a little rough. I was beyond tired, and nothing was working. Jen asked me to get Grandma Vickie's room ready for her-- sounds simple now, but to me it sounded insurmountable. Jen told me that the sheets we have for that spare bed are a gingham pattern. I didn't let on that I'm a guy, and I have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what gingham is, but I can maybe make a guess, right? Only the light is out in the hallway and the linen closet is pitch black. Okay, frustrating. Let's go get a lightbulb. Okay, changing the lightbulb when I drop the light fixture and it shatters all over the hallway floor. Now, it's dark, full of broken glass, and I still don't know what gingham is... I started laughing and couldn't stop. I was trying to keep the mood light, but I think I scared Jen and her mom...
Anyway, long story short, we need a new light fixture, Jen's mom slept on sabrina's sheets, and I still have no clue what gingham is.
Okay... breathe... Why not watch the video on this page, and behold the cuteness...
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