Thursday, December 25, 2008

Open Presents at 3:00 am? Sure, I'm down with that!


So, the Witch and I stayed up quite late last night making sure that Santa arrived with the proper amount of plunder in tow, and watching a pretty nifty MoTab Christmas concert involving the King's Singers.  

(Hint:  If you are ever wondering if the amazing Choir you are watching on PBS is MoTab, check and see if the dresses on the women look like colorful gunny sacks.  If yes, then don't offer them spiked eggnog.)

On Christmas, it is a parent's prerogative to sleep in until they dang well feel like opening presents - or, more accurately, until the kids wake you up with some stunt (the opening song to Billy Joel's Glass Houses worked well for me).  

So imagine my surprise when the Witch wakes me up at 3:00 to tell me two things.  First, the kids are up and would like to open presents.  Second, she is in labor, and maybe we should open presents right now just this once.

So we gather around the tree, and I read Luke 2, and then we open the presents in a frenzy of avarice - all the while with the Witch laboring in the background.  We finish and immediate call a couple of saintly friends (it's now 3:20 am), who cheerfully come over to watch Pippi and Bardo.  And off we go to the hospital.  

A recap for those of you who may not be familiar with how things worked with Bardo:  fast.  Mad dash to the hospital, 15 minutes in the hospital itself, then a baby.  We don't do that whole labor-for-ten-hours stuff.

And this time was no exception.  Another mad dash to the hospital (I was literally doing triple digit speeds on the desolate freeways), another just in time arrival, another quick delivery.

So the wait is over.  For purposes of this blog, I think we're going to call her Noel.  But that's the Witch's call.  

16 comments:

tenacious d said...

Oh! Congratulations! Okay, I'm going to get maudlin here and I hope that I'm not out of line--but one of the things I thought was, "How fun that they got to be with all of their kids at some point on Christmas!" because I figure that her big sister came with her as Noel made her trip down to earth.

Merry, merry Christmas!! She's adorable.

Melissa said...

Congratulations! What an exciting Christmas - she's adorable!! Take care, all of you.

Erin said...

What an amazing Christmas for you guys. Congratulations!!!

Pete said...

Wow. What a great story. Congrats on a beautiful baby girl.

Deon said...

Congratulations on the beautiful baby! Love you guys!

Unknown said...

I just pulled out the newborn pictures of your other three kids. You can definitely tell she and Pippi are sisters

Deanna said...

Congrats! How exciting to have a new baby. She's beautiful.

Triple digits...I can't imagine the speed and being in labor at the same time. It's gotta be crazy! Glad you got to the hospital in time.

Merry Christmas!

K said...

Wow! Congratulations! That's quite a story! I am really happy for you guys! That's a pretty awesome Christmas present! She's beautiful!

Sheralie said...

I am so happy for you! I wish I could hold her!!

Nancy said...

yay! a christmas baby! congratulations!

Aristides said...

Congrats! I hope they send her home in a big Christmas stocking:-)

Hope you are all doing well. What a wonderful christmas gift.

Jecca Lee Ivie Johnson said...

I suppose a baby delivery really put a kink in your "open one present an hour" tradition! Wow, 15 minutes of labor? I wish I could do that! She's such a pretty thing, nice work guys!

Jess said...

Congratulations! She's beautiful. And what a great story!

Natalie said...

Yeah!!! I'm so glad to hear that she has arrived and is safe! I'm excited to see her soon! YEAH!!!! What a day.

Darrell said...

Fantastic news! Congratulations!

Love the Babidges

Jaime said...

Hooray! I can't wait to hear her name. Is it Noelle?