Grandchild Arrival, Gate 1

New grandbaby has arrived.  Finally!

I’m not sure who was more ready for his arrival, step-daughter (S) or eveyone else.  S has been way past ready for this baby to arrive.  Two weeks ago she was concerned that her mother was going out of town for just a couple of days.  "What if the baby comes?"  Yeah, but he didn’t come then and he didn’t come the next week or the next weekend.

S brought the now-oldest grandchild (GC#1) over to our house for Halloween.  He looked extremely cute in his Thomas the Tank (? I thought it was Thomas the Engine, I better do more reading in the children’s section) costume.  He wasn’t able to handle saying "trick or treat" but S reported that he quickly got into the hang of walking up to doors with other kids and holding out his happy-meal bucket.  Once he was back in our house he had no interest in any of the candy he collected.

S was having mild contractions all evening and she and baby-daddy ended up going to the hospital later that night.  They sent her home at 5:30am yesterday morning.  I got home around 5:30pm last night and Mrs. Ender told me that S had gone back to the hospital about a 1/2 hour earlier.  Mrs. Ender gathered her maternity waiting kit (i.e. knitting, snacks and her Kindle) and headed over to learn more ’bout birthing them babies.  Mrs. Ender gave me a call around 8:30pm and let me hear GC#2 crying across the room.

According to mother, daddy and Nana, GC#2 is a much calmer baby then GC#1 was at this point (i.e. 10 minutes old).  Nana got to hold her new grandchild for almost 20 minutes (mother-in-law as banished from the delivery room–no grandbaby holding for you!).  GC#2 weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 20 inches long.  His big brother was a few ounces heavier and two inches longer.  Little brother, indeed.

GC#2 is still missing a first name.  Mother has her favorite, daddy has his favorite and neither seems to be budging on accepting the other’s favorite.  Since he was born on 11-1-11 in Delivery Room #1, Mrs. Ender has suggested Adam as a tiebreaker name.  I think that if they use all of the 1’s as the key, then he should be name Alpha.  When I mentioned that, Mrs. Ender looked at me like I was speaking gibberish.  That’s my job, right?

I’ll drop by the hospital on my way home and meet Alpha. 

Ender is out.