Baby Arrives

Welcome Graham John Trionfo!
Born July 6th at 3:35, Graham weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 19 inches long. He has dark hair that is thinner than my girls’, and we think he will be a little blondie (maybe). We’ve already argued over his eye color, with Karen G. insisting the color is “grey.” Mom and I don’t think that grey is an eye-color option. Aluminum foil is grey, not eyes. We think is his eyes are blue. (Slate-blue. That’s a joke meant for my writing group.)
Graham was born with a hernia and is scheduled for surgery on August 7th. All four doctors we visited told us this is very routine and that he should weather the procedure without problems. Can someone tell insurance compaines they could make things less expensive by sending us to, say, three doctors? Graham doesn’t seem to be in any pain, but there’s a small, yet serious risk that the intestines will block. That’s why he will get the problem fixed so young. I’m so grateful we live in a day when surgery can almost erase issues like this.
So now for my mandatory awful-labor-story. I was supposed to be induced on Thursday, the 5th, but the hospital called seventeen minutes before I could check in. They no longer had room for me–I had to wait two hours. All day long, I had to wait two hours. My doctor was scheduled for vacation beginning the next day and her fear was that, once she was gone, I would indefinitely be “bumped” out of the wait-list by other doctors’ scheduled patients. So she kept trying to get me in. Would I be willing to come in at 7 pm? Yes. How about 11 pm? Yes. If they called at 4 am, would I really want to start labor? Yes, yes. You can put two IV’s in me. Anything.
The hospital did not call.
But I was lucky because the very next day, at 7 am, they said I could come in. The delivery went smoothly, and eight hours later, Graham arrived. Twenty-four hours later, he even had a name! Thank you, Mom, for taking the older four children for long enough that Mike and I could finally decide.
The first night he was home, Graham was fussy or screaming until 4:30 am. Of course, we were worried about the hernia. Also, the noise woke Carter. Several times, he stood exhausted in his crib, holding his blanket and saying, “Baby, Baby!” Finally, we brought Graham into the kids’ room to show Carter that the baby was okay. Carter’s only response was to lie down, ready to be tucked in, as if saying, “All right. He’s okay. He’s okay.” So cute. I actually took Graham with me outside to the porch to scream after that. I figure, hey, we live in Riverton. Generous house-spacing is one of our perks.
By the next night, my milk was in and Graham had to be woken up every two hours for feeding. All but one time ever since, he has gone right back to sleep at night after eating. He has several periods a day of happy awake-time, eats well, burps quickly, and makes lots and lots of funny faces. He’s so adorable! We’ll see if my easy-baby luck holds.
In other good news, I am recovering much quicker than with my other deliveries. I’ll still give a quick shout-out to Ibuprofen. How did people live a hundred years ago? Our girls are keeping busy, going with Grandma and Aunt Karen to the City Creek Mall and to a swimming pool. Plus, Grandma made zucchini bread, zucchini cookies, zucchini casserole and fried zucchini patties. The cabbage is coming in now, so we’ll be switching to coleslaw soon.
If you are feeling neglected for a lack of updates, you are at least in good company. It turns out you get into a lot of trouble when you’re supposed to have the baby on a Thursday and you don’t call immediate blood-relatives with news until Sunday. We apologize.
We are so happy Graham is here!!