Alexis

Chapter Fifteen - Children

February 16th dawned cold and rainy. Laura had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for later that day but had had labor pains all through the night. They moved up the appointment and the doctor sent us to the hospital. There was a long wait in the waiting room followed by a long day of pacing, gripping, soaking, drinking, praying, resting, waiting, thinking.

Laura decided that she wanted to go natural without drugs so my hand became her focal point…and she had quite a grip! Alexis entered the world at 6:38 P.M. The expression on her face was unusual. It was a frown crossed with a scowl. Laura called it a frowl.

While Laura held her, I made my calls around the world to let our families know. Then they came to take her for the clean up, check up, weigh in, measure, prod and prick. I stayed with her throughout. They say a baby’s weight is determined from the father. My birth weight was 9 ½ pounds. Alexis was 9lbs, 9oz.

Hours later, when it was all over, I brought her back to Laura for the night where I attempted the near-impossible task of getting some sleep. For a “bed” I had what I dubbed the funky chair that partially reclined but nowhere near flat. Then the nurses came in at regular intervals all night to monitor Alexis. It was not the best night of sleep I have ever had.

Everything progressed well and they sent us home the next day. It was my first experience with a car seat. Alexis kept leaning forward and I was concerned about her suffocating. But we made it home to endure yet another sleep-deprived night. Alexis kept fussing and we were both exhausted but Laura had had two sleep-deprived nights while I had had only one. And she still had to nurse Alexis every few hours. 

Alexis seemed to respond and settle to the motion of the rocking chair we had been given as a gift. To give Laura a chance to get at least a little catch up, I rocked Alexis for much of the night in a state of delirium. My biggest fear was that I would fall asleep and drop her but I worked out an angle that would prevent that. And it was there, on that second night of her life, despite my exhaustion, I found my heart being warmed into an enduring bond with this little, completely-dependant bundle of life that was our new daughter.

They had told us that Alexis needed to nurse every few hours to get her weight up but she really liked to sleep. Sometimes it was hard to get her to wake up enough which gave us some concern. You always worry more than needs be with the first.

There was also another concern with her eating habits. She was a spitter-upper. But it wasn’t just spit up. It poured out. While this was a concern about her retaining enough to stay healthy, there was another consideration. People always wanted to hold her. If it was soon after a feeding, we always had to hand her over with a cloth and a warning because, inevitably, the person got marked. 

We had gotten a second-hand swing for Alexis, which became a lifesaver for Laura. It always calmed her down and usually put her to sleep. The problem was that it was one that you had to wind-up. You wound it up and it would run for a while. Then you had to wind it up again to keep it going. But if she was asleep, you had to be careful because the noise from winding it up threatened to wake her up.

Our Care Group kept us fed with plenty of dinners and when we moved to the townhome just over a week later, they not only helped move all our stuff but the ladies had Laura supervise while they completely set up the kitchen. Laura’s mom flew in to help out but the Care Group had done such a thorough job that there was nothing left for her to do except help Laura take care of Alexis. Although the Care Group had started as a couples-without-kids group, by the time Alexis was born, we had had nine kids between us in a span of eighteen months.

We also had another milestone in our connection with Eric Hughes. We had signed a one-year lease for the apartment. If we moved out early, we would have had to pay for the rest of the lease. Eric was getting married in less than a month and in preparation, he wanted to get an apartment ready. He decided to rent the very same apartment that we vacated so that that we wouldn’t have to pay. A few weeks later, Laura, Alexis and I danced as a threesome as I held Alexis on the dance floor at Eric and Marie’s wedding.

Delivering doctor Lee


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