Family… On Thursday, November 22, Thanksgivings Day, at about 10:30 PM, Damon, my son-in-law, called and said that my Clarissa, my daughter - his wife, was in acting labor and had been admitted to the hospital; the birth of my first grandchild was imminent! That was the date the doctors had given her, and she was right on time... Instead of leaving for South Florida at that very moment, as I had planned, I decided to wait till the morning (too much turkey and a couple of cocktails would have impeded my best performance at that time). I saddled up for South Florida at 7:30 AM on the Jeep (new oil, new filter, new tires…); along the way, I was receiving frequent updates from Damon and Valentina, my 2nd daughter, who is an OB/GYN MD and had flown in for Thanksgiving the day before… As I approached Valdosta, GA (border town between Georgia & Florida) I got an update from Valentina about a complication (baby is not well positioned and they are working on it – keep you posted). About 45 minutes later, there is another update from Valentina: the baby is not turning, regardless of the efforts everybody is putting forth; the doctor in charge recommended a C-section. And about 30 minutes later, on Friday the 23rd day of November, 2012, Dominic Adolfo Stinson came roaring into this world, complete and healthy! Valentina tells me that the new mom is going through the ‘post-script’ of the procedures, doing as expected, and that everything is right! Lots of emotions! I finally made it to the hospital (Mount Sinai, in Miami Beach) driving straight through at about 9:30 PM EST and was able to spend some time with Clarissa Ane, Damon and the baby, who weighed in at 7.02 lbs and 19.5 inches long; only the four of us; excellent time; I carried the baby the whole time. He is a good looking little man with lots of resemblance, so far, to his father. I left them at about 10:30 PM and spent the night in a hotel nearby, in Miami Beach that Jan, Alex and Leah had found for me… Morning came pretty fast and I went back to the hospital at about 7:30 with breakfast for them; little man was trying to eat so Damon and I decided to have breakfast ourselves while the little guy was trying to get some breakfast for himself (‘food’ is still not flowing at full throttle…). After catching up with Damon and stuffing our faces with sausage biscuits and hash browns, we went back to the room and a nurse was giving a bottle to little man to ensure he did not go too hungry… More conversation (again only the three – or should I say the four – of us) I carried the baby most of the time and, after planning our next visits including future split summer vacations for little man between Kentucky (paternal grandparents) and Tennessee, I decided to take off… I thought I would be able to see Valentina but, by 10 AM she was not even up yet and I would have taken another couple of hours for her to show up at the hospital… So, we exchanged hugs and kisses, said our goodbyes and I left at about 10:15 EST. On my way up stopped to see Tom and Char Merriman in Boca Raton; lovely light lunch and even better conversation, which we had to cut short because I needed to keep on going… Stopped by Publix to get some ‘supplies’ and headed back up to the mountains… Lack of sleep played games with me in the early hours of the afternoon and I had to stop about five times between Boca Raton and Orlando… But then I got into my groove, received and update from Damon that 'food' is plentiful now and little man is happy, listened to the Gators beat the living lights of a wannabe Florida school, and made it back home a little after midnight; exhausted but satisfied… The Jeep was a trooper and held up pretty well the almost 2,000 miles in about 42 hours… All is well!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
0014 - 25NOV2012 - 'I am a grandpa'
Family… On Thursday, November 22, Thanksgivings Day, at about 10:30 PM, Damon, my son-in-law, called and said that my Clarissa, my daughter - his wife, was in acting labor and had been admitted to the hospital; the birth of my first grandchild was imminent! That was the date the doctors had given her, and she was right on time... Instead of leaving for South Florida at that very moment, as I had planned, I decided to wait till the morning (too much turkey and a couple of cocktails would have impeded my best performance at that time). I saddled up for South Florida at 7:30 AM on the Jeep (new oil, new filter, new tires…); along the way, I was receiving frequent updates from Damon and Valentina, my 2nd daughter, who is an OB/GYN MD and had flown in for Thanksgiving the day before… As I approached Valdosta, GA (border town between Georgia & Florida) I got an update from Valentina about a complication (baby is not well positioned and they are working on it – keep you posted). About 45 minutes later, there is another update from Valentina: the baby is not turning, regardless of the efforts everybody is putting forth; the doctor in charge recommended a C-section. And about 30 minutes later, on Friday the 23rd day of November, 2012, Dominic Adolfo Stinson came roaring into this world, complete and healthy! Valentina tells me that the new mom is going through the ‘post-script’ of the procedures, doing as expected, and that everything is right! Lots of emotions! I finally made it to the hospital (Mount Sinai, in Miami Beach) driving straight through at about 9:30 PM EST and was able to spend some time with Clarissa Ane, Damon and the baby, who weighed in at 7.02 lbs and 19.5 inches long; only the four of us; excellent time; I carried the baby the whole time. He is a good looking little man with lots of resemblance, so far, to his father. I left them at about 10:30 PM and spent the night in a hotel nearby, in Miami Beach that Jan, Alex and Leah had found for me… Morning came pretty fast and I went back to the hospital at about 7:30 with breakfast for them; little man was trying to eat so Damon and I decided to have breakfast ourselves while the little guy was trying to get some breakfast for himself (‘food’ is still not flowing at full throttle…). After catching up with Damon and stuffing our faces with sausage biscuits and hash browns, we went back to the room and a nurse was giving a bottle to little man to ensure he did not go too hungry… More conversation (again only the three – or should I say the four – of us) I carried the baby most of the time and, after planning our next visits including future split summer vacations for little man between Kentucky (paternal grandparents) and Tennessee, I decided to take off… I thought I would be able to see Valentina but, by 10 AM she was not even up yet and I would have taken another couple of hours for her to show up at the hospital… So, we exchanged hugs and kisses, said our goodbyes and I left at about 10:15 EST. On my way up stopped to see Tom and Char Merriman in Boca Raton; lovely light lunch and even better conversation, which we had to cut short because I needed to keep on going… Stopped by Publix to get some ‘supplies’ and headed back up to the mountains… Lack of sleep played games with me in the early hours of the afternoon and I had to stop about five times between Boca Raton and Orlando… But then I got into my groove, received and update from Damon that 'food' is plentiful now and little man is happy, listened to the Gators beat the living lights of a wannabe Florida school, and made it back home a little after midnight; exhausted but satisfied… The Jeep was a trooper and held up pretty well the almost 2,000 miles in about 42 hours… All is well!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment