At the end of March my best friend, Rachel, and her husband flew me out to California to help out with the kids when Rachel delivered their third child (a son this time!) Caleb. Since Rachel’s previous two children have born early, we all thought that by my trip out there Caleb would have been born. We were all WRONG!!!
While waiting for the little guy to make his arrival we kept busy! Rachel and I took the girls to the Long Beach Aquarium one afternoon. The girls loved looking (and touching) at all of the wildlife in the water. We watched Rachel’s nieces one afternoon at her parents house in Long Beach. We picked up her oldest niece, Gracie, at school, which happens to be where Rachel and I went to elementary school too. It was very strange being on the campus again, don’t think I have been back since we left in the 80’s. Nothing has changed, they still have my favorite piece of playground equipment – the rings!!! I LOVED these things, so bummed that they didn’t have them in AZ!! But I guess that probably had something to do with the fact that it is 100 degrees out and the metal rings would be on fire! We made multiple trips to the park to play and try to jiggle baby Caleb out!!! And I got to see an old friend, who was coincidentally pregnant too! We consumed lots of yummy food, including banana pudding (I found the recipe on-line for Magnolia’s in NYC), bbq hot dogs/hamburgers/sausage.
Trying to fly princess kites, the second picture was taken just before the kite plummeted down and landed on the roof of their house. :)
Almost everyday Rachel and I would scour the internet for a “natural” way to induce labor! And nothing worked! She had been having contractions consistently since before I arrived, but they weren’t doing their job. :) Sunday afternoon we all went swimming before bbq-ing for dinner. And lo and behold that night was the she went into full blown labor! Thankfully Rachel’s mom (Trudi) came over to the house and stayed with the girls so I could go to the hospital and be present for Caleb’s birth. I got there about 2:15a and he was born at 3:35a!! Words can’t describe what an amazing experience this was, definitely one of the most awesome to date!!! It still seems surreal! Can’t thank Rachel & Brian enough for letting me share such an intimate time with them! So thankful that everything worked out! Only wish I could have stayed longer to help out!
