So, there's a new baby in the house who wasn't here before!

I was betting the farm that that Callahan baby would have the good sense to be born on St Paddy's Day (and it's not "St. Patty's Day" you great stupid oafs who are putting up all those signs in the supermarket!) since she had waited so long to begin with, but she was having none of that nonsense.

She did, however, wait for her daddy's closing night!
Kevin and I said that the other Callahan baby, Richard and Debbie's (no relation, by the way) was clearly going to be an actor, because he got himself born on Monday when his daddy's opening night was on Friday, I think the writing's on the wall for this one, too.

So on Sunday night I went to sleep at 3.15a, thinking what a cheesehead I am and how I can't manage to get to bed at a reasonable hour and boy won't I be tired at work on Monday, and the next thing I know there's a hand on my arm and it's Cynthia whispering "The baby is coming!"

"What time is it?" I asked. It was 4a.

"I've been trying to wake you for five minutes", she said.
Personally, if I was in labour I wouldn't be politely trying to wake the photographer, I'd kick her in the head, saying "How dare you sleep when I've got a person coming out of me! Get the hell up!"

So she went back up to wake Fran and I gathered my cameras and my film and went upstairs.

And she was in hard labour. I'd never seen it happen before, but I didn't see how it could possibly go on for five or eight or twenty hours this way. She was moaning on her hands and knees and Francis was rubbing her back and I was trying really hard to figure out a way to interrupt and tell them that I needed more light.

Managed to work it in at one point and grabbed a few shots, trying to be unobtrusive. Then Cynthia decided that she wanted to go down to the bathroom, and they went downstairs, stopping three times for the pains.

When she woke me she said that the contractions were five minutes apart and she had called the midwives, but it seemed to me that the contractions were almost continuous, and if those midwives didn't get there soon, it would be Fran and me delivering the kid!

So they were in the bathroom and she was moaning and crying and I was just hoping with all my heart that Molly wouldn't wake up. Cynthia wanted to get into the shower, but then the midwives came, and said "This baby is coming right now!"

Katie came out of her room, and she and I and three midwives were sort of clustered in the bathroom doorway, and Cynthia was standing and Francis was holding her up, and at 5.27a after only 2 1/2 hours of labour, the baby came out!

And I didn't faint!
Figured out why, too. When I saw it on TV it was a bullseye view from the catcher's mitt position, but with Cynthia standing it wasn't revolting at all, because you didn't see, you know, body parts stretching or anything.

They held the baby wrapped in a towel for about ten minutes before checking to see the sex (figuring, I imagine, that whatever sex it was, it would remain so for rather a while, so no need to rush to peek), but when they finally did it was a girl. Cynthia asked Fran "Do you mind?" because that's three girls, no boys, and Fran said "Are you kidding?" and kissed her hard.

She was shaking and her socks were wet, so I gave her my slippers so that no-one would have to run upstairs and get her another pair, then one of the midwives said "Is there a scrunchie to get her hair out of her face?" and I took mine out of my hair and gave it to her.

I said that I really didn't have anything more to give her, unless she wanted some film or a pair of tweezers.

Then she had the afterbirth, and we took her to lay down on the bed in the baby's room and settled down and then Molly woke up! Cynthia said that she was a magic baby and that on several other occasions when they needed her to sleep differently from her schedule, she just did, and she did this time too, even though all the noise and commotion was happening right next to her bedroom.

So she came into the room and met her sister and she seemed pretty thrilled, until the baby started to cry, which Molly found so utterly horrifying that she promptly had hysterics rights then and there.

So I took her downstairs to watch Pooh, and we were sitting there and she turns to me and says:

"Where's Bonnie?"
"She's upstairs with Mommy."
"I have two sisters, Bonnie and Sister!"
"Yes you do, Bonnie and Katie, a little sister and a big sister!"
"I kiss Bonnie!"

So we went upstairs and she hugged and kissed her new baby sister.

At around 9.30a I went downstairs to get some sleep, realized that that was when I usually get up and vaguely considered going in to work after all, then laughed heartily at the notion, and collapsed.

There's a new baby in the house who wasn't here before.
Happy St. Patrick's Day, Bonnie Diane Callahan!

One year ago today:
"Fresh...Little...Poodles!"

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Last Updated Thurs 7 May 13:44:09 1998