In anticipation of Graham's arrival, we made arrangements for my mom to come and visit. Based on my previous deliveries, we took the gamble that he would make his appearance sometime shortly before his due date (the other kids were 8 days, 6 days, and 1 day early - respectively).
Grandma Graff arrived around 1 am on Thursday morning. "Hurrah!" I thought, "Graham waited for Grandma to arrive. What a relief it will be to not have to stress about who will watch my kids when I go into labor."
My official "plan" was to spend Thursday getting my mom familiar with our home and our routines, and then have a baby on Friday so we'd have the whole Labor Day weekend to recover and be together. It was a good plan, don't you think? Too bad Graham didn't agree.
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| The midwives confirmed my suspicions that Graham was posterior and suggested I spend time on my hands and knees - which, of course, was an open invitation for Bryce to pretend I was a horse. |
Since my plan for the weekend was to have a baby, I had pretty much cleared our calendar of all other activities and events. That left a lot of time to just play with Grandma. We took a lot of walks (come on baby!), visited several parks, and spent time perusing Goodwill.
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| My mom always told us that when she was a grandma she would pay for the grandkids to ride |
Grandma proved to be a great playmate. Freeze tag became the game of the week; Aubree and Bryce begged her to play whenever we went to a park and soon were wanting to play in our living room as well. Grandma went down slides and challenged Aubree to a swinging contest. I walked circles around the playground (come ON baby!).
And why aren't there more pictures of Aubree? One of her favorite games to play with Grandma was to ask her to take a picture, and then to run away screaming. She tried to teach Bryce and Thane the game too. Great.
My mom's intent was to come and help and she kept asking, "what can I do to help?" Since I was still pregnant, my primary answer was, "just be Grandma." Normally when we see my mom it's at some big family event, usually a wedding or a reunion. And while we LOVE those, Grandma's attention is necessarily divided in a million different places. It was great to have her here in (what I hope was) a low-stress environment where she and the kids could get to know each other better. My kids adore her (and so do I)!
If Aubree wasn't already a Grandma-convert (and she was), Grandma pulled out my sewing machine and spent hours and days making outfits for Aubree's American Girl doll. The clothes turned out fabulous (Grandma is an amazing seamstress) and Aubree loves them.
On Saturday we did have a planned activity - a get-together with our Bonus Family. This was the first time we'd seen them since my dad's passing, which made it a bitter-sweet reunion. As always, though, they greeted us with open arms and proved overwhelmingly generous by throwing me a surprise baby shower. I tried to argue that this was my third boy, but they insisted that every baby needs some new things. Graham is going to be one well-dressed little fellow!
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| Aunt Deanna (on the left) |
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| Aunt Betty Ann |
Sunday came and went - no baby. So did Monday, though it did bring contractions. Mom's flight left at 5:30 am Tuesday morning. Would Graham arrive before Grandma had to leave?
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| Last pre-Graham family pic |
To be continued...
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