Becoming An Auntie

Howdy!

What is it about babies that’s so intoxicating? I know they smell amazing and I’m still shocked that Glade or Yankee Candle hasn’t figured out a way to bottle that stuff up by now, but seriously, why do they have the power to take control of a person so fast?

Whenever my mom takes away Nolan from my bed, after having a time of snuggles, I am so sad, having a little human just laying out on a white fleece blanket is so cute and addicting! He looks so conformable and warm, but he has so much innocence upon his wrinkled face. His strawberry blond hair sticks up on the top of his head, and as he stretches out his arms and legs. At this point in his life, he doesn’t know about my disability. He just knows she likes to do goofy faces and sing to him. You feel mesmerized, and so out of touch with your surroundings because you don’t want to miss out on anything.

On June 12th, my sister went to her last check up to see if she was dilated any more than the day before. This pregnancy wasn’t a walk in the park for her. She was pretty miserable throughout the whole thing, and constantly asked my mom and some of her friends, who recently had babies, if they ever experienced this or that. Little man has been wanting to come out of the “bat cave” since April! So when she found that it was time to go to the hospital to get this show on the road, she was nervous but I’m sure kind of excited to finally met him after all this time.

My day started normally, well, actually I didn’t sleep very well the night before so I was actually looking forward to sleeping in that morning. That plan shattered when my Aunt Laurie texted me that Blondie was on her way to the hospital, within five seconds after reading that, my mom called my dad to get dressed. At 10am, we got there to their fairly large room and we sat in our uncomfortable chairs–including my push wheelchair! We sat in there and talked, but the majority of the time everybody was on their phones. I was happy that I decided to bring along a book, because I read the crap out of it in those fourteen hours!

My parents and I went outside a couple times, just to get out of that room for a bit. They went out a lot more than I did though. My dad and I ate down in the cafeteria for lunch, we had to eat a salad because that was the only thing that looked good. Surprisingly, we both enjoyed it, even though we both kept farting through the rest of the day! After we went down to the gift shop and looked around, we got around the little onesies with funny sayings but what got my attention were these booties, we could find IU and Purdue pretty easily, but in the corner of my eye I spotted a navy blue and hoped that they were Butler booties and they were! So, of course, we had to get them for him because he already has a Butler onesie, he needs something to keep his little toes warm too!

She had to have her doctor break her water, she was really afraid of it and at this time, dad had to leave the room (but he left like three separate times because he doesn’t like to his girls cry) and I sat in my chair facing the inside of the bathroom, with tears rolling down my face. I don’t like to hear/see her cry either! Blondie went through nine hours before caving in to get the epidural done and which case, we all had to leave the room. Afterwards, she started to become very relaxed, they gave her a “peanut” which is this inflatable, peanut shaped ball to put in between her legs to help him come down. The epidural worked so well, that her legs were so numb that she had a hard time moving them on her own, and for some odd reason I thought about the time when we went into a hot tub for the first time and how it took three people to get me out because my lower half was asleep!

When she finally reached ten centimeters, my dad and I were forced to leave the room and go wait in their waiting room. My parents are not patient by any means, but I am. I was very proud of myself and how I did sitting in the chair, keeping to my book. As we sat in the waiting room, watching Impractical Jokers on the television. My mom finally texted him that he was here after what felt like an hour. He got stuck coming out and they had some issues, but they were both fine. Once he got that message, we waited outside the door, which was a bad idea for dad because he was already having trouble with his knees.

Little Nolan Wayne was born on June 13th, and weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 21 inches long! I found out that they did name him after Christopher Nolan, who directed The Dark Knight series, but Brandon also said he was named for Nolan Range, I guess he voiced or came up with the character Deadpool. Wayne is actually Brandon’s middle name, but since he’s a big Batman/Bruce Wayne fan, it kind of fits there too!

Once we were finally allowed into the room, it was so surreal.

As we left the room to get ready for the birth, I thought to myself “this is when everything changes. She won’t be just your sister, she’ll be a mommy too.” So to hear this little baby crying outside the room for the first time was weird but amazing. We stayed for a little bit, but we eventually went home and ate our McDonald’s and went to bed. Later that morning, we came back and they were in their new room, and this time Blondie was doing skin to skin with him and I finally got to see his face. Before we went back home, I actually got to hold the little tyke and it was so strange to feel his weight on my belly and the movements of his fingers underneath my lifeless hands.

He just turned a month old last week, so he’s growing stronger and has the face of my dad! He smiles and tends to smirk to anybody that is speaking to him.  He’s chilled out on my bed many times and threw a punch, kicked my stomach and thighs a few times. I like to kiss the top of his head. I just enjoy watching the different facial reactions appear, like his content sigh he makes when he’s comfortable and of course the poop-y expressions. He is just a sweet thing, and I can’t believe I am this little rugrat’s auntie now!

Nolan’s Nursery Tour!

Howdy!

Well… he’s here!

We all thought he’d either arrive the day before but instead she went into labor at like 10am Tuesday and had him at almost one o’clock Wednesday morning! I’m hoping to actually write another blog post in a couple of days and that’ll have more of the stuff that happened during both labor and delivery, so you’l just have to be a little patient for me, because I’m both visiting and trying to find my sleep on that of it.

Today though, I am taking you through Nolan’s room! My mom and I went over to their apartment the first weekend of the month to help her organize it, because between the first baby shower, Brandon’s family also came down a few days later, the room itself looked like it exploded! Luckily, by the time we came over Blondie and Brandon had tried to clean up most of it, so not only could you see the floor but it had the makings of a really cute room.

This is how it looked before any of us went through it…

It had been a long time since we went over to their apartment, well, I can’t say that, because before heading to the villas to start her baby shower, my mom did go inside to see if there was anything they needed help with so she got to see Chipper and the cats. She swore up and down she didn’t hold Otis, but I didn’t believe her! So when we both came through the door, Chipper was SO excited! He was jumping up and down and whining, he’s never done before, and the cats were even happy to see us. I had both Samuel and Otis sniffing and checking me out.

We “helped” clean the rest of Nolan’s clothes, I attempted to fold onesies on the foot stool of the rocking chair, and that was a disaster of itself! I can fold rags and large towels, but me and baby clothes are apparently another story! The only thing I was able to do was after they were washed, I turned them out again because I guess they have to be inside out to get them clean, which as I thought about it, I didn’t think that was so smart because how are you going to know the stain is actually gone without flipping them around again? I thought that was a stupid idea, but that’s me for you.

Both Chipper and Gru were the ones who were basically attached to Blondie’s hip as we were messing around in his room. Chipper just wanted attention and kept going in and out of the room, and since my wheelchair isn’t big enough to block the door frame, he was able to go in and out freely. Gru, however, sat on the rocking chair with Blondie for the longest time! He’s the one that likes to lick and shove people over, and there was literally no room for the two of them on that chair, so she gave up and since he wanted to lay out and sleep, she put him in the pack n play. Don’t worry, Brandon’s Saints’s blanket was underneath him the whole time!

We didn’t move a lot of stuff, they had the dressers and crib where they won’t be in the way or anything. It was mostly putting up his clothes in the already crowded closet and putting up the pack n play as he really won’t need it this early, he’ll mostly be in the swing (he doesn’t like it!), which goes faster than we all were really comfortable with! And they also have the bassinet in their bedroom, that Toni enjoys sleeping underneath I guess. The only things that mom did scoot over was the rocking chair and trash can to the other side of the changing table!

The bed situation was pretty hilarious though. As you will see in a bit, Nolan won’t need anymore stuffed animals as the whole thing was covered with different ones when we got there! You had Blondie’s love of both rottweilers and sloths on full display along with Brandon’s childhood Pokemon characters too! The crib, stroller, bassinet, and car seat were the first things they were given back in December through February I think! Everything else has been from either Aunt Cindy or Brandon’s family.

So I think that’s it, that’s all we really did there. Who know little over a week later, he’d actually be here already. Thank god, everything’s clean and ready for him!