Duncan Edward Glendinning
I haven’t been paying much attention to my blog these days, so I’m a bit behind on the latest news — the arrival of Duncan Edward earlier this month. I could excuse myself by the fact that if he’d waited till he was actually due he still wouldn’t be here, but I suppose that’s beside the point.
I was in the middle of a meeting near the end of a rather hectic day at the office when Laura called me on my work mobile. Laura never calls me on that line, but my personal phone doesn’t work inside our building so I knew it was important and I stepped out of the meeting to take the call.
“I think my water just broke,” was the only thing I really remember hearing. I’m pretty sure there were some other things about having called Mom to have someone come watch Aidan while we were at the hospital — I think Penn and Grace may have ended up coming over because Mom still had students coming — but my brain was already in the car and headed for home at that point. I ducked in downstairs to let the rest of my team know that I was leaving, and then ran out the door to catch up with my brain.
I got to the hospital about a half hour later — even slowing down for the useless speed camera the county installed on my usual route home from work — and Laura was in a temporary holding room getting hooked up to the baby’s heartbeat and toco monitors. Turns out we were going to have to wait for a couple hours since Laura had had some hot and sour soup and ice cream for lunch (I know, really…) a couple hours earlier.
Those couple of hours felt unbelievably long. Laura reminded me that I hadn’t yet eaten anything that day, so while she tried to take a little nap I went down to the cafeteria to get some dinner. Not too long after I came back up we were ready to go ahead, and not long after that Duncan was out and hollering.
Because of extra precautions for the Swine Flu, Aidan wasn’t allowed to come visit Laura or Duncan in the hospital, which was really tough for those few days we were there. He spent the first night with Mom and Dad so I could spend the night at the hospital, but after that I came home in the evenings so he could have something of a normal routine to start and end the day.
We weren’t really sure how he was going to take Duncan’s arrival, but Aidan’s been outstanding with him so far. He loves to give the baby kisses, and giggles when his hair tickles his nose. He gets very concerned when Duncan cries, to the point of crying himself and asking for hugs. And he wants to share things with him all the time, which is tough. It’s hard to find the right ways to redirect him while applauding the sweet spirit.
For now we’re into a steady routine. Duncan is metronomic in his eating and sleeping cycle, so our own sleep comes in two-hour blocks all night long.