John Lew

John Lew
born 1:58 am, Wednesday, July 13, 2011
7 pounds 14 ounces, 20.5 inches

Okay, so the photos I took at the hospital aren't so great. I'll try to get some better ones up next week.

We had a very good labour and delivery. In a nutshell: A contraction woke me up very close to midnight, John was born just before 2 am, and we were home for dinner. We were lucky that my OB (also my friend) was on call and so I got to have her deliver each of the kids.

Or in a little more detail ....

I decided to go in to the hospital right away when I had a second contraction. Susanna zipped over to watch the kids until Poh-Poh and Gung-Gung could arrive (Thanks, Su, P and G!) and we were out our door at 12:30. On the drive over, in Dion's first drive of the new-to-us Mazda 5, we briefly discussed names, since we hadn't exactly pinned one down, but we still didn't come to an agreement. Driving in the middle of the night was easy, of course, but parking was a pain, so to speak.

I thought that the point of having pre-registered was to avoid 100 questions in triage but that didn't seem to work this time. I had a couple of monster contractions in triage and by the time they examined me, I was 100% effaced and 8 cm dilated with baby at station -2. Even I was surprised that I was that close. By the time I got to the labour and delivery room, it was already time to push. The whole thing was a little surreal because at no point did it really sink in that I was so far along. Even as we were delivering the shoulders I was thinking, "Wow, already?" John and I were both in good shape (all things considered), he ate like a champ right from the word go, and we got discharged early.

I knew immediately that his name was going to be John, though I knew Dion wasn't completely sold. I told (yes, told) Dion that he could choose a middle name if he wanted a J.P. or J.J. or something or if he thought that "just" John was too ho-hum or too grown-up for a baby. But I pointed out that Jay is a good nickname for John and that I was perfectly happy to continue the pattern that the boys - he, Adam, and John - have no middle name but that Naomi and I do. And that was all the persuading I needed to do. Dion decided that he'd used all his baby-naming mojo on Naomi, so, John it is. Dion still isn't sure how we'll say John in that boy-are-you-in-trouble tone but adding the last name always helps. I do do that with Adam.

Some readers may not know that my family tree is full of Johns. My brother is John Ian, father John David, and grandfather John Norman. The pattern goes back a few more generations, too. Also on my father's side I have a cousin John. My mother's sisters (twins) are Jean and Joan and I assume that they were named after their maternal grandfather and uncle, both of whom were John Paterson. I'll have to ask.

Adam and Naomi are adjusting remarkably well. Naomi is thoroughly fascinated, sometimes a little too fascinated. Adam was stand-offish at first but he has really warmed up to John. He was really proud to take a copy of the picture of him, Naomi, and John to daycare on Thursday. Thanks again to Poh-Poh and Gung-Gung for making and delivering those prints. They were really useful as a conversation starter, i.e., for short-circuiting what we thought might be a difficult daycare drop-off. Thanks for that idea, Rebecca.

John's timing could hardly have been better. Not only did I get all the way through the school year but I'd even got a couple of weeks to relax and to get a few things done, like buying a car. All through my pregnancy, my own estimate for his arrival had been Friday the 15th (officially he was due on the 22nd but Adam and Naomi were both about a week early) so I "knew" that last weekend was my last weekend and I'm glad we made the best of it. I bought the car on Saturday and on Sunday, we went with the Ho's to Centreville, which was a lovely day. I'd also just reached the point on Monday where I was completely done with being pregnant, although that clearly is not coincidental with going into labour on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. We took delivery of the Mazda on Tuesday afternoon, i.e., just in time. I'd even wondered whether it was really a good idea for me to be driving out to Mississauga by myself because I'd had some spells of being miserably uncomfortable. One of those times was Monday night, when I couldn't sleep, so I got and packed a hospital bag (finally.) Another of those times was Tuesday, just before dinner, when I called Dion at work to tell him that I was not in labour but I still wanted him to come home instead of going to ultimate because I just didn't think I had it in me to get through Adam and Naomi's dinner, bath, and bed by myself.

I feel like I'm forgetting something - Questions?